Page:The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy.djvu/213

Rh but Mrs. Eddy had pinned her faith to a famous clairvoyant called "Sleeping Lucy," who lived up the valley at Cavendish. "Sleeping Lucy," whose real name was Mrs. Lucy Cook, possessed what she called "a gift of nature," by means of which she passed into a sleep or trance and was able, when in this sleeping state, to diagnose cases of sickness and to prescribe remedies for them. Mrs. Eddy's faith in "Sleeping Lucy" was profound, and whenever any of her family were ill she bundled them up and took them to Cavendish to see the clairvoyant. When Spiritualism was introduced, it appealed at once to Mrs. Eddy, and she and her son Gilbert became ardent believers, attending the Spiritualist meetings and'séances for miles around. When Gilbert left home, about 1860, he went to Springfield, Vt., to run a "spinning jack" in a woollen mill, and later when the woollen mill burned, he found employment in a baby-carriage factory in the same village. Altogether he was in Springfield until late in the 'sixties, and after spending some time again in Londonderry, he drifted to East Boston and became agent for a sewing machine. In spite of the shiftlessness of his bringing up, Gilbert developed a strain of thrift and economy. While in Springfield he had worked regularly and hoarded his savings. He lived by himself in meagre quarters and did his own housework, including his washing, and he made his own trousers. His sister-in-law, Mrs. Washington Eddy of New Haven, Conn., says, that when he visited his brother, he always helped her with the housework, especially with the ironing. She says that "he could do up a shirt as well as any