120 THE TIM I3UNKEK PAPERS. 



&quot;What new tricks you got in your head neow?&quot; asked 

 Seth Twiggs, as he thought of the tiles and the brain ma 

 nure in the garden. 



&quot; Going to dig a grave, and brick it up ?&quot; asked Jake 

 Frink, as he looked over the fence. 



Nothing of the kind, Mr. Frink you made a grave 

 for ten or twelve dollars in your bridge up yonder, and I 

 think there has been grave-digging enough of that kind 

 in this bit of land.&quot; 



I had got a dozen horse-shoe tile of seven-inch size, cost 

 ing, all told, just one dollar ; and a white oak plank two 

 inches thick, twelve feet long, and about a foot wide, 

 sound as a nut cost, fifty cents. I laid the plank upon the 

 mud in the bottom of the ditch, about three inches under 

 the water. I then put the tile upon the plank, covering 

 them with a lot of old straw, and then packed in the turf, 

 grass side down, over them, and filled up with gravel from 

 a neighboring hill. There was about a half-day s work 

 carting dirt, and the whole was finished. That oak plank, 

 I calculate, will last a good deal longer than I shall, and 

 I shouldn t wonder if my grandchildren found it as sound 

 as it is to-day. The tile will last as long as brick in a 

 chimney. The whole cost of the bridge is not over three 

 dollars, and it is quite as durable, and a good deal more 

 ornamental, than that rough stone affair that cost fifteen. 

 The fact is, I am getting sick of the sight of stone above 

 ground, except in line walls, since I have begun to drain, 

 and to use a horse-mower. I can t help thinking, how 

 much better they would pay in a good stone culvert under 

 the sod, or even in raising up the land in swampy places. 

 On the surface they are unsightly, they take up a good 

 deal of room, and are always in the way of the plow and 

 the mower. Beneath the sod, they are out of the way, 

 and are saving the sixpences in carrying off the excess of 

 water. There is nothing on the farm so handsome as a 

 clean green meadow, just ready for the scythe. 



