The Living Water

Samuel found Galileo Maestro and Elias Hawking standing beside the artesian spring that flowed steadily from the hillside behind Rebecca's Kitchen.

The clear water spilled into a stone basin before continuing down a shallow channel toward the lower meadow.

Galileo knelt and dipped his hand into the spring.

"Cold."

"Clear."

"And never stopping."

Samuel smiled.

"I've been wondering what the two of you were studying."

Elias unrolled a hand-drawn map across a nearby stump.

"We've decided this spring is too valuable to carry around in buckets."

Samuel looked at the drawing.

"What do you have in mind?"

Galileo pointed with his finger.

"We're going to let gravity do the work."

Several apprentices gathered around the map.

Elias traced a line downhill.

"We'll lay clay pipe from the spring."

He pointed to the first building.

"Rebecca's Kitchen."

"The bakery."

"The creamery."

"The cannery."

He continued farther down the page.

"The glassworks."

Samuel nodded thoughtfully.

"I understand the kitchen."

"But why the glass factory?"

Jake, who had just arrived from the glassworks, answered with a smile.

"Because glass likes clean water almost as much as people do."

He continued,

"We cool molds."

"We wash jars."

"We clean equipment."

"We rinse sheet glass."

"Every bit of dirt shows."

Samuel smiled.

"I hadn't thought of that."

Jake laughed.

"Most folks don't."

Rebecca walked up carrying a basket of warm bread.

"I heard somebody mention my kitchen."

Galileo smiled.

"We're bringing the spring to you."

Rebecca looked surprised.

"You mean..."

"...I won't have to haul water anymore?"

Elias nodded.

"The spring will come to you."

Rebecca looked toward the hillside.

"I believe that's the finest news I've heard all week."

The apprentices laughed.

Samuel studied the map again.

"What about the rest of the settlement?"

Galileo pointed toward several windmills already turning steadily in the breeze.

"They have their own job."

By afternoon everyone gathered beside one of the brick reservoirs between the rows of cabins.

The windmill slowly pumped fresh well water into the large cistern.

Children filled buckets.

Women drew water for laundry.

A teamster watered his horses.

Nearby, two boys rinsed mud from a wagon.

Samuel looked around.

"So this becomes our utility water."

Galileo nodded.

"For gardens."

"For livestock."

"For washing."

"For fire protection."

"For all the work that doesn't require spring water."

Samuel smiled.

"So we use the right water for the right purpose."

"Exactly."

Buck Rogers arrived carrying one of the new leather fire buckets.

He dipped it into the cistern.

"I've been thinking."

Samuel laughed.

"I know that look."

Buck grinned.

"Every brick reservoir ought to have a rack of fire buckets."

Jacob Yoder smiled around his corncob pipe.

"I'll build the brick stands."

Edward added,

"I'll stitch the leather."

The cooper, passing by with a wooden pail, smiled.

"And I'll make the wooden buckets."

Samuel laughed.

"It seems everyone wants a part of this project."

Galileo folded his map.

"That's because water belongs to everyone."

Late that afternoon Samuel and Galileo climbed back to the spring.

Workers had already begun digging the first trench.

Young apprentices carefully lowered the first lengths of fired clay pipe into place.

Samuel watched them work.

"Why not simply keep using buckets?"

Galileo looked down the hillside toward the settlement.

Smoke curled gently from Rebecca's ovens.

The windmills turned steadily.

Children laughed around the brick cisterns.

Women carried fresh bread from the bakery.

The creamery doors stood open.

Farther away, filtered light reflected from the windows of the glassworks.

Galileo smiled.

"Buckets move water."

He paused for a moment.

Then quietly said,

"Pipes move civilization."

Samuel stood silently.

For the first time, he realized the most important parts of a community were often hidden beneath the ground.

People admired the buildings.

They praised the mills.

They noticed the wagons.

But beneath every thriving settlement flowed something far more important.

Clean water.

Samuel dipped his hand into the spring one last time before they turned toward home.

"This spring..."

"...may become the hardest-working citizen in the settlement."

Galileo laughed.

"I believe you're right."

The spring continued flowing exactly as it always had.

Patiently.

Quietly.

Giving life to everything it touched.

And no one had to ask it to keep working.