Page:The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy.djvu/71

Rh to him to help her, and setting forth her truly pathetic situation. She had been better, the letter said, but the shock of hearing that her husband had "been captured by the Southrons" and again prostrated her. She had, she wrote, "full confidence" in Dr. Quimby's "philosophy, as explained in your circular," and she begged him to come to Rumney. She had been ill for six years, she said, and "only you can save me." Hard as the journey to Portland would be, she thought she was sufficiently "excitable," even in her feeble condition, to undertake it.

Although Quimby could not go to Rumney as she requested, Mrs. Patterson clung to the idea of seeing him. After she had returned to her sister's home in Tilton, she talked of Quimby constantly, and begged Mrs. Tilton to send her to Portland for treatment. But Mrs. Tilton would not consent, nor provide money for the trip, as she considered Dr. Quimby a quack and thought the reports of his cures were greatly exaggerated. Instead, she sent Mrs. Patterson to a water cure—Dr. Vail's Hydropathic Institute at Hill, N. H. At the Hill institution Dr. Quimby was just then a topic of eager interest among the patients, and Mrs. Patterson finally resolved to reach Portland. She wrote again to Dr. Quimby from Hill, telling him that although she had been at Dr. Vail's cure for several months, she had not been benefited and would die unless he, Quimby, could help her. "I can sit up but a few minutes at a time," she wrote. "Do you think I can reach you without sinking from the effects of the journey?"

Mrs. Patterson knew that it was useless to appeal again to