308 THE TIM BUNKKli PAPERS. 



They work the land down here and pretty much every 

 thing else. Any thing, or anybody, gets lick d that lies idle.&quot; 



&quot; Yes, yes,&quot; said Kier, &quot; I remember them lickin s. That s 

 what started me off to the widder s, where things went easy.&quot; 



&quot; And folks round here take the Agriculturist&quot; chimed 

 in Seth Twiggs, whose pipe by this time was in full blast. 

 44 More n forty copies come to the Hookertown post-office, 

 and taint more n twelve years ago there wa n t but three, 

 and I was the fourth man that took it, and I shouldn t 

 ave done it if it hadn t been for the woman. Ye see, she 

 offer d to pay for it if I couldn t. She laff d consumedly 

 when I set up readin on t the fust night it cum till smack 

 twelve o clock.&quot; 



&quot; A pretty state of things we ll have here in Hooker- 

 town shortly !&quot; exclaimed George Washington Tucker, 

 who had now joined the party. &quot; What with your Agri 

 culturists, and old Bunker s experiments, and everybody 

 aping him, and snappin up every bit of land that comes 

 into market, there wont be any chance for a poor feller to 

 live in town. Rents have more than doubled in five years.&quot; 



44 Doubled !&quot; exclaimed Benjamin Franklin Jones. 

 44 I ve got to pay a hundred dollars for my place this year, 

 and ten years ago I got it for twenty-five. Some say it s 

 the war, and some say it s short crops. But that s all 

 nonsense. Tim Bunker and the paper is at the bottom of 

 the whole of it. You see, when that salt mash was re 

 claimed, and the bottom knocked out of that horse-pond 

 at the foot of Jake Frink s hill, everybody took to drainin 

 as if their everlasting fortune was gwine to be made right 

 off. There aint a swamp anywhere within five mile of 

 Hookertown neow, but what is as dry as a bone, and 

 kivered with the tallest kind of herd s grass or corn. 

 Sich a hankerin arter land I never expected to see. Folks 

 aint no plentier than they used to be, but land is a deal 

 skaser, and grovvin more so. There s no kind of a decent 

 chance for poor folks to live.&quot; 



