Where The Wild Things Roam 4

Toby followed his father into the woods, to where the pipes ran. They filled the glass jugs, hauling them one by one down the slope to the side of the road. There, Billy Farner came by in his truck, loaded it full of spring water, and drove off for The Creek General Store. There, Sally Jo sold the bottles to the Yellow Doggers, the ones without fine running water. And so, the coal camp settlers didn't die from drinkin' from the stinkin' creek out back.

By the time the bossman discovered that the Claremont Creek Mine ruined the water around town, there was talk among the miners of going elsewhere. Natty Joe and his men showed up one morning with an ultimatum- we get that spring water from Morris' spring, and you pay Pa Morris, or we're walkin' out. The Speedwell Mine just opened not more than a mile down the road and the bossman got mighty nervous when a few signed up for the new company houses with three bedrooms, and script you could actually convert to cash down in the city.

Pa Morris taught his children how to tender the spring. They'd walk up to the back of the property and fill the jugs lined up on either side. The older ones carried the glass jugs, the ones that once had juice in 'em. 

The Morris clann survived from the pennies made here and there. Nobody wanted to pay much for water that came out of the hillside, when the rest of the county was out drinkin' from their own wells. The company built the town on bedrock on account of valuing the mine more than the people.

Still, there was a silent understanding now, like something you just didn't talk about. The bossman and his company ran a place till they exhausted the coal, but they did not want to exhaust the men who followed the next claim a few miles away. When the Claremont Coal Company moved, they wanted the miners to move with them.

There was frightfully little education in the principal's office when the deputy hauled Pa Morris in to answer for his wayward children. Magpie Morris stopped comin' first. Jamie Lee followed her. And now, Toby hadn't been to school all week. Somebody was gonna have to answer for it.

Principal Gary tried to explain to the common man that what he was doing was wrong. 

"Your children need to come to school. It's the law," he proclaimed.

Pa Morris spit tobacco on the floor. He scraped it over toward the wastebasket.

"I reckon you know nothin' about folks 'round here," he started. "You city folk. You weren't here when the company came in."

Pa stood face to face with the man.

"I'm the most important man in Boggs Holler. Without me and my younguns, nobody gets clean water."

The principal leaned back in his chair.

"The store pays me for that fancy spring water everybody drinks."

"Your spring?"

"Yep."

"You can't hire someone?"

"I get pennies, mister."

He snapped back, forcing the chair legs to the wooden floor.

"How could something like this happen?"

"The companies do what they wanna. You've seen the creek....or maybe ya haven't. Look down in there and tell me you'd be drinking that water."

"Our water's fine."

"You don't have to live in town. Them's poor people down there with yeller water."

"That's none of my business. My job is to make sure your little ones are in school."

Pa Morris shook his head.

"I reckon I'll try, but I need them on account of my princess done left the holler."

"I heard she made a match with some guy from New York City or someplace."

"No. Just over the mountain. You heard wrong."

"I'll see what I can do. But until we find a solution, you're going to have to get those kids down here to the school."

Pa Morris left the principal's office and hitched a ride with Billy. They drove up the holler to where Ma Morris met them with a cold piece of apple pie and a tall glass of the county's finest spring water.