522 



HISTORY OF CO H ASSET. 



the part now used for the library anteroom ; but the 

 trustees hoped that some day benevolent persons might 

 provide a suitable building which would be a monument 

 for the town. 



That hope * still lures on the friends of the library, 

 and in the mean time the town has enlarged the library to 

 take the place of the school which moved out of that part 

 of the town hall in 1891. 



The regular appropriations at first were $200 or ^300 

 each year to pay the salary of the librarian and to add 

 new books. In three years from its beginning there were 

 772 who had come to borrow books from the three thou- 

 sand volumes to which the library had grown by purchase 

 and by private donation. 



Since that time the sober progress of an established 

 institution has characterized the library. A few bequests f 

 of public-spirited individuals have added to the stock of 

 books, but the future is still to reveal some one who will 

 secure for the town a more appropriate building for this 

 necessary adjunct of public education. 



Passing from the consideration of these fountains of 

 learning to other fountains of a less metaphorical mean- 

 ing, some account must be given of the town's water 

 supply. 



Several natural springs have always slaked the thirst of 

 sojourners in Cohasset, the most famous of which are 

 probably the two Cold Springs, one on Jerusalem Road 

 next to the sea, near the Kendall estate, where the old 

 Cold Spring House was built, the other at the edge of 

 Jacob's Meadow, west of Spring Lane, near the railroad. 



As for wells, a little digging almost anywhere in town 

 will tap a good supply of water. The reason for this is 



*The wills of the late Harriot E. Pratt and of her sister, Sarah S. Pratt, recently 

 probated, provide a legacy of sufficient amount to erect a suitable building for a 

 library in honor of their father, Paul Pratt. 



■f On January i, 1898, a legacy of three hundred dollars from Miss Marion 

 Cheever, who perished in the surf on Sandy Beach, was given to the library. 



