256 THE TIM BUNKER PAPERS. 



quarrel, jest tell em they d better make up, for I shan t 

 be back under a week, and there won t be any Court.&quot; 



You see the way it came about was this : Sally got a 

 letter a few weeks ago from her cousin, who married 

 Noadiah Tubbs, thirty years ago, and moved off to West- 

 chester. Cousin Esther and Sally used to be about as 

 thick as blackbirds in the pie, before they were married, 

 but haven t met often of late. She hadn t more than read 

 the letter, when she said : 



&quot; Timothy, it is a dozen years since I have seen Esther, 

 and she used to be the best friend I had before I found 

 you. And if you feel as if you could spare the time, I 

 should like to go down and see her this winter.&quot; 



&quot; Agreed,&quot; says I. And we got ready and started off 

 the next week. 



Noadiah Tubbs (they call him Diah, for short, and 

 sometimes, Uncle Di,) lives on the banks of the Bronx, 

 about a dozen miles from the city. He is what they call 

 in Hookertown a case, or hard customer. How in this 

 world Esther came to marry him I never could see, and I 

 am a little more than ever in the dark about it since our 

 visit. Perhaps he s grown worse since he got married, or 

 else I ve grown better. I ought to be a good deal better 

 after living so many years with Sally Bunker. At any 

 rate, Diah and I seemed to be farther apart than ever. 

 Why ! the creature don t go to meeting more n once a 

 year, and then it is when he is going to be put up for rep 

 resentative or sheriff, when he thinks, may be, he ll get a 

 few votes from church people, if he goes to meeting. I 

 am sorry to say there is rather a bad state of morals all 

 round Diah s neighborhood. The Westchester sinners, 

 from what I see of em, are not a bit better than Hooker- 

 town sinners. The folks don t seem to have much idea of 

 Sunday, except as a day of visiting, hunting, and fishing. 

 Rum-holes are plenty, and I guess this state of morals ac- 



