Carolina Lee

by Lilian Bell

  CHAPTER XVIII.

  A LETTER FROM KATE

  "NEW YORK.

  "DEAREST CAROLINA:--Great news! Three pieces of it. First, I haveturned Christian Scientist! Second, Rosemary Goddard is married to theHonourable Lionel Spencer! Third, daddy is so tickled over all that youhave done, as you may have suspected from his letters lately, that he isgoing down. He will take the car, and Noel and Mrs. Goddard, mother,and I are coming, too! Don't bother about accommodations. We willswitch the car to a siding and live in it. We may all have to go toCharleston and Jacksonville, so that you and Peachie and a handy man ortwo had better get ready for a rip-roaring old time, for we are going tomake Rome howl. Noel wants to go to Ormond for the automobile races.He has entered his machine. I named it for him,--'The WhiteMoth,'--don't you think that's a dandy name?

  "Now to go back to the really important thing. I've wanted to be aScientist ever since I found out that it wasn't a drag-net to catch allthe cranks in the world, as I at first supposed. I found that out intwo ways. One, by knowing a lot of you who were not in the leastcranks. The other, by seeing what a lot of cranks there are left! Yetall the time I was hating myself and struggling against the compellinginfluence. Did you ever drag a cat across the carpet by the tail?Well, that is just about the easy, gliding gait I used to reachChristian Science!

  "Still, you'll never guess who influenced me most. Not you nor thatheavenly Mrs. Goddard nor the wonderful cures I've seen. Nuh! Guessagain. Old Noel! Yes, sir. Old skeptical Noel! Brought up for aCatholic, too. Wouldn't that freeze you? Well, think si to myself,think si, 'if old Noel can see good in it, and he's the best all-roundsport, man of the world, and gentleman I know, it's time little Katiegot aboard.' So I just climbed on the raft without saying a word toanybody, expecting everybody to raise Cain, but, to my astonishment,daddy was as pleased as Punch, and he and mother go to church with meevery Sunday. What do you say to that?

  "At the ball the Goddards gave for Rosemary just before she sailed, Iwas doing a two-step with Noel, and I saw a dandy girl, whose gownsimply reeked of Paris, it was so delicious. She was dancing with acorking looking man, and, as we stopped near them for me to get a betterlook at her clothes, I heard her say, 'Are you going to communion at theMother Church?' and he said, 'I never miss it. It is the treat of mywhole year!' I looked at Noel and he looked at me.

  "'Noel,' I said, 'Did I hear aright? They weren't betting on ahorse-race in cipher, were they?' 'No,' sez he, giggling, 'they werenot. They are Christian Scientists, and they are now talking about anincorporeal God.' 'In a ballroom,' murmurs I to myself. 'Noel,' Isaid, in a weak voice, 'Take me out and lay me softly under a pump andbring me to. I am too young to go dotty without any warning.' But,instead of that, we joined them and Noel introduced us to each other,and we finished the two-step talking about how hard it was to changefrom our old idea of a God who was so much like a man that we had toflag Him and shout out our prayers to be sure to get His attention. Iused to feel as if I were on the floor of a convention, trying to catchthe Speaker's eye.

  "But I want to ask you two things that I can't quite get up my nerve toask Mrs. Goddard. What did you do about praying while changing youridea of a personal, corporeal God to one of spirit? Why, Carolina, I'velost the combination! I feel as though I were praying through amegaphone out of an open window. My prayers don't seem to strikeagainst anything. Will I get over this feeling in time? It is onlyfair to state, however, that even this queer hit-or-miss method bringsanswers which my most frantic screams for help and my most humble anddependent clinging to the robe of my personal God never did. So you canjust bet that I'm going to stick to the new method, whether I everunderstand it or not, because it does deliver the goods. Am I right orwrong? I want to know.

  "Now, I did tackle Mrs. Goddard on this point. I feel a perfect wretchto mention it, but the fact is, I simply cannot endure the name of Mrs.Eddy! Every time they mention 'Science and Health' in church, they say,'By Mary Baker G. Eddy.' Every time they give out a hymn that shewrote, they say, 'By Mary Baker G. Eddy.' And every time they do it, myblood boils and my face burns and I grab my hymn-book until--well, Isplit a pair of gloves nearly every Sunday!

