I have traveled extensively and hiked many trails in Canada. People have always been generous in helping me refill water bottles, and when I’ve offered to pay for water that people give me from their homes, no one accepts my money.
So, I am surprised when I go into a little grocery in Luskville, kind of like a gas station food store, but without the gas pumps. It’s hot out, so I pick up a few necessities – ice-cold cola and ice cream – and go to the cash. After paying for the order, I ask the woman where I can fill up my two water bottles.
“I only sell water,” she says. “I don’t give it away. I’m in the business of selling, not giving away things.”
Wow, I think. I point at the things I just bought and say, “Well, I am buying.”
She seems thrown off balance by this and says offhandedly, “Oh, well, since the flooding, I don’t trust the water to be clean.”
“Ah, I see.”
At the next grocery store up the road, the proprietor says the water is fine and lets me fill up my bottles.
