Before you start, make sure that you have an account on cycle1.csug.
mkdir cs254_repos
cd cs254_repos
hg init
[paths]
default = ssh://cycle1.csug.rochester.edu//u/cs254/fall-2010/repos/
default-push = ssh://cycle1.csug.rochester.edu//u/cs254/fall-2010/repos/
[ui]
username = First Last <your_email>
ssh = ssh -l your_user_name
Run hg pull to download the entire repository which will be stored in cs254_repos/.hg. (There might be some warnings about untrusting. Please ignore them.) Then hg update to check out the files from your local repository to the local directory.