'em each an ice-cream sody."

"Did you have to go to the city to do that?" said Dolly.

"Sure! Ain't no place nigher'n that. Over to Deer Crossin' there's a man
has lemon pop in bottles sometimes, but he ain't got no founting like we
saw in the city, nor no ice-cream, neither."

Dolly was a picture of woe and disappointment.

"Tell yer what, though," said Walter, bashfully. "Saturday night there's
a goin' to be an ice-cream festival over to the Methodist Church at the
Crossing, an' I'm aimin' ter go, though my folks is Baptists. I'll treat
yer to a plate of ice-cream over there."

"Will you, really?" said Dolly, brightening up and looking as pleased as
if the ice-cream soda she wanted so much had suddenly been set down
before her in the field.

"I sure will," said Walter, hugely pleased. "Say, they play all sorts of
games over there--forfeits an' post office an'--"

Bessie had to laugh at Dolly's look of mystification.

"Come on, Dolly," she said. "We mustn't keep Walter from his work or
he'll be getting into trouble. We can see him again some time when he
isn't so busy." And as they walked off she told Dolly about the country
games the boy had spoken of--games in which kissing played a large part.

"The country isn't as nice as I thought," said Dolly dolefully. "I'm so
thirsty, and there's no place to buy even sarsaparilla!"

"Maybe not, but I can show you something better than that for your
thirst, Dolly. See that rocky place over there, under the trees! I'll
bet there's a spring there. Let's find out."

Sure enough, there was a spring, carefully covered, and a cup, so that
anyone working in the fields could get water, and even Dolly had to
admit that no ice-cream soda had ever quenched her thirst as well.

"What delicious water!" she exclaimed. "Where's the ice?"

"There isn't any, silly!" laughed Bessie. "It's cold like that because
it comes bubbling right up out of the ground."

"I bet that's just the sort of water they sell in bottles in the city,
because it's so much purer than the city water," said Dolly. "But that's
an awfully little spring, Bessie."

"The basin isn't very big, but that doesn't mean that there isn't always
plenty of water. You see, no matter how much you take out, there's
always more coming. See that little brook? Well, this spring feeds that,
and it runs off and joins other brooks, but there's always water here
just the same. Of course, in a drought, if there was no rain for a