although it was high on the hill , there was a spring higher still and they piped the clear spring water down to a cistern by he cabin , as they had taken to calling it , and folks brought pitchers and tubs and quilts and a hand-hewn bed with a feather mattress , and every day someone came up the hill with food for mary and then , when he came back , for john , who still slept in his wagon , away from mary so everyone could see that he didnt touch her that way .