THE TIM BUNKER PAPERS. 223 



is a nice child, and little Timothy thinks a world of her. 

 That is all she says about it. I shall write her immediate 

 ly,&quot; said Mrs. Bunker, with emphasis, &quot; that my name is 

 not Sallie.&quot; 



Now we do not always agree on small points, but on 

 the larger matter of having grandchildren, we see pretty 

 much alike. It is one of the greatest comforts of old age 

 to have children s children around us, to cheer us while 

 we live, and to bear our names and to take our places 

 when we are gone. We can hardly have too many of 

 them, and I shall not be very particular whether their 

 names have a letter more or less, if we only have the 

 children. 



This is a matter of considerable solicitude, not only 

 here in Hookertown, but in a great many farming towns 

 around us. The present generation is getting pretty well 

 along in life, and we do not know who is going to take 

 our places. You would be surprised to see how few young 

 men there are at the meeting-house on Sunday. The men 

 who sit at the head of the pews are almost all gray hair 

 ed, and some of them are about as white as snow. It 

 looks a great deal worse than it did a year ago, before so 

 many went to the war. Uncle Jotham Sparrowgrass has 

 no son to take his place, and Seth Twiggs, Jake Frink, 

 and myself, have boys in the army, and a dozen more went 

 from our parish. It is about an even chance whether we 

 ever see many of them again. The war bids fair to be a 

 long one, and what the bullets don t kill, the hospital will 

 be likely to finish. But then we ain t sorry the boys have 

 gone, and if they don t come back, we are going ourselves, 

 if the rebellion is not crushed. It is pretty certain that 

 our farms won t be worth much to ourselves, or to our 

 grandchildren, if Jeff. Davis is going to rule. It is the 

 old battle of despotism and liberty, and we are bound to 

 see it through, whatever may be the cost. 



We have got things fixed up pretty comfortable, and 



