Page:The Life of Mary Baker Eddy (Wilbur).djvu/161

Rh association, and members have said she was in this capacity gracious and dignified, displaying a courteous charm with executive force. It is likely that in this office, obscure and unimportant as it was, Mrs. Eddy learned her first lessons in organization and leadership.

Thus the Pattersons lived an outwardly calm and decorous existence, and whatever was transpiring underneath of social waywardness on the part of the husband no outward sign was allowed to manifest itself through the wife’s deportment. No breath of scandal was ever circulated as to their domestic harmony. Mrs. Patterson’s writings occupied the time she spent alone. Some of her poems written at this time were outbursts of patriotic feeling. The Civil War was drawing to a close, and the woman born with the blood of heroes in her veins found expression in verse for her deep love of country and her sympathy with emancipation. Her poems were printed side by side with those of John Greenleaf Whittier, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Phœbe Cary and are preserved in the files of the Lynn papers. She wrote of the bells that rang out the proclamation of emancipation, of the fighting heroes at the front and those fallen in battle, of “our beloved Lincoln,” who “laid his great willing heart on the altar of Justice.” Thus she showed an ardent interest at all times in the affairs of her country. While her verse would not take rank with either Whittier’s or Holmes’ in poetic rhythm or diction, it expressed the fervor of her heart for the cause of freedom. In other instances she revealed an exquisite sensibility