My old friend Ivan Glick and I were in the back reaches of the Conestoga Valley, deep in the Welsh Mountains that straddle the border of Chester and Lancaster counties, when we came upon a remarkable 1740s stone cabin. The setting is still quite vivid in my mind: early April, new grass in the fields, a hint of green in the surrounding woods, cows in the distance wearing bells, and near the foundation of the old house, a wonderful cold brook overgrown with the crispest water
