A young boy spent a month every summer with his parents in an old farmhouse. The house was 150 years old when his family bought it. It had never been modernized. The water supply during those years came from an old well that stood just outside the front door. This well was remarkable because it has never gone dry. Even in the severest summer droughts, the old well faithfully yielded cool, clear water.

The day came when the family sanctuary was finally modernized. A new well was drilled a few hundred feet from the house. The old well was capped to be kept in reserve. And so it remained for several years until one fine day, moved by curiosity, the now grown young man decided to uncover and inspect its condition. As he removed the cover, he actually expected to see the same cool, moist depths he remembered so well as a boy. But the well was bone dry.

It took many inquiries to understand what had happened to the well. He learned that this type of well is fed by hundreds of tiny underground rivulets along which seeps a constant supply of water. As water is drawn from the well, more water flows into it along the rivulets, keeping these tiny channels clear and open. But when such a well is not used and the water is not regularly drawn, the tiny rivulets close up. The well, which had run without failing for so many years, was now dry—not because of shortage of water, but because it had not been used for long. —John Sanford