THE TIM BUNKER PAPERS. 45 



used to own, about half- way between my house and his. It 

 was Ml a quarter of a mile from his house, but as it was 

 the nearest water that Nature had provided, it had always 

 been used to water Jake s horses and cattle, when they 

 were not in the pasture. It lay by the road-side at the 

 foot of a gentle hill, and the water for all the wet part of 

 the year flowed off over the adjoining lot, making it a 

 sort of quagmire, except in times of drouth. An animal 

 would mire in any part of the lot up to its knees. It 

 never occurred to him that he could bring water into his 

 yard at a little expense, and save this daily journey of his 

 cattle to the pond. He never thought how much manure 

 was wasted along the road, and what a nuisance his cattle 

 became to his neighbors, as they were often turned into 

 the road, to get water, and to take care of themselves. 

 He never thought that the horse-pond spoiled two acres 

 of the best land on his farm, and that it cost him at least 

 twenty dollars a year to keep up this watering place. The 

 quagmire did not pay him the interest on twenty dollars a 

 year. It ought to have paid him ten per cent on two 

 hundred. 



The horse-pond I did not care anything about, but 

 Jake s cattle, geese, and pigs, always drawn up my way 

 by this water, were a perpetual torment to me and to my 

 neighbors. I thought I had a right to abate the nuisance. 

 So I hailed neighbor Frink one day, last fall, about sell 

 ing the two-acre lot near the horse-pond. It was before 

 the fair, for since my remarks about stimulating the carrot 

 crop with horse manure he has been rather offish. Ever 

 since I put down the tile drain in my garden I have formed 

 a great idea of curing wet land, and I thought this piece 

 of sour, unprofitable pasture might easily be turned into a 

 productive meadow. 



Says I, &quot; Mr. Frink, what will you take for that bit of 

 swamp land at the foot of the hill ?&quot; 



&quot; It is worth about twenty dollars an acre, I suppose. 



