XXVI. THE SPRING BROOK 
“Oh, for a seat in some poetic nook, 
Just hid with trees and sparkling with a brook.” 
—Leigh Hunt. 
The early settlers in our country sought springs of water. 
Clear-flowing streams were good to dwell by, but springs were 
better. Their water was cooler in summer, did not freeze in 
winter and was freer at all times from possible contamination. 
Springs were the primeval water supply. These, more than 
any other single thing, determined the home-sites of the 
pioneers. 
Springs were natural coolers for perishable food products— 
not refrigerators, but coolers; milk or melons they would cool, 
without overdoing it. A low thick-walled spring-house was 
often built over the outflowing stream to keep out the sun’s 
warmth and to increase convenience and capacity. The 
spring-house was the antecedent of the modern household 
refrigerator, and altho far less convenient, being usually 
remote from the kitchen, it was an excellent aid to keeping 
foods fresh and cool. Moreover, its equable temperature 
insured as well against their freezing in winter. 
Springs gave promise of the welfare of the fields, as well as 
of the household. They signified plenty of ground water; 
and the levels adjacent to the springs were the areas first 
cleared and cultivated. In almost any locality, if one would 
know where the first homes were built, he need only inquire 
the location of the best permanent springs, and then look for 
adjacent building-sites. 
Springs result from the water percolating through loose soil 
strata, and flowing out over outcropping impermeable strata. 
A layer of gravelly soil overlying a sheet of clay was nature’s 
primeval filtration plant. From it the water issues, clear 
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