134 THE TIM BUNKER PAPERS. 



sel at the dock, and the captain had never heard of &quot; Smith, 

 Stubbs, Darby & Co.,&quot; and doubted very much whether 

 there was any such firm in Philadelphia. The next Satur 

 day came, and Jake, thinking he might have misunderstood 

 the day, went down again, but no Tafeu vessel had arriv 

 ed. Jake now began to suspect he was sold, and scolded 

 some, if not more. His golden visions became dim, as the 

 weeks wore away, and no news came from Mr. Smith and 

 the cargo of patent fertilizers. He has not heard from 

 him since. Jake is particularly sore about this Tafeu busi 

 ness, and his neighbors, especially Jones and Tucker, when 

 they wish to touch him on the raw, inquire for the price 

 of the Philadelphia fertilizer. 



Now, I suppose there are thousands of dollars taken out 

 of the pockets of farmers in just this way every year. 

 Some of these concentrated fertilizers I suppose are worth 

 the money paid for them, but the chances are, that a man 

 gets cheated when he buys them. This is pretty certain 

 to be the case when they are bought of traveling agents 

 like Mr. Smith. It is worse than highway robbery, for 

 you do not know that you are robbed until the thief is 

 out of your reach. 



However, &quot; there is no great loss but what there is some 

 small gain,&quot; and Jake Frink claims that he has got his 

 money s worth in experience. He says he &quot; should jest 

 like to see a man come along and undertake to sell him 

 patent manure agin. Wouldn t he catch it ! &quot; Jake put 

 into his yard last fall double the quantity of muck I ever 

 knew him to cart before, and, judging from the quantity 

 of manure he has spread this spring and plowed in, he 

 will be a gainer by his experience. BEWARE OF PATENT 

 MANURES. 



Yours to command, 



TIMOTHY BUNKER, ESQ., 



HooJcertown, April, 1860. 



