How special are the memories recounted by the adult Mary of her mother Abigail, including the story of the pine knot found in Mr. Gault's woods. Abigail's question: "Would you have God and mother thinking till tomorrow that you have broken His commandment [not to steal]?" must have hit the mark when Mary pleaded tiredness in not wanting to return it to the woods that very afternoon. See page 13, Mary Baker Eddy: the Years of Discovery, 2nd edition, by Robert Peel.
I also enjoyed Abigail's "moral instruction" such as "Forget the past, enjoy the present hope for the future", and "Count that day lost whose setting sun finds no good done" (ibid).
It seems that both Mark and Abigail Baker were readers, and Peel points out that the "village schoolhouse" in New England "produced ... self-reliance in character", "intellect [being] cultivated as assiduously as potatoes" (ibid, p. 10). The young Mary grew up in an atmosphere of wide learning and great love.
Julie Swannell
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