THE TIM BUNKER PAPERS. 135 



. 42. TIMOTHY BUNKER, ESQ., AT THE NEW 

 YORK CENTRAL PARK. 



MR. EDITOR : I have heern tell a great deal about your 

 Park, that Mr. Olmstead is fixing up for your city folks, 

 on the upper end of your island. Every body that went 

 down to the city from our place had a good deal to say 

 about it, and the lots of money they was laying out there 

 in making hills higher, and hollows hollower, building 

 bridges where there wa n t any brooks, and putting pond 

 holes where there used to be dry land, making a clearing 

 where there was a forest, and putting trees wlHre there 

 was cleared land. I expect they talked all the more about 

 it, because Mr. Olmstead was a Connecticut man, and 

 used to live close by us up here in Hookertown. 



Mrs. Bunker was a good deal stirred up about these ac 

 counts, and thought she should like to see the thing for 

 herself. Sally hasn t said a word about visiting since she 

 got back from down South. She thought then, she said, 

 she should never care to get out of sight of Connecticut 

 again as long as she lived. She has held of that mind un 

 til this spring, and has hardly been out of Hookertown 

 street, except to go down to Shadtown to see the baby. 

 I have stuck pretty close to home myse f, thinking that 

 Hookertown was about as nigh the hub of the universe, 

 as any other spot in this country. So, one day last week, 

 Mrs. Bunker says to me, &quot; Timothy, have you read in the 

 papers what Fred Olmstead is doing down there in the 

 city?&quot; 



&quot; Well, yes, I have read some things, and heern a good 

 deal more.&quot; 



&quot; They say the city is fixing up a sort of country place, 

 to walk and ride in, and Fred is telling em how to spend 

 several millions on brush pasture, and sheep walks, and 

 tadpole ponds ! &quot; 



