THE TIM BUNKEK PAPERS. 253 



ing ought to be carried into all public matters. She said, 

 &quot; Gather up the fragments that nothing be lost,&quot; ought to 

 be written as a frontispiece over the door of every public 

 building and hospital in Washington, and everywhere 

 else. Now there are a set of busybodies, who have noth 

 ing else to do but to find fault with the management of all 

 public concerns, from the President s business down to the 

 Justice s Court in Hookertown. They have sometimes 

 criticized my judgments, though I never had an opinion 

 reversed by a higher court since I sat upon the bench. 

 You see, these idle folks cha,ps like Jake Frink would 

 say, &quot; it was no sort of use to send any thing to the sol 

 diers, for it wasn t half the time they got any thing when 

 it was sent. A good deal of it was stolen, lots of things 

 were smashed by the Express Companies, and the jellies 

 and jams got jammed into the wrong stomachs.&quot; You 

 see, these stories worried my wife just as bad as if the 

 milk was souring in her own pantry in dog-days. They 

 didn t worry me much, for I always noticed that the folks 

 who grumbled most about the Sanitary stores spoiling, 

 were the very ones who hadn t given a red cent to buy 

 them. A precious little Jake Frink and company care 

 about the soldiers ! He never gave a dime for Sanitary 

 stores. 



Well, you see, nothing would satisfy the woman, but 

 she must go and see that nothing was wasted, and when 

 she came to hear that John was wounded it brought mat 

 ters to a focus, as Mr. Spooner would say, and we set right 

 out for Washington. The hospitals about that city are 

 about as thick as hay-cocks in a meadow on a summer 

 afternoon, and it takes one near a week to see em all and 

 find out all the particulars. Mrs. Bunker went into them 

 about as thorough as if she was house-cleaning, and I 

 guess the nurses thought the Inspector General had sent 

 an agent to pry into things generally. She wanted to 

 know if the things come straight, that had been sent to 



