fry an egg,” Mr. Judd added.

fry an egg,” Mr. Judd added. Tom Dugan of Herndon, who organized a letter-writing campaign to Dr. Buttery and highway commissioner Ray D. Pethtel urging that the spring be spared, said he is “disgusted” by VDOT’s action. “I saw this coming but I felt I had to try.” The outcome, he said, “leaves a feeling like you can’t fight city hall. Experiences like this reinforce that feeling. “It’s a real shame,” Mr. Dugan said. “A lot of people love that spring. It’s a real piece of history.” As the VDOT crew finished its work at the spring Monday morning and splashed water on the fresh cement to clean the stones, Sperryville residents Hill Atkins and James Swindler stopped to see what was going on. Mr. Swindler said he remembered his father and uncles telling of times during the drought of the 1930s when people living in Sperryville hauled barrels up the mountain to get drinking water from the spring. “It never stopped flowing. The Thornton River was just pools, but that spring never slowed down.” Mr. Atkins, his voice tinged with sadness, added, “It’s a damn shame. I’ve been drinking that water since I was knee-high to a duck, and I’m still here.” As the VDOT trucks pulled away, the spring still flowed as water seeped between cracks in the stone springbox near ground level, washing away the sand spilled there and running into the roadside gutter in a steady stream. Mr. Atkins and Mr. Swindler looked at the new stonework and shook their heads. “I hope whoever had this done starves to death for a drink of water,” Mr. Atkins said as he walked slowly back down the hill to his truck.

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