Thirst
Anyone who has spent a long hot summer day out of doors without a good supply of drinking water knows the' temptation of the water in the stream or lake. It seems so pure and fresh, tumbling from pool to pool or lapping the stones by the shore yet it can be dangerous. I thought of this danger as I watched a man drinking the water of a reservoir. Probably he felt that because it was a town's water supply it was pure, but of course before it reaches the town it is made pure and the organic matter is removed or rendered harmless in filters and chlorinating equipment. Once, when sorely tried by thirst I knelt to drink from a lake and discovered that there was a dead lamb among the stones. I thought of the contamination, of the parasites tIvit might have found a home in my body and shuddered as I continued on my way, and yet in my childhood I must have quenched my thirst on countless occasions without thought for the source of the spring or the nature of the land through which its water drained.
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