Page:The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy.djvu/467



LIFE AT PLEASANT VIEW—MRS. EDDY PRODUCES MORE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE LITERATURE—FOSTER EDDY IS MADE PUBLISHER OF THE TEXT-BOOK—THE STORY OF HIS FALL FROM FAVOUR—RULE OF SERVICE

Mrs. Eddy retired to Concord, N. H., in the latter part of 1889, her coming there was little noticed by the townsfolk. Her name, which was well enough known in Boston, Chicago, and Denver, as yet meant almost nothing in the capital of her native state, though her birthplace was scarcely six miles from Concord. Mrs. Eddy lived quietly at 62 State Street for nearly three years. She kept no horses then; she occasionally went about the town on foot, but did not mingle with the townspeople. There was a general impression in the neighbourhood that she was a broken-down Boston spiritualist who had "lost her power." Because, when the chill autumn weather came on, she had her front piazza inclosed in heavy sail-cloth and took her exercise there, it was supposed that she was an invalid. Not until after the dedication of the Mother Church, in Boston, 1895, did Concord people begin to feel an interest in Mrs. Eddy and to speak of her as a public personage.

It was while Mrs. Eddy was living in State Street that she bought the property now known as Pleasant View, and had the modest farmhouse which stood there remodelled into the