66 Trails to Woods and Waters 



and I gushed forth, there was no basin to 

 hold my pure stream. I made the basin with 

 my own gentle lapping. If you were to pour 

 water upon a rock for your entire lifetime 

 you probably could not see that you had worn 

 away the rock; but I with my constant drip- 

 ping have made this deep broad basin. I do 

 not measure time in years and so do not know 

 how long ago the rock opened and I began 

 work upon the basin,, but many times the 

 forest about me has fallen beneath the tooth 

 of time while I worked away at my task. 

 Long, long before the white man ever set foot 

 upon this continent the red man used to come 

 to my basin to drink. 



" In those days I was called the * fount of 

 healing.' There were many substances in the 

 rock from which I sprung that had medicinal 

 qualities, such as sulphur and iron, which 

 purify and renew the blood. Some of these 

 qualities I have lost, as the iron and the sul- 

 phur are nearly all washed from the rock, but 

 I am still the living water full of sweet, heal- 

 ing qualities. 



