Every time I reflect on that place of retirement and study, where I spent two years which I call the most pleasant as well as the most important period in my past life — always when I think upon ... the companions, the neighborhood, the exercises and diversions, it gives me a secret and real pleasure, even the foibles which often prevail there are pleasant on recollection; such as giving each other names and characters; meeting and shoving in dark entries; knocking at doors and going off without entering; strewing the entries in the night with greasy feathers; freezing the bell, ringing it late hours of the night; — I might add that it does not seem disagreeable to think over the mischiefs often practiced by wanton boys ... picking from the neighborhood now and then a plump fat hen or turkey for the private entertainment of the club; instituting, inventing and practicing several new kinds of mischeif in a secret ... parading bad women ... darting sun beams upon the town people, reconoitering houses in the town, ogling women with telescopes, making squibs and other frightful compositions with gunpowder and lighting them in rooms of timorous boys and newcomers; the various methods used in naturalizing strangers, of incivilities in the dining room to make them bold, writing them sharp and threatening letters ... trying them with jeers and repartee....