Page:The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy.djvu/148

114 urging Mr. Crafts to divorce his wife was, that Mrs. Crafts stood in the way of the success of Mr. Crafts and Mrs. Patterson in the healing business. Mrs. Crafts, my sister, was gentle, kind, and patient, and in no way merited Mrs. Patterson's dislike of her. Mrs. Crafts waited upon Mrs. Patterson, did the housework and marketing, and in every way sought to advance the interests of her husband, Hiram S. Crafts. When Mrs. Crafts discovered that Mrs. Patterson was attempting to influence Mr. Crafts to apply for a divorce, she, my sister, Mary Crafts, prepared to pack up her possessions and to leave her husband's house. The result of this was that Mr. Crafts would not consent to lose his wife, and as Mrs. Crafts would not remain unless Mrs. Patterson went away, Mrs. Patterson was obliged to leave the home of Mr. and Mrs. Crafts. This was while they were residing in Taunton, Mass. After Mrs. Patterson's departure, Mr. and Mrs. Crafts returned to East Stoughton to live, and Hiram S. Crafts no longer practised the healing system taught by Mrs. Patterson.

I make this statement of my own free will, solely in the interest of justice.

, February 7, 1907.&emsp; Then personally appeared the above named Ira Holmes and acknowledged the foregoing instrument by him subscribed, to be his free act and deed, before me.

Many years afterward, when the Crafts were living in Hebron, N. H., and Mrs. Eddy had retired to Concord, N. H., she sent for Mr. Crafts and paid his expenses to Pleasant View to deliver into her hands his copy of the manuscript which she had used in teaching him,—probably a copy of the Quimby manuscript,—which he did.

After leaving the Crafts, Mrs. Patterson seems to have gone to Amesbury to the home of Captain and Mrs. Nathaniel Webster. Concerning Mrs. Webster and Mrs. Patterson's stay at her house, Mrs. Mary Ellis Bartlett, a granddaughter of Mrs. Webster, makes the following affidavit: