The Water-Well

The water-well There is near the houses a deep well you can´t stick a bucket on a rope, much ropes were needed. They used to hire a man usually the village idiot to spend his life hauling up buckets of water. Villagers believed the water came from the Yanjing river in China. A man who had gone to school disagreed; it is a deep underground river, he said. For this, he was disliked. One day he fell down the well, but since it was not man made and smooth a big stone sticking out saved him from falling all the way down. Broke his leg in the fall, he did. With a dangling leg he had to claw himself up, however they gave him water to drink, his struggle made him thirsty. When he got out, he spoke a strange language the villagers, thought was Chines, it never struck them he was stark raving mad. Now, an electric pump was installed, they saw him limping out of the village talking gibberish.