THE TIM BUNKER PAPERS. 



good an orchard as there is in town. With the low price 

 of fruit this last year, it has brought me in over three 

 hundred dollars, sold on the trees to the buyer. I only 

 regret that I had not begun to plant pear trees sooner. 

 They are quite as hardy as apples, yield as well, and sell 

 for more than double. A man with a dozen acres in pears, 

 of the right kinds, would have a comfortable income for 

 old age, if he had nothing else. But aside from profit, a 

 plenty of fruit in the family is a great comfort and luxury, 

 and an important means of health. We have seen very 

 little of the doctor in forty years, and we have had fruit 

 in some -shape every day in the year. Put these two 

 things together : long-lived people eat much fruit. 



Perhaps we don t live quite so well out here on the 

 farm as some of the nabobs in the city, though about that 

 there is room for a difference of opinion. All the raw ma 

 terials of their extra fixings come from the farm poultry, 

 eggs, rnilk, cream, butter and cheese, and the fine fruits. 

 They have better cooks, perhaps, though some of us out 

 here have things about as nice, in that line, as it is safe 

 for sinners to enjoy. I should be loth to swap my cook 

 for the best you have got in your biggest hotel. When 

 Mrs. Bunker gets on her checked apron and spectacles, 

 and lays herself out on a soup or a roast, you see, com 

 mon cooks might as well retire. 



In the matter of dress, we in the country are not quite 

 so independent as we used to be, when there was a spinning 

 wheel and a loom in every house, and men wore the linen 

 and woolen made at home, because they had nothing else. 

 But we clothe ourselves easier now, for we can buy cloth 

 a great deal cheaper than we can make it. But if the 

 war continues, and prices keep going up, we may have to 

 go back to homespun again, and then I guess the old folks 

 will be about as independent as any body, for we know 

 how to use the spinning wheel and loom. But that day 

 is some ways off, I guess, judging fi om the finery we see 



