WATER, HOT WATER, WASTE WATER 73 



pump in the kitchen was supposed to draw water 

 from the cistern. This pump was out of order, but 

 after being repaired, in the course of which we all re- 

 ceived our first lesson in applied hydraulics, we dis- 

 covered that this was a most uncertain source of 

 water, since the cistern was too small to carry a supply 

 between most spells of wet weather. So we installed 

 an automatic electric pumping system an outfit 

 which at that time represented an investment of $125 

 but which can now be purchased for around $50. 

 With the services of a plumber to connect it up, an 

 expenditure of $150 put running water into the 

 house. 



What did it cost us for water? Did it cost us more 

 than in the city, where we had the benefits of mass 

 pumping and mass distribution through water mains? 

 On "Sevenacres" I had no occasion to work out this 

 problem, but when we dug our well and installed our 

 pumping system on the "Dogwoods," I decided to find 

 out, and kept records, so that at the end of a number 

 of years I would be in position to answer the question 

 with some degree of accuracy. 



Some years after we were living in our new home 

 I had quite an argument with my friend, Ralph W. 

 Hench, who lives in Suffern, upon this point. The 

 Hench family, of course, enjoyed the luxury of city 

 water. Water cost them, he told me, $20 per year. 

 And he was quite certain that mine cost me much 

 more than that. There was no man better equipped 

 than Hench with whom to argue the point, since he 



