THE TIM BUNKER PAPERS. 47 



&quot; Did I promise you that I would not improve it ?&quot; 



&quot; No, you did not, but who d have thought that you 

 was going to knock a hole in the bottom of my horse-pond 

 in this style ?&quot; 



&quot; Water will run clown hill, neighbor Frink, and I can t 

 help it. The same law that enables me to drain this 

 swamp will bring water from the hill-side right into your 

 yard and house. You then can save all your manure, just 

 as I do, and your cattle will not have the trouble of going 

 after water in the cold of winter, and you will not have 

 the trouble of scouring all Hookertown, to look them up. 

 Your cattle will no longer be a nuisance, and you will 

 save yourself a world of fretting and scolding. I have 

 really done you a kindness in drying up this pond-hole. 

 But as you may not look upon it in this light, I will give 

 you the muck that lies in the bottom, at least a hundred 

 cords of the wash of the roads, and the droppings of your 

 cattle for the last twenty years. It is better manure, 

 to-day, than a great deal that you cart out of your yard.&quot; 



Mr. Frink took my remarks in dudgeon at the time, 

 and hardly spoke to me for a month. But this spring the 

 lead pipe was laid, and he has now as good a watering 

 trough, fed with living water, as any of his neighbors. 

 The muck, too, is not despised, for as I write I see Jake s 

 cart, well loaded, going up to the yard where muck has 

 hitherto been a great stranger. In short, I have strong 

 hopes of making something out of Jake yet, though he 

 cheated me out of the Premium. But whatever may be 

 true of his reform, the horse-pond is thoroughly cured, and 

 if you will come up here on the glorious Fourth, to 

 help us celebrate, I will show you as handsome a piece of 

 potatoes as ever grew out of doors. 



Yours to command, 



TIMOTHY BUXKER, ESQ. 



Hookertown^ May 15, 1858. 



