The Spring On Delaney Read online

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  My pa, after much thought on the matter, decided on his price for Delaney Spring Water.

  "Nobody will pay for what you can get for free," I said to him.

  "Those scientists in Georgetown told me it was beneficial to the constitution," he replied. "There are nutrients and salts in that water that the municipality cannot provide with their pipes and towers. Our water is better, son, and people will always pay for quality."

  And they did. Within a week, my pa had inserted a pipe and faucet down into the ants' old nest and sluiced the spring water into a large cattle trough that he got from George Denham at number 53. Jenny and me cleaned that old trough until we were damn near sleeping inside of it. My pa got some five-gallon containers and put a sign outside in the front yard. Fresh Spring Water - Health Benefits. Five gallons for five cents.

  At first, business was slow but soon word got around town and there was a regular stream of people coming by for the water. When a new customer arrived, my pa and me went out back and began filling the five-gallon drums from the trough while my ma took payment in the house. Most people wanted twenty or thirty gallons. When they left, gallons of Delaney Spring Water would be sloshing around on the back. In the first week, we were two dollars richer, by the third, we had regular customers and made six bucks.

  Each morning, I would come down and inspect the spring with Liberty at my side. Though the flow had slowed something, the trough easily filled up overnight after the day's orders had emptied it. The ground around the faucet gradually dried up and I noticed a few ants crawling around on the dirt again. Through the passing of time and the heat of the sun, life was returning to normal.