MacCallum Spring House in Flags in the Dust (Location)

Bayard, Buddy and Richard capture a possum "just behind the spring house" (338). In the era before indoor plumbing, houses were often supplied with water from a nearby spring, and it was not uncommon (though it was a sign of wealth and possession) to erect a small outbuilding over the spring, to keep it from filling with leaves and branches or being used by animals. This building also often served as a primitive kind of refrigerator, a cool place to store perishables.