The Spring House

       The pioneer looked for a spring and built his cabin near it, for he had no time nor equipment to dig a well. As he prospered he replaced his cabin with a better house, but the spring continued to quench his thirst and that of his animals, and supplied the only refrigeration known to generations. He built a stone trough and ran the cold, slow-flowing water through it. With stone from the fields he built a house over the spring and planted a tree near the door. The housewife placed her earthenware crocks of milk almost neck deep in the cold shallow stream, skimming off the cream for butter making. Dishes of food and leftovers of meat were set there for keeping. 

       It was always cool in the springhouse, even on the hottest summer day. A gourd dipper hung from the wall and the men, coming from the hot fields, stopped first in the springhouse for a draft of the cold water. The dog quenched his thirst from the overflow at the back of the springhouse and a flock of ducks noisily investigated the trickling stream for tidbits. Watercress grew in the shallows. 

       What a soul-and-belly satisfying experience to tip a crock of rich cold milk down one's parched throat after a morning in the fields. What an oasis at the end of the day when the body, dehydrated from long hours in the sun, called for huge gulps of water, cooled as it can only be cooled to human taste, by a journey through the dark and cold depths of the land.

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"The Spring House" by Center for Pioneer Life