284 THE TIM BUNKER PAPERS. 



and, as Mr. Spooner would say, there was in it consid 

 erable food for reflection. The more I argued, the warmer 

 he grew. It was just like trying to put out a volcano 

 with a squirt gun. &quot; Ah,&quot; said Mrs. Bunker, with a sigh 

 after John had gone out, &quot; He isn t a boy any longer, 

 Timothy. It is of no use talking. The fire burns in him, 

 and who knows but the Lord hns kindled it ?&quot; 



I couldn t answer that. It was pretty clear that fire 

 was there, and burning strong, and it seems to be spread 

 ing all through this region. It is a big subject, and of a 

 good deal of importance to your readers, and with your 

 permission I shall have to load and fire agin on it. 

 Yours to command, 



TIMOTHY BUNKER, ESQ. 



Hookertown, April 15th, 1866. 



79. TIM BUNKER ON THE COTTON FEVER 

 AND EMIGRATION DOWN SOUTH. 



MR. EDITOR. I was a good deal taken aback by my 

 talk with John, about which I wrote you in my last. You 

 see, Mrs. Bunker and I had never thought of any thing 

 else for him than our own home in Hookertown, and that 

 he would want to live and die in the house in which he 

 was born. We had not considered what a change three 

 years was to make in him. He went away a boy ; he came 

 back a man, with notions of his own, and the reasons to 

 back em. There was no disguising the fact that it was 

 something more than a boyish freak that he had taken, to 

 carve out for himself a new home in the sunny South. I 

 turned the thing over in my mind, and I could not get 



