THE TIM BUNKER PAPEKS. Ill 



were as lucky in their names as they might have been. 

 George Washington Tucker and Benjamin Franklin Jones 

 sound considerable grand and fixed up, as if a man would 

 have to stoop some when he come into the room where such 

 people lived. But I guess if you knew the folks that wear 

 them as well as I do, you would not think there was much 

 call for manners. You see, Tucker s father was never 

 worth a red cent in the world, above the clothes he had 

 upon his back, and his mother had more pretensions than 

 any woman of her size I ever knew. He was a tailor by 

 trade, and spent all his earnings upon broadcloth and silk, 

 for himself and wife. I remember when parasols first came 

 round, Tucker got one for his wife, and she was so anx 

 ious to show it, that she carried it to meeting with her, and 

 hoisted it in meeting time, just as Mr. Spooner begun his 

 sermon, as much as to say, &quot; Tucker s Avife is some pum- 

 kins arter all.&quot; The way the minister looked at her was 

 a caution to all peacocks, dogs, and other vermin. Deacon 

 Smith had to come over and tell her to take down that 

 windmill, for he hadn t seen one before, and he did not 

 know what to call it. Mrs. Bunker said, &quot; she thought she 

 would have sunk into the earth.&quot; 



Well, you see, when their first child was born, thinking, 

 I suppose, that they would not have much else to give, 

 they gave him the name of Geo. Washington Tucker. 

 Kow, what s the use of dressing up a poor boy with such 

 a big sounding name ? You see, it makes too heavy a load 

 for an ordinary mortal to carry through life. If he ever 

 makes anything, becomes a business man, it is a great 

 waste of paper and ink to have to write so long a name. 

 And if he don t make anything, he becomes a standing 

 joke like the present George Washington Tucker. He has 

 always lived in a hired house, and worked hired land, when 

 he worked any. To tell the plain truth, he has never hurt 

 himself with work of any kind, and though a farmer, has 

 been about as shy of the dirt as his father was before him. 



