Mischief

Reported by T. T. Stewart 1888

Among the many amusing pranks of the pupils… one was of the bell being rung by someone when the lyceum was in session. Someone had tied a string to the tongue of the bell, which connected with some secret place where the rogue could ring at his leisure and watch the effect upon the audience inside. This, of course, much disturbed the exercises.

John Stearns brought a cannon ball into the stone boarding house and rolled it through the upper hall “to get up a frolic.” Mr. Twilight appeared to investigate, but Stearns got into bed with his roommate and they hid the ball between them.

….A respected citizen of the village had one or two cows, some sheep and a flock of geese. The sheep would sometimes stray into people’s yards, or get upon the academy campus, in short they were often found where the neighbors did not like to have them. One morning the early risers near the academy discovered some sheep at the top of the belfry, and opened their eyes in wonder as to how they got way up there… It soon became noised about that some of the mischievous academy boys had during the night elevated them to their lofty abode. The owner soon came for the sheep and thereafter they were not allowed to stray far from their home.