AN OPEN WELL 165 



after did it occur to any one that Ezek never 

 failed to learn the wishes of the women-folk be- 

 fore he took up the forked witch-hazel and quar- 

 tered the ground. The result was always the 

 same : that mysterious switch never failed to 

 point within an inch of the desired spot. Ezek 

 was never known to disappoint his customers, so 

 not one suspected his duplicity or lacked faith in 

 the divining-rod. Ay ! and there are yet hosts of 

 people who still uphold its power to locate not 

 only water, but lost articles. A wheat stubble 

 was recently gone over, crossed and criss-crossed, 

 with a divining-rod, to recover a piece of metal, 

 As the field was divided by the man into square 

 yards, it is not strange the bit of iron was found, 

 but the credit was given to the rod, which pointed 

 earthward at the moment the man's foot struck 

 the missing object. " In spite of what people 

 say, there's something very curious about it," 

 was the remark of one of the " head men " of 

 the village. But this is a digression. 



Happily, there are yet a few open wells scat- 

 tered over the country, and one of these, with its 

 sweep, is within my range. Of itself, perhaps, 

 not a great deal can be said ; but not every hole 

 in the ground has such surroundings. How sel- 

 dom do we find still standing, and in good repair, 

 houses that were built early in the preceding 

 century ! Looking west from my study windows, 