  "The conceit of that woman! Suppose she has given the world a newreligion,--why not let us show our gratitude spontaneously. Why needshe say such conceited, sacrilegious things in her book? She throws hotair at herself indirectly in every chapter. It reminds me of a page inRoosevelt's 'Alone in Cubia.' I counted sixty-three I's on one page inthat book, until I felt like the little boy who said to his father,after an evening of war experiences, 'Papa, couldn't you get any one tohelp you put down the rebellion?'

  "I don't believe, unless my feeling changes, that I shall ever join thechurch while its by-laws remain as they are. I will work for the cause,and be diligent and faithful and studious, but I disapprove of a churchbeing such a close corporation and for one finite, human being topossess such power as Mrs. Eddy holds, and holds with such pertinacityand deliberate love of power.

  "When I said some of this to Mrs. Goddard, she said that she neverchemicalized over Mrs. Eddy the way great numbers did, but she said youhad a claim at one time, and I want to know if you are over it. I feellike a brute to have to admit it even to you, for of course I amgrateful and appreciative and all that. But if you call what I feel'chemicalizing,' I can only say that I can hear myself sizzling like abottle of Apollinaris whenever I come across the name of Eddy, andrealize how she holds the power of a female Pope.

  "I told Noel about it, but he doesn't feel it at all. Never did. Buthe understands how intensely I suffer from it, and he said if I didn'tmind my eye, I'd blow off a tire right in church. And once, when hetook me and saw me getting red in the face, he said, 'Now sit tight, oldgirl!' and I nearly laughed aloud.

  "Now let me tell you my first demonstration. I am so happy over it I amgoing to do something to celebrate it, and that's another thing I wantto consult you about.

  "Yesterday Noel and I were out in the White Moth, and every time I knowI am going out in the thing I read in 'Science and Health' aboutaccidents, and declare the truth, so that my mind will be filled with apreventive. It comforts me a great deal and is the only thing thatenables me to enjoy an automobile ride in New York, for, with the dangerof blowing up and other people's bad driving and frightened horses andthe absolute recklessness of pedestrians, you take, if not your life, atleast your enjoyment of life, in your hand whenever you get into amachine.

  "Noel is the most careful chauffeur I ever saw, and we were justtrundling along out in the Bronx, when, without a word of warning, alittle bit of a boy jumped from a crowd of children and stumbled rightin front of us. I saw him fall, and to my dying day I never shallforget the sight of his little white, upturned face as he disappearedunder the machine. We ran right squarely over him!

  "I stood up and screamed out: 'You said accidents could not happen! Youpromised! You promised! We have not hurt that baby! He is alive! He isnot hurt! He is not even run over!' And by that time we had bothjumped down and run back, and a big crowd was gathering. Talk abouttreating audibly! I was screeching at the top of my voice. Yet stillthere lay the child apparently dead. I picked him up in my arms and satdown in the mud with him, still, as Noel declares, talking aloud. Oh,Carolina, I never shall forget the sight of his little hands! So dirty,but so _little_! And his little limp body,--I feel as if I had it in mylap still. The crowd kept getting bigger, and some policemen came, andsuddenly, with a scream I never can forget even in my dreams, thechild's mother rushed up. She raised her fist to strike me in the face,and I thought I was done for, when suddenly the child's eyes opened, andsomething made me say: 'Here is your baby, little woman. He is not hurtat all!' She fairly snatched him from me and began to feel him allover, but she could find no broken bones. She was crying and laughingand kissing him, and I still kept telling her that he was unhurt. Justthen the poli
ce got through with Noel, and he insisted on putting motherand child and a policeman in the tonneau and taking them to the nearesthospital to have the child examined. We did so, and, if you willbelieve it, there wasn't a scratch on him. He either fainted from frightor we stunned him, the doctor said.

  "Two of the surgeons came out and examined the machine, and they foundthat there is only a foot of space between the lowest part of the carand the ground.

  "'It is the most miraculous escape I ever saw,' said one of them, 'torun over a five-year-old boy and not even scratch him. To make thestory quite complete you ought to claim to be Christian Scientists.That is the sort of game they always play on a credulous public.'

