82 THE TIM BUNKER PAPEES. 



to live among farmers, and in plain farmer style. Now I 

 hold, that a minister is bound to be an example to the 

 flock, in his style of living, as well as in his morals, and in 

 his religious duties. I have noticed, time and again, that 

 example was a grand thing to put the nub on to a sermon. If 

 a man preaches from the text, &quot; Owe no man anything,&quot; 

 and drives a fast horse that he hasn t paid for, somehow 

 the two things don t seem to hitch together. I have known 

 extravagant living to drive some ministers from their par 

 ishes. They got in debt, got discontented and soured, 

 and were &quot; not content with such things as they had,&quot; 

 until they were able to get better. I didn t want any 

 such trouble in Shadtown, and I knew a good deal de 

 pended upon beginning right. I gave Sally a piano, but I 

 sent along a churn with it, to remind her that the cream 

 of life was not all music. There was a lot of cane-bottom 

 and mahogany chairs, but John slipped in a couple of 

 milking stools, of his own make, as a sort of hint, I sup 

 pose, that all the sitting was not to be done in the parlor. 

 On top of the dresses in the trunk, I noticed a pair of 

 checked aprons. I guess Mrs. Bunker knew where they 

 came from. I had to get a new carriage for Sally s Black 

 Hawk horse, but I sent down the next day a horse cart, 

 with a lot of farm and garden tools, as a sort of insinuatien 

 that horse-flesh would sometimes be needed out of the 

 carriage. The useful was pretty well mixed up with the 

 sweet, in-doors and out. From all I can learn, the people 

 are pretty well suited with the young folks, and with the 

 arrangements I have made for them. They haven t got 

 anything but what they can afford, and nothing that they 

 do nt want to use, and that, I take it, is about the whole 

 pith of beginning life right. 



Yours to command, 



TIMOTHY BUNKER, ESQ. 

 Hookertown, Nov. 15th, 1858. 



