Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.

-Bible (Old Testament)
Isaiah12:3.

Defend me, therefore, common sense, say I, From reveries so airy, from the toil Of dropping buckets into empty wells, And growing old in drawing nothing up!

-Cowper,William
  The Task, bk.3,'The Garden', l.187^90.

As for myself, I walk abroad o'nights And kill sick people groaning under walls: Sometimes I go about and poison wells.

-Marlowe, Christopher
c.1589  The Jew of Malta (published1633), act 2, sc.3.