Page:The Life of Mary Baker Eddy (Wilbur).djvu/213

Rh trivial which makes a prophet in his own land and in his own house unknown because the outward circumstances loom big and the inner life is unguessed. So it was with Jesus when in Nazareth. “Is not this the carpenter’s son?” they asked, and “are not his brothers and sisters here with us?” So “He did not many mighty works there.” In her sister Martha’s home Mary Baker did, however, perform a significant healing. Martha, who it will be remembered, married Luther Pillsbury of Concord, was now in Tilton with her daughter Ellen, then a young woman of twenty-one. This daughter lay critically ill of an abscess. Mary Baker went to the sick chamber and sat with her niece for a while. The girl lay supinely inert and helpless in bed; she is said to have been exceedingly ill and to have had perfect quiet ordered.

Shortly after her aunt’s visit to her sick chamber, they appeared together in the family living room. The young woman was dressed and expressed a desire to eat supper with the family. Every member of the household protested at once on seeing her. They were seriously alarmed. But Ellen, obeying her aunt, refused to return to her bed and suffered no ill effects. Ellen Pillsbury recovered completely, and within a few days returned to Taunton with her aunt Mary, a distance of a hundred miles. The story of this healing was told the author by Martha Rand Baker, widow of George Baker, who lived long in Tilton.

It is rather singular that such an incident as this should have had no convincing effect on Mary