there. At the appointed hour for _bevers_, there was a general
rush for the buttery, and if the walking happened to be bad, or if
it was winter, many ludicrous accidents usually occurred. One
perhaps would slip, his bowl would fly this way and his bread
that, while he, prostrate, afforded an excellent stumbling-block
to those immediately behind him; these, falling in their turn,
spattering with the milk themselves and all near them, holding
perhaps their spoons aloft, the only thing saved from the
destruction, would, after disentangling themselves from the mass
of legs, arms, etc., return to the buttery, and order a new bowl,
to be charged with the extras at the close of the term.

Similar in thought to this account are the remarks of Professor
Sidney Willard concerning Harvard College in 1794, in his late
work, entitled, "Memories of Youth and Manhood." "The students who
boarded in commons were obliged to go to the kitchen-door with
their bowls or pitchers for their suppers, when they received
their modicum of milk or chocolate in their vessel, held in one
hand, and their piece of bread in the other, and repaired to their
rooms to take their solitary repast. There were suspicions at
times that the milk was diluted by a mixture of a very common
tasteless fluid, which led a sagacious Yankee student to put the
matter to the test by asking the simple carrier-boy why his mother
did not mix the milk with warm water instead of cold. 'She does,'
replied the honest youth. This mode of obtaining evening commons
did not prove in all cases the most economical on the part of the
fed. It sometimes happened, that, from inadvertence or previous
preparation for a visit elsewhere, some individuals had arrayed
themselves in their dress-coats and breeches, and in their haste
to be served, and by jostling in the crowd, got sadly sprinkled