"How I love you!" she cried, when she was left alone with
Katherine, while Sadie was out of the room for a few moments, and
supplementing her statement with another vigorous hug. "And you
look dearer than ever, if that could be possible; and what a fine
time you've all been having down there by the sea! Dr. Stanley has
told me all about it, and"--with a grimace--"I guess you've been
busy, too, doctoring some of the materia medica out of him--eh?"
"What do you mean?" Katherine inquired, but flushing under the
fire of the girl's mischievous eyes.
"Oh! he doesn't make any bones of it; he told me all about
Dorothy--how sick she was, and what your mother did for her,
though he said, of course, it must not be talked here. I suppose
he made an exception of me, because he knows how I love the
Seabrooks and you, and then I can see for myself how flip he is
with the 'new tongue.'"
"Jennie!" exclaimed Katherine, in a shocked tone. Then she added:
"What do you know about the 'new tongue'?"
"I'm always saying the wrong thing," said the girl, in a repentant
voice; "but, truly, I didn't mean to be irreverent--I only wanted
you to know how pat the doctor reels off the scientific phrases;
and"--assuming an important air--"I guess I know that Christian
Science is the 'new tongue' spoken of in the Bible. I've been to
the service all summer; auntie went with me, too, and thought it
was beautiful"--this with a sudden break in her voice--"and I've
got the book," she resumed. "I bought it with my pin-money. One of
the Scientists was going to get a revised pocket edition, and said
she'd let me have her old one for half price. She said the Science
is all in it, and so I thought it would do until I could afford to
buy a new one."
Katherine's eyes grew moist as she listened to this, and she told
herself that the dear child should also have a new revised pocket
edition when Christmas came.
Looking back over the months that had elapsed since she first came
to Hilton, she was almost overwhelmed, in view of the changed
thought that had crept into the school. She had sown but the
tiniest seed of Truth when she had told Prof. Seabrook that
"Christian Science was a religion of Love and she would simply try
to live it"; but its rootlets had taken firm hold beneath the
surface of an unpromising soil; its germ had shot upwards and
flourished, in spite of an adverse atmosphere, spreading abroad
its branches with bud and blossom and fruitage, until now a goodly
harvest was being gathered in. There were Miss Reynolds, Mrs.
Seabrook and Dorothy, Jennie and Dr. Stanley, all ready to avow
themselves as adherents of Truth, with Sadie, Prof. Seabrook and--
she was beginning to hope--Ned Willard looking towards the Light;
and her heart was flooded with a great joy.
"What are you thinking about, Miss Minturn?" Jennie ventured to
inquire when she had borne the silence as long as she could.
Katharine came to herself with a sudden start.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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