CHAPTER SIX 

 WATER, HOT WATER, AND WASTE WATER 



THE great adventure, on which we had embarked 

 when we left the city, did not contemplate any re- 

 turn to primitive ways of life. 



We had no intentions of going in for manual labor 

 just for the sweet discipline of hard work. We had no 

 intention, therefore, of being satisfied with drawing 

 water hand over hand from a well a laborious form 

 of drudgery still prevailing on many of the farms of 

 the country. And certainly we had no romantic no- 

 tions about carrying water from a flowing brook 

 good enough for a camping trip, but ridiculous as a 

 permanent way of living. We were not after any such 

 return to nature. What we wanted were all the com- 

 forts of the city in addition to the comforts which 

 country life had to offer. There would be enough hard 

 work, we knew, without making a virtue of doing 

 things the hardest way. 



The water supply on "Sevenacres" when we pur- 

 chased it came from a well about twenty-five feet 

 from the kitchen door, and from a cistern fed by 

 rain water from the eve troughs of the house. Water 

 was drawn from the well by two oak buckets on 



chains which were pulled up over a pulley. A suction 



72 



