74 
THE SEA-SERPENT. 
horses, they turned the buggy over, and left 
each frightened student wondering what could 
be imprudent enough to stop them on that high¬ 
way, and mourning much that they’d have to 
pay for a runaway team and a broken railing ; 
for they found next day that no prevailing of theirs 
on the watchmen could make them aware that 
they had met with the sea-serpent there. Quietly 
up the river he swum ; Cambridge little guessed 
what a guest had come. He heard the boat 
club’s rollicking chorus, and listened with joy to 
the jolly stave, as they sang, “ Put off, while 
full before us Hope’s beacon shines to cheer the 
brave ! ” Out of the silent river he crept, and 
hied him away to the college yard ; a proctor’s 
eye, that never slept, caught his, and said, “May 
I be tarred and feathered if some of the fresh¬ 
men class are not building a bonfire there to¬ 
night ! see how that lamp illumes the grass ! 
I must reconnoitre and set things right. ” The 
proctor has donned his darkest cloak, and sal¬ 
lied out in the midnight damp ; no sound save 
