“One hundred valiant warriors, who
    (My Captain bid me say)
  Three femurs wield, with one to fight,
    With two to run away,

 “Wait in Scull Castle, to receive,
    With open gates, your men;
  Their right arms nerved, their femurs clenched,
    Safe to protect ye then!”—­Ibid., p. 23.

FERG.  To lose the heat of excitement or passion; to become less angry, ardent; to cool.  A correspondent from the University of Vermont, where this word is used, says:  “If a man gets angry, we ‘let him ferg,’ and he feels better.”

FESS.  Probably abbreviated for CONFESS.  In some of the Southern Colleges, to fail in reciting; to silently request the teacher not to put farther queries.

This word is in use among the cadets at West Point, with the same meaning.

  And when you and I, and Benny, and General Jackson too,
    Are brought before a final board our course of life to view,
  May we never “fess” on any “point,” but then be told to go
    To join the army of the blest, with Benny Havens, O!
    Song, Benny Havens, O!

FINES.  In many of the colleges in the United States it was formerly customary to impose fines upon the students as a punishment for non-compliance with the laws.  The practice is now very generally abolished.

About the middle of the eighteenth century, the custom of punishing by pecuniary mulets began, at Harvard College, to be considered objectionable.  “Although,” says Quincy, “little regarded by the students, they were very annoying to their parents.”  A list of the fines which were imposed on students at that period presents a curious aggregate of offences and punishments.

L  s. d. 
Absence from prayers,                                    0  0  2
Tardiness at prayers,                                    0  0  1
Absence from Professor’s public lecture,                 0  0  4
Tardiness at            do.                              0  0  2
Profanation of Lord’s day, not exceeding                 0  3  0
Absence from public worship,                             0  0  9
Tardiness at      do.                                    0  0  3
Ill behavior at   do.      not exceeding                 0  1  6
Going to meeting before bell-ringing,                    0  0  6
Neglecting to repeat the sermon,                         0  0  9
Irreverent behavior at prayers, or public divinity
lectures,                                            0  1  6
Absence from chambers, &c., not exceeding                0  0  6
Not declaiming, not exceeding                            0  1  6
Not giving up a declamation, not exceeding               0  1  6
Absence from recitation, not exceeding                   0  1  6
Neglecting analyzing, not exceeding                      0  3  0
Bachelors neglecting disputations, not exceeding         0  1  6
Respondents neglecting do. from 1s. 6d. to               0  3  0