THE TIM BUSKER PAPERS. 285 



round the argument. I bad had my chance in Hooker- 

 town, and made my own home and fortune without any 

 boosting. Why shouldn t he have his choice in a spot of 

 his own choosing ? He has seen the land and tried its 

 climate, and was capable of judging for himself. If he 

 could not stay at home without a feeling of constraint, 

 why the sooner he was off the better. A contented mind 

 is a continual feast, and without that a man must be a 

 drudge anywhere. 



So we give up arguing, and concluded that John had 

 quire as good a right to dispose of himself as we had. If 

 he felt he had a mission down South it might be as sacred 

 as any other, and it didn t become us to stand in the 

 Lord s way. Perhaps He had something better in store 

 for John than Hookertown. They say old people, and 

 some that are not quite so old, come to think that they 

 live exactly in the center of creation, and that there is no 

 spot quite equal to their town and their part of it. Even 

 Mr. Spooner preached his New Year s sermon on being 

 &quot; Content with such things as you have,&quot; and undertook 

 to show that the Western hemisphere was the best part of 

 the world, that the North American Continent was 

 greatly superior to the South, that the United States was 

 the best part of the Continent, that Connecticut stood 

 head and shoulders above all other States, and Hooker- 

 town was the cream of the land of steady habits. I don t 

 want to stir up the jealousy of Boston, or any other res 

 pectable village, but I endorse Mr. Spooner s opinion. I 

 thought all the while he was a preaching that he had a 

 squint toward the folks who were so fast for going down 

 South and he owned as much afterwards. But preach 

 ing won t save a man who has got the cotton fever. You 

 might as well undertake to preach total depravity out of 

 him. It will work out. 



u D ye spose, Squire, there s any chance to make money 

 in this cotton business ?&quot; asked Jake Frink this morning. 



