I suppose that people at a distance thought that if there had been carelessness once there might be again.

Very likely, too, they suspected that the water had never been so pure as we had declared it to be.

Owners of other springs who had put water on the market improved the opportunity to circulate reports that Rose-Quartz water would not "keep." We got possession of three circulars in which that damaging statement had been sent broadcast.
There is probably no commodity in the world that depends so much on a reputation for purity as spring water.

By September the orders for water had fallen off to a most disheartening extent.

Scarcely three hundred gallons were called for.
In the hope that this was merely a temporary set-back, and knowing that there was no fault in the water itself, the old Squire spent a thousand dollars in advertisements to stem the tide of adverse criticism.