But the poorer people are--and therefore usually, alas! the more
ignorant--the less water they get; and the less they care to have
water; and the less they are inclined to pay for it; and the more,
I am sorry to say, they waste what little they do get; and I am
still more sorry to say, spoil, and even steal and sell--in London
at least--the stop-cocks and lead-pipes which bring the water into
their houses. So that keeping a water-shop is a very troublesome
and uncertain business; and one which is not likely to pay us or
anyone round here."

"But why not let some company manage it, as they manage railways,
and gas, and other things?"

"Ah--you have been overhearing a good deal about companies of
late, I see. But this I will tell you; that when you grow up, and
have a vote and influence, it will be your duty, if you intend to
be a good citizen, not only not to put the water-supply of England
into the hands of fresh companies, but to help to take out of
their hands what water-supply they manage already, especially in
London; and likewise the gas-supply; and the railroads; and
everything else, in a word, which everybody uses, and must use.
For you must understand--at least as soon as you can--that though
the men who make up companies are no worse than other men, and
some of them, as you ought to know, very good men; yet what they
have to look to is their profits; and the less water they supply,
and the worse it is, the more profit they make. For most water, I
am sorry to say, is fouled before the water companies can get to
it, as this water which runs past us will be, and as the Thames
water above London is. Therefore it has to be cleansed, or partly
cleansed, at a very great expense. So water companies have to be