  "'We are both Christian Scientists,' said Noel, in his most politemanner, 'and I am deeply impressed with your involuntary tribute to itsefficacy in case of accident.'

  "Between you and me, I don't believe that doctor got his mouth togetheragain without help.

  "Well, we had the greatest time when we got back. First, we took everychild on the scene--and I believe there must have been a hundred--to anice-cream saloon and treated them. And while they were waiting theirturns, Noel filled the White Moth with them and gave them a ride. Inever had so much fun in my life. I went home with the mother, with aquart of ice-cream in each hand, and got her to tell me the story of herlife. Poor soul! She has nine children, but she loves each one as if itwere her all. Noel and I are both going to do something for that child.His name is Dewey Dolan.

  "When it was all over, and we were sneaking along back streets to gethome without being seen, for we were both sights, and the Moth will haveto be done over, I began to think of the way I had acted, and I havemade Noel promise never to take me out again unless I have my Amityvilletag on, so that, if I go crazy out loud again, they will know where Ihave escaped from.

  "But Noel, dear old thing, confessed that he was declaring the truth noless, only in a quieter way, and we both firmly believe that our littleknowledge of Science and our understanding, incomplete though it is, arewhat turned that calamity into a blessing, for a blessing I amdetermined to crown it.

  "What do you think of my idea? You know how I have always been carriedaway over children,--how their sufferings and deaths have almost turnedme into an infidel,--how the carelessness of parents and nurses hasalmost driven me insane,--well, if they can be protected by ChristianScience thought and healed by mind, why not hasten the day byestablishing a Christian Science kindergarten, and, if it succeeds, by aseries of them? There must be plenty of kindergartners among Scientistswho would welcome a combination of their work, and in the crowdedtenement districts it would be a boon. But, oh, how carefully we mustgo, for the poor will only allow themselves to be helped in their ownblind way. Tell me if you think there is any hope for the philanthropicend of it. I am going to open one for the children of ready-madeScientists in my own house,--you know I studied kindergartning, and Ihave ten already promised. I shall have no trouble about assistants formy Fifth Avenue school. But the other place is the one my heart is in.Tell me what you think of that.

  "Rosemary is coming back here to live. Her husband is a ChristianScientist, and has gone into business in New York, so I know she willhelp me, but, oh, Carolina, you will never know how I miss you! NewYork is not the same place since you left it. You have such a way ofdominating every spot you are in by your own personality. Does this hotair sound natural from Kate Howard?

  "I am crazy--fairly daffy--over your success in the turpentine, anddaddy goes around swelling out his chest and strutting like a turkeygobbler. Why, Carolina, do you realize that you will not only makeyourself rich and anybody you choose to let into the game, but that youwill be opening up by force, so to speak, with your EducationalTurpentine Corner, an industry which will revolutionize the entireturpentine pine country? It is a big project, my dear, to have emanatedfrom the brain of a woman. But, oh, won't the papers fairly eat youraw!

  "I will attend to all the commissions you sent and bring the stuff downin the car. A good many of us want newer and finer editions of 'Scienceand Health,' and, if you utterly refuse to make presents of them for thegood of the cause, we will sell our old books at whatever you think yourfriends can afford to pay. I agree with you that it is better to makethem pay something for them.

  "Rawlins, our butler, and two of the footmen go regularly to theChristian Science church, and Rawlins has been healed of intemperancethrough Mrs. Goddard's butler. Perkins says he owes his conversion tothe day Gladys Yancey walked across the floor for Noel's doll. So yousee we all had a hand in the work you started, and a little leaven isleavening the whole lump.

  "Oh, Carolina, you know how discontented and fractious I used to be?Well, it is all gone,--all the fear, the dread of the unknown, theunhappiness, and the temper, and I am happy for the first time in mylife!

  "But now good-bye, my dearest friend. I am bringing some dandy gladrags with which to astonish the natives. Tell Peachie that I go toevery sale I hear of, and that I am bringing her and Flower some of thedearest little inexpensive remnants they ever saw. Bless those girls!It sorta makes my old heart ache to think they haven't the clothes theyneed to set off their good looks.

  "Again good-bye. Best love to Cousin Lois and yourself from all of us.And I am as ever your slave. KATE."