In the “Memorial of John S. Popkin, D.D.,” Professor Felton has referred to this story, and has appended to it the contradiction of the worthy Doctor.  “Amusing anecdotes, some true and many apocryphal, were handed down in College from class to class, and, so far from being yet forgotten, they are rather on the increase.  One of these mythical stories was, that on a certain occasion one of the classes applied to the Doctor for what used to be called, in College jargon, a miss, i.e. an omission of recitation.  The Doctor replied, as the legend run, ’Ye ask, and ye receive not, because ye ask a-miss.’  Many years later, this was told to him.  ‘It is not true,’ he exclaimed, energetically.  ’In the first place, I have not wit enough; in the next place, I have too much wit, for I mortally hate a pun.  Besides, I never allude irreverently to the Scriptures.’”—­p. lxxvii.

  Or are there some who scrape and hiss
  Because you never give a miss.—­Rebelliad, p. 62.

  ——­ is good to all his subjects,
  Misses gives he every hour.—­MS. Poem.

MISS.  To be absent from a recitation or any college exercise.  Said of a student.  See CUT.

  Who will recitations miss!—­Rebelliad, p. 53.

  At every corner let us hiss ’em;
  And as for recitations,—­miss ’em.—­Ibid., p. 58.

  Who never misses declamation,
  Nor cuts a stupid recitation.
    Harvardiana, Vol.  III. p. 283.

Missing chambers will be visited with consequences more to be dreaded than the penalties of missing lecture.—­Collegian’s Guide, p. 304.

MITTEN.  At the Collegiate Institute of Indiana, a student who is expelled is said to get the mitten.

MOCK-PART.  At Harvard College, it is customary, when the parts for the first exhibition in the Junior year have been read, as described under PART, for the part-reader to announce what are called the mock-parts.  These mock-parts which are burlesques on the regular appointments, are also satires on the habits, character, or manners of those to whom they are assigned.  They are never given to any but members of the Junior Class.  It was formerly customary for the Sophomore Class to read them in the last term of that year when the parts were given out for the Sophomore exhibition but as there is now no exhibition for that class, they are read only in the Junior year.  The following may do as specimens of the subjects usually assigned:—­The difference between alluvial and original soils; a discussion between two persons not noted for personal cleanliness.  The last term of a decreasing series; a subject for an insignificant but conceited fellow.  An essay on the Humbug, by a dabbler in natural history.  A conference on the three dimensions, length, breadth, and thickness, between three persons, one very tall, another very broad, and the third very fat.