well of 250 feet (or less), piped and finished to the surface, for $2 a
foot; any greater depth to be subject to further agreement.

It took nearly three months to finish the water system, but it has
proved wonderfully convenient and satisfactory. During seven years I
have not spent more than $50 for changes and repairs. We struck bed-rock
at 197 feet, drilled 27 feet into this rock, and found water which rose
to within 50 feet of the surface and which could not be materially
lowered by the constant use of a three-inch power-pump. The water was
milky white for three days, in spite of much pumping; and then, and ever
after, it ran clear and sweet, with a temperature of 54° F. Well and
water being satisfactory, I cheerfully paid the well man $448 for the
job.

Meantime I contracted for a tank twelve by twelve feet, to be raised
thirty feet above the well on eight timbers, each ten inches square,
well bolted and braced, for $430,--I to put in the foundation. This
consisted of eight concrete piers, each five feet deep in the clay,
three feet square, and capped at the level of the ground with a
limestone two feet square and eight inches thick. These piers were set
in octagon form around the well, with their centres seven feet from the
middle of the bore, making the spread of the framework fourteen feet at
the ground and ten at the platform. The foundation cost $32. A Rider
eight-inch, hot-air, wood-burning, pumping engine (with a two-inch pipe
leading to the tank, and a four-inch pipe from it), filled the tank
quickly; and it was surprising to see how little fuel it consumed. It
cost $215.

I have now to confess to a small extravagance. I contracted with a
carpenter to build an ornamental tower, fifty-five feet high, twenty