THE TIM BUNKER PAPE-KS. 13 



at a loss. For his part he cannot see why folks want to 

 keep changing about so, every few years. If the world 

 ever gets finished and adjusted to a given position, he will 

 be a supremely happy man. 



He has always lived upon the ancestral farm, and by a 

 life of industry has succeeded in buying out the other 

 heirs, and now owns in fee simple all the paternal acres. 

 He is a good sample of the old style farmer, shy of books 

 and papers that treat of husbandry, and a frequent quoter 

 of that old proverb &quot; old birds are not to be caught with 

 chaff.&quot; Tim, however, was once caught, if not with chaff, 

 at least with something very like it. 



Some five and twenty years ago, there was a Rohan po 

 tato fever that infected all Hookertown. Many of his 

 neighbors who read the papers experimented with the 

 article, and among the rest his model man Deacon Smith 

 went into the speculation. Tim Bunker believed in practical 

 farming, and as these potatoes were manifestly a reality, 

 he bought of the Deacon a bushel of Rohans for ten dol 

 lars. This was pretty warm in the mouth, but as some sold 

 for fifteen the same season, he was satisfied with his bar 

 gain. It was the last year of the speculation, and the fall 

 crop was dull in the market, at a dollar a bushel. Tim 

 Bunker rubbed his eyes with both his fore-fingers, when 

 harvest came, and declared that he would never touch an 

 other new thing. But he has repented of that now, and 

 adopted quite a number of new things that have been 

 tested in the Deacon s garden. He is always certain to 

 make the Deacon pay for his own experiments, and only 

 adopts the new fruit or vegetable when he is certain it 

 will pay. He has lately got wind of the Dioscorea Bata 

 tas. His neighbor lent him the nursery pamphlet in 

 which the wonderful productiveness of that astonishing 

 tuber was duly set forth. Tim digested its contents, and 

 when he returned the pamphlet, very dryly inquired: 



