" Once upon a time, a certain town grew up at the
foot of a mountain range. It was sheltered in the lee of the
protecting
heights, so that the wind that shuddered at the doors and flung
handfuls
of sleet against the window panes was a wind whose fury was spent.
Up in the hills, a strange and quiet forest
dweller took it upon himself to be the Keeper of the Springs.
He patrolled the hills and wherever he found a spring, he cleaned
its brown pool of silt and fallen leaves, of mud and mold and took away
from the spring all foreign matter, so that the water which bubbled up
through the sand ran down clean and cold and pure.
It leaped sparking over rocks and dropped
joyously in crystal cascades until, swollen by other streams, it
became a river of life to the busy town. Mill wheels were whirling by
its
rush. Gardens were refreshed by its waters. Fountains threw
it like diamonds into the air. Swans sailed on its limpid surface, and
children laughed as they played on its banks in the sunshine.
But the City Council was a group of
hard-headed, hard-boiled business men. They scanned the civic
budget
and found in it the salary of the Keeper of the Springs. Said the
Keeper
of the Purse, "Why should we pay this romance ranger? We
never
see him: he is not necessary to our town's work life. If we build
a reservoir just above the town, we can dispense with his services and
save his salary.
Therefore the City Council voted to dispense
with the unnecessary cost of a Keeper of the Spring, and to build a
reservoir.
When it was finished, it soon filled with water, to be sure, but the
water
did not seem to be the same. It did not seem to be clean and a
green
scum soon befouled its stagnant surface.
There were constant troubles with the delicate machinery of the
mills,
for it was often clogged with slime, and the swans found another home
above
the town. At last, epidemic raged, and the clammy, yellow fingers
of sickness reached into every home, in every street and lane.
The City Council met again. Sorrowfully ,
it faced the city's plight and frankly acknowledged the mistake
of
the dismissal of the Keeper of the Springs.
They sought him out in his hermit hut high in the hills and
begged
him to return to his former joyous labor. Gladly he agreed, and
began
once more to make his rounds. It was not long before pure water
came
lilting down under tunnels of ferns and mosses and to sparkle in the
cleansed
reservoir.
Mill wills turn again as of old. Stenches disappeared. Sickness waned
and convalescent children playing in the sun laughed again
because
the swans had come back."