80 THE TIM BUNKEK PAPERS. 



est mended. Folks that put their daughters up for a 

 show have no right to complain if they are showed up. 

 Folks whose pocket-books are emptied shouldn t go to 

 law. Good morning, Colonel.&quot; 



They say he lost a thousand dollars in bets at the Fair, 

 and I guess you are about as much in danger of being 

 prosecuted as you are of getting into the poor-house by 

 publishing the paper. I am sorry for the girls that have 

 made such a beginning of life. Caught by the tinsel of 

 silk dresses and bonnets, they were drawn into a false po 

 sition, that will very much damage their prospects for life. 



And this, perhaps, is as common a failing among farm 

 ers as it is among city people. They begin life wrong, 

 and start in business on a bigger scale than they can hold 

 out. They buy a big farm, generally twice as much as 

 they can pay for, and then they are always short on t for 

 capital to work it with. It is pretty much like Deacon 

 Smith s singing at the evening meetings ; he pitches his 

 tune so high at the outset that his voice breaks into a 

 screech before he gets through, and nobody can follow 

 him. His wind is all used up before the psalm is half 

 sung. The farmer, instead of getting good, serviceable 

 cattle, will often buy fancy animals, at a high price, a 

 yoke of cattle for two hundred dollars, and a fast horse for 

 three or four hundred. He don t stop to think how he s 

 coming out. 



And then if his wife begins in the house in the same 

 way, it makes a mighty uncomfortable concern. There 

 was Tom Spalding and his wife began to keep house about 

 the time I did. Tom was a little fast, and his wife was a 

 little faster. She was handsome, fond of company, and 

 must dress and live in tip top farmer s style. The farm 

 Tom bought had an old house on it, but twas comfort 

 able, and would have lasted ten years without laying out 

 a dollar on it. But she must have it fixed up, inside and 

 out, before they moved in. So Tom put on an addition, 



