38 PEPACTON 



first snow covers them. Thus every fountain by 

 the roadside is a fountain of youth and of life. 

 This is what the old fables finally mean. 



An intermittent spring is shallow; it has no deep 

 root, and is like an inconstant friend. But a peren- 

 nial spring, one whose ways are appointed, whose 

 foundation is established, what a profound and beau- 

 tiful symbol! In fact, there is no more large and 

 universal symbol in nature than the spring, if there 

 is any other capable of such wide and various appli- 

 cations. 



What preparation seems to have been made for 

 it in the conformation of the ground, even in the 

 deep underlying geological strata! Vast rocks and 

 ledges are piled for it, or cleft asunder that it may 

 find a way. Sometimes it is a trickling thread of 

 silver down the sides of a seamed and scarred preci- 

 pice. Then again the stratified rock is like a just- 

 lifted lid, from beneath which the water issues. 

 Or it slips noiselessly out of a deep dimple in the 

 fields. Occasionally it bubbles up in the valley, 

 as if forced up by the surrounding hills. Many 

 springs, no doubt, find an outlet in the beds of the 

 large rivers and lakes, and are unknown to all but 

 the fishes. They probably find them out and make 

 much of them. The trout certainly do. Find a 

 place in the creek where a spring issues, or where 

 it flows into it from a near bank, and you have 

 found a most likely place for trout. They deposit 

 their spawn there in the fall, warm their noses there 

 in winter, and cool themselves there in summer. I 



