midday
When examination time came we hired an impecunious coach and , retiring from the world , acquired in five days knowledge that our fellows had taken eight months to imbibe . It is true that the college at large viewed us with some disgust , but we chose to regard this as mere envy . That we were really objectionable must , however , be admitted , for we smoked cigars in the Yard , wore sky-blue pantaloons and green waistcoats , and cultivated little side whiskers of the mutton-chop variety ; while our gigs and trotters were constantly to be seen standing in Harvard Square , waiting for the owners to claim them and take the road . On Sundays , when the decorous youths of Boston had retired to Beacon Street for their midday family feast of roast beef and baked beans , the members of the Cock and Spur might be observed in their white beaver hats driving countryward in chaises from the local livery stables , seated beside various fair ladies from the Boston stage or the less distinguished purlieus of the Cambridge chop-houses . At noon these parties would foregather at some country tavern and spend long afternoons singing , drinking , and playing draw poker and other games of chance ; and occasionally we would fight a main of cocks in some convenient pig-pen . But this sort of life took money , and I soon found myself borrowing freely from my associates , most of whom were young fellows from other States who had already come into their inheritances and had gone to Harvard to get rid of them under the most approved conditions . For these I came to stand as a sort of sponsor , and was looked up to by them as a devil of a fellow , for I swore picturesquely and had a belligerently unpleasant manner that was regarded as something quite out of the ordinary and distinguished .