Page:The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy.djvu/51

Rh old ewe that won't own its lamb. She won't have the boy near her."

It must be said to the credit of the Baker family that they met Mrs. Glover's demands with a patience and faithfulness that seems remarkable from a family of such impatient and dominating character. They gave her the best room in each house and regulated their domestic affairs with a view to her comfort. When her nerves were in such a state of irritation that the slightest sound annoyed her, Mark Baker spread the road in front of his house with straw and tan bark to deaden the sound of passing waggons. The noise of children disturbed her, so the baby was sent to Mahala Sanborn or to Mrs. Tilton. At her sister's house they tiptoed about the rooms and placed covered bricks against every sill that the doors might close softly. At both houses she was rocked to sleep like a child in the arms of her father or her sister, and then gently carried to bed. Sometimes, at the Tiltons', this task fell to John Varney, the hired man, who like the members of her own family, rocked her to sleep and carried her to bed. To put an end to this practice, Mrs. Tilton ordered a large cradle made for Mrs. Glover. It was built with a balustrade and an extension seat at one end upon which Varney could sit, and by rocking himself as in a chair, also rock the cradle. Another symptom of her pathological condition was her intense desire for swinging. A large swing was hung from hooks in the ceiling of her room at Mrs. Tilton's, and here she was swung hours at a time by her young nephew, Albert Tilton. When Albert tired of the exercise he sometimes hired a substitute, so that "swinging Mrs. Glover" became a popular way of