SOMETHING went wrong the other day with the pipeline that
brings water from one of the mountain lakes. Rumour had it that the main pipe had burst—the story went about when bursts were one of the great topics of conversation. It was the business of the local water engineer and his staff. The first few hours without water brought cheerful remarks from people in the village who said they had never really believed in washing, but after a while the jokes were a little less spontaneous, and first one and then another of those who lived near went to the stream to get water for domestic purposes. An old lady of my acquaintance said that she had not had a cup of tea for a long time and it was most unfair of the water department to let such a thing happen without warning. We are not used to hardship of this sort. The village pump disappeared long before I came here. Those who had wells filled them in and became up-to-date, but for a little while most of us wished that we had access to a good clean spring.
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