Page:The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy.djvu/61

Rh one stormy winter night. While the doctor was away in Franklin, attending to his practice, Mrs. Patterson fell into a state of depression which ended in hysterics. A neighbour was sent for, and Mrs. Patterson declared she was dying, and that her husband must be brought home at once. To her own family this situation would not have seemed the desperate affair it was to Mrs. Patterson's neighbour. Moved by the entreaties of the dying wife, he set out at night on the thirty-mile drive to Franklin, over roads that were almost impassable from heavy snowdrifts. His horses became exhausted and he stopped at Bristol only long enough to change them for a fresh pair. Arriving at Franklin the next morning he made haste to inform Dr. Patterson of his wife's dying condition.

To his astonishment the dentist looked up and remarked, "I think she will live until I finish this job at least," and went on with his work. When they reached North Groton late that day, they found Mrs. Patterson sitting in her chair, serene and cheerful, having apparently forgotten her indisposition of the night before.

Gradually the sympathy of her neighbours was withdrawn from Mrs. Patterson, and in North Groton, as in Tilton, she came to be harshly criticised. Many years afterward, upon the occasion of the dedication of the Christian Science Church in Concord, N. H., July 16, 1904, a North Groton correspondent, under the head, "Time Makes Changes," wrote in the Plymouth Record:

With the announcement of the dedication of the Christian Science Church at Concord, the gift of Mary Baker Glover Patterson Eddy, the thoughts of many of the older residents have turned back to the time when Mrs. Eddy, as the wife of Daniel Patterson, lived in this place. These