THE TIM BU.NKEK PAPEUS. :2b&amp;gt;l 



with niilk and honey, it did with cotton bales, which was 

 enough sight better. Their heads were completely turned 

 with the tall timber, the smooth, rich land, the magnolia 

 blossoms, the cypresses, and the live oaks, and (would you 

 believe it !) the pretty girls. Every one of em seems to 

 have come home as uneasy as a fish out of water. It is 

 mighty dull work squatting down in the land of steady 

 habits after one has been tearing through the Cotton 

 States with Billy Sherman and his troopers. John, for 

 the first few days, said it seemed as if he should suffocate 

 in Hookertown there was nothing doing, or going to 

 be done. 



I talked with the boys in general, and my boy in par 

 ticular, and argued agin the emigration scheme, and the 

 more I argued the more sot they were in their way of 

 thinking ; and that wa n t the worst of it, for they seemed 

 to infect every body with the Southern fever, and one 

 while, I thought they d carry off Hookertown bodily 

 Mrs. Bunker and the grandchildren, and there wouldn t 

 be any body left but Mr. Spooner, myself, and a few other 

 old fogies. As it is, Hookertown has lost some of its best 

 citizens, as well as some others that we could comfort- 

 abler spare. 



I felt very bad when John stated the case pretty soon 

 after he got home. &quot; Now,&quot; says I, &quot; my son, what is the 

 use of your going down to Mississippi, to farm it, when 

 you have got three hundred acres of as handsome land as 

 lies in the Valley of the Connecticut, or as lies out doors 

 anywhere, as to that matter. We old folks have been 

 thinking, when you got back from the wars you would 

 settle down on the old farm, and hand down the Bunker 

 mansion and name to your children. It is kind o weak in 

 us, but we thought we should have somebody to lean on, 

 when we got a little older. I can t always hold the plow, 

 and mother s eyes will get past fine sewing and clear 

 starching, one of these days.&quot; 



