THE TIM BUNKER PAPERS. 231 



lawns in your Central Park that you think so much of; 

 and just beyond, a four-acre field of corn, in full tassel 

 and spindle ; and beyond that, a side hill covered with 

 wood and rocks, and a little to the right hand, a glimpse 

 of the sea covered with sails. There is a pasture dotted 

 with cattle and sheep, that beat anything I ever saw on 

 canvass. It don t cost half so much to build a house 

 with the picture gallery outside as it does to have it with 

 in, and then you are never pinched for room, and it costs 

 nothing to have your pictures retouched, and the frames 

 regilded. It is a source of endless entertainment and in 

 struction to study this out-door picture gallery, and rainy 

 days give us the leisure, and a new light to see them in. 



Mrs. Bunker had got her cheese in the press, and the 

 milk things washed up, and things put to rights generally, 

 when I saw her overhauling a bundle of old yellow papers 

 that looked as if they were a hundred years old. One of 

 them was an old account book of her grandfather s, made 

 by doubling a sheet of foolscap twice, and sewing it to 

 gether. The thread is stout linen, such as her grand 

 mother used to spin on the linen wheel. 



&quot; Now,&quot; says she, &quot; Timothy, I like to look over these 

 things and see how differently folks live now, from what 

 they used to when my mother was a girl. Here is the 

 account of my mother s setting out in life when she was 

 married, in the handwriting of my grandfather, Amos 

 Dogett.&quot; 



&quot; When was that ?&quot; I asked. 



She read from the manuscript: &quot;Our oldest daughter 

 Sally was married to John Walton Jan. ye 29th, 1784.&quot; 



&quot;That was jnst after the war of Independence.&quot; 



She continued &quot; Things that I let my daughter have 

 was one horse, 10 pound, one new side-saddle and bridle, 5 

 pound.&quot; &quot; Horse-flesh was pretty cheap then,&quot; I remarked. 

 &quot; Reckoning the pound at three dollars and a third, which 

 was its value in the New England -States, it would make 



