248 THE TIM BUNKER TAPERS. 



And to prevent any anxiety in their minds in the future, 

 in case I don t write, I may as well say that I manage a 

 farm in Hookertown, and that is my business, except when 

 I hold a Justice s Court, or something of that kind. A man 

 who is feeding cattle, getting up his winter stock of wood, 

 drawing muck and sea-weed, top-dressing meadows, mak 

 ing compost heaps, relaying wall, and attending a little to 

 the war and politics, can t be expected to write much for 

 the papers. 



But last month, ye see, I had a special hindrance, and 

 the way it came about was jest this. Mrs. Bunker was 

 sitting by the fire one evening, reading the paper, when 

 she stopped suddenly, took off those gold-bowed spectacles 

 that Josiah gave her, and laid down the paper, and says 

 she, &quot; Timothy, I want to go to Washington. You see I 

 have been knitting and sewing, drying and brewing, for 

 the soldiers for over two years, and I should like to know 

 where all the things that we have boxed up go to. Some 

 say there is an awful waste of these things, that the shirts 

 are used for wadding to the cannon, that the wines and 

 cordials go to the well soldiers instead of the sick ones, 

 and the stores of the Sanitary Commission never see the 

 inside of a hospital. I should like to see for myself, 

 and while I am down there I should like to see John. 

 &quot; Agreed,&quot; says I, &quot; We ll start for Washington to-mor 

 row.&quot; 



You see we went down south five years ago, and came 

 home so well satisfied with Hookertown that we have 

 hardly been out of the place since, for more than a day or 

 two at a time. Sally Bunker has been the most contented 

 woman in all my experience from that day to this. I was 

 rather glad when I saw that she had got her mind on a 

 visit. It very soon got wind that we were bound to 

 Washington, and almost nil the neighbors brought in their 

 axes to grind, as if I should have nothing to do while I 

 was down there but to turn the grindstone for em. 



