176 THE TIM BUNKER PAPERS. 



&quot; Have you got rid of em ?&quot; asked Jake Frink, as he 

 looked over into Uncle Jotham Sparrowgrass reclaimed 

 bog. 



&quot; Rid of what ?&quot; asked Jotham, with feigned astonish 

 ment. 



&quot; Why, them pesky muskrats, that used to eat up all 

 the outside rows of corn in your field and mine.&quot; 



&quot; Haven t seen a muskrat in these parts for well-nigh 

 two year. Have seen some corn, though, and occasionally 

 a potato !&quot; said Jotham, with a swing of his cane that 

 showed he felt as if he was lord of all he surveyed. 



He dug over three hundred bushels to the acre there 

 last fall, and the part now planted to that crop is as hand 

 some as anything I have seen this season. Uncle Jotham 

 manages pretty well for an old-style farmer, catching at 

 any improvement with a good deal of eagerness, but stout 

 ly denying that it is new. He has always seen something 

 like it over on the Island, thirty years ago. He has had, 

 this year, in about equal patches, potatoes, corn, oats, and 

 clover, upon this deserted domain of frogs and muskrats. 

 The clover was quite too large for good fodder, or would 

 have been, if he had let it grow till the usual time of cut 

 ting. But it was cut in June, a thing he would not have 

 thought of, three years ago, and he will have at least two 

 tuns at the second cutting, if he does not steal my thunder, 

 and feed it off. But if he does that, he will be sure to 

 state positively that he knew Ben Woodhull, on Long 

 Island, to do the same thing as long ago as when he was 

 a boy. 



Coming back to my horse-pond lot, Mr. Spooner had to 

 ask, &quot; What makes that grass so much heavier on the back 

 part of the lot ? It is almost another story high.&quot; 



&quot; Well, you see, thereby hangs a tale. Last year, as 

 soon as I got through mowing that part of the field, say 

 about the tenth of July, I spread on a few loads of com 

 post there, and you can see just where it stopped. The 



