Translation:The High Mountains/9

After having drunk at the fountain cupping their hands, a mule-driver murmured:

“May your soul be refreshed!”

The children looked at him, wondering what he was talking about.

And as he understood their surprise, added:

“I don't know who it is, but may he who constructed this fountain be refreshed like us”.

“I remember”, said Mr Stephan. “I was just a child. At that time a little water flowed here, but much less, just a trickle. Travellers used to lie down flat on their stomachs to drink, trying to make a little tube, a pipette, with a green leaf. Often the water completely disappeared because it was buried underneath the rain and soil which poured down. Everyone in the surrounding villages needed a fountain here. But each one said: let the other villages do it.

“Once a tailor passed by here, on his way to the celebration of Saint Elie. He came from afar and had a small shop down in the country. Seated cross-legged on a piece of furniture — like that, I can still see him today — slowly he stitched woollen jackets and waistcoats. He had a long white beard which reached down over his chest and he wore his very clean long fustanella (kilt) on weekdays just as on Sundays.

“When he went back from Saint Elie, he said to his old wife:

“—My dear, up there where I have been I saw that they need a fountain. We don't have any children, and we don't have many more years to live. So I am going to give our savings for a little fountain so that the people can be refreshed.

“—Sir, what you decide is decided, replied his wife.

“With his contribution, the workers dug down a hundred metres to collect the water, put into place canalisation and built the fountain. And he, after having seen the good he had done for the people, asked for nothing else. Some time later, he was laid to rest happily in the hands of God and was forgotten.

“Afterwards the plane tree that you see here grew up. The fountain has been flowing for thirty years and it will still run for a long time yet, as long as there are tired travellers......” When Mr Stephan had finished, nobody spoke a word. Only the fountain was speaking in the silence. They quenched their thirst and heard the cool water flowing.

“May your soul be refreshed!”