THE TIM BUNKER PAPERS. 219 



&quot; I van tell you where some of it comes to&quot; answered 

 Aunt PoJy. &quot; You see, Kier has just got home from the 

 war, wounded in his left arm. And he stopped in New 

 York jest to see the sights, and to get something to bring 

 home to the old folks, and to his family up at the White 

 Oaks. And don t you think he brought me home a pair 

 of gold specs and a gold thimble for his wife, and a silver 

 trumpet for his boy, Jacob Frink, jr., who aint more than 

 six months old. Now we didn t need these things any 

 more than a cat needs tew tails. I had a pair of steel 

 bows that Jacob got me five years ago, and they are jest 

 as good as new, and I can see in em just as well as in 

 the new ones, and a trifle better. And then his wife had 

 thimbles enough, rather more than she used, any way, 

 judging by the looks of Kier, when he used to drive the 

 coal cart. She never kept him tidy, and I don t believe 

 gold thimbles will help her case, if she had a cart load of 

 em. And then as to that boy, he won t be big enough 

 under a year to blow a squash leaf squawker, to say noth 

 ing of trumpets. A silver trumpet ! It is the only article 

 of silver in the whole neighborhood of the White Oaks, 

 barring the small change they ve got stowed away in 

 their stockings, agin it comes into fashion agin. Now 

 Kier paid ten dollars for that ere trumpet, and he had no 

 more use for it than his wife has for a pianny. You see, 

 he had just got paid on , and he had never seen so much 

 money before in one pile, in all his life. He wanted to 

 make a sensashun in the White Oaks, and I guess he did 

 it, when he bought that article. Not less than twenty- 

 five dollars, the price of blood, as it were, all spent for 

 nothin ! Ah, if he had only got a raw hide for that 

 youngster there would have been some sense in it.&quot; 



Aunt Polly paused for breath, and looked red in the face 

 as she doubtless remembered the wallopings she had be 

 stowed upon Kier in his juvenile days. But there is a 

 deal of sense in what the old lady says. You see, this 

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