178 THE TIM BUNKER PAPERS. 



NO. 53. TIM BUNKER ON PAINTING BUILD 

 INGS. 



COST OF PAINTING HINTS ON COLOR, ETC. STONE HOUSES 



NEW ARGUMENT FOR SHADE TREES. 



MR. EDITOR : Cleanliness is said to be next to godliness. 

 It certainly looks better to see a farmer s house and barn 

 all nicely painted, and it makes the paying of the bills 

 rather easier, to know that paint is the cheapest outside 

 covering for all wooden buildings. So I am going to 

 paint up, this fall, notwithstanding the war. I rather 

 guess I shall have something left to pay the bills, after 

 the war taxes are paid. It is only five years ago that I 

 painted up every thing I had upon the farm, even to the 

 ice house, and the pig sty, and I suppose they might now 

 stand another year without much damage. But as I was 

 coming home from Shadtown last week, Mrs. Bunker took 

 occasion to remark that she thought the gable end of the 

 house looked a little dingy and bare. At any rate, it did 

 not look so well as Mr. Slocum s house, and she thought if 

 a poor minister could afford to keep the parsonage in so 

 neat a trim, that Timothy Bunker could afford a new 

 coat of paint. 



Now I half expect she was joking, for she knew well 

 enough that I had paid the bills for painting the Shad- 

 town parsonage, because Josiah and Sally, being young 

 folks, had enough other use for their money. I didn t say 

 much, but I rather thought to myself, &quot;guess Mrs. Bun 

 ker s getting jealous of her daughter.&quot; 



But, you see, she is not going to have any occasion to 

 think that an old bride is not just as good as a young one, 

 though it is her own daughter, and all in the family. 



