"Why, of course. I am sure if you will take her to my home, Cousin
Alicia will teach her as she taught me. She is always so happy to teach
people about Christian Science. Shall I write and tell her you will take
Eloise to her?"
"Thank you, dear Carol, but I think, perhaps, before you write, I must
ask Dr. Burton. If he is willing, I will gladly take my little girl to
Miss Desmond."
Mrs. Burton did not stay much longer. On leaving, she tenderly kissed
Carol. "Dear boy, you have given me hope. You cannot think what it has
been to a mother’s heart to be so long hopeless," she said.
The little crippled Eloise was watching from her nursery window for her
mother’s return. Mrs. Burton went straight to her.
"Have you seen Carol, Mother?" she asked.
"Yes, darling, and I have had such a sweet talk with him. He has made
me so happy. I seem to see you running about like other children."
"Oh, Mother, wouldn’t that be lovely! And is he really well?"
"It seems so, dear. Mrs. Mandeville is keeping him quietly in his own
room to-day. But he seemed so well and happy. He wants me to take you
into Devonshire to stay with his cousin. He says she will teach us what
she has taught him--and then--Oh, Eloise, my darling, you, too, would be
well and strong, no longer a little crippled girl."
"What is it, Mother, that he has been taught?"
"It seems something so wonderful and beautiful, dear. He says that
dwelling in the consciousness of good is dwelling in our Father’s house,
but, like the prodigal son in the parable, we have wandered away into
that far country where all sorts of evils can befall us. My girlie, we
will try to find our way together into this happy understanding of good
which causes the fetters to fall. I will speak to Father to-night and
ask him to let me take you."
"Do--_do_, please, Mother."
Mrs. Burton waited that evening until it was past the hour for patients
to call at the surgery. Then she went to her husband’s consulting-room.
The doctor was sitting at his desk, an open letter before him. His pen
was in his hand, but he was not writing. The answer to the letter
seemed to require much thought. It was only partly written.
"Are you very busy, dear?" Mrs. Burton said, softly twining one arm
around his neck. She was almost nervous. It was a great request she was
about to proffer. She did not quite know how it would be received.
"Not particularly, love, if you want anything. What is it?"
"I want to tell you I had a beautiful talk with Carol this afternoon,
and he is so kind as to ask me to take Eloise to stay with his cousin at
his home in Devonshire, that she--that she might teach us what she has
taught him. You know, dear, we have done everything we can--there is no
other hope for her."
"And you think there may be hope in this--Christian Science?"
"I feel sure of it--since I have seen Carol."
The doctor smiled. The humor of the situation struck him. He pointed
to the open letter on his desk.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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