e truth"--

"Why, cousin Eloise!" The child's shocked eyes recalled the girl's
self-centred thoughts.

"I beg your pardon, dear. It was rude to say that. I'm not ill, Jewel.
I'm so well and strong that--I've sometimes wished I wasn't, but life
turned petty and disgusting to me. I resented everything. It is just as
wonderful and radiant a star of hope to read that there is a sure way
out of my tangle as if I had consumption and was promised a cure of
that. I don't yet exactly believe it, but I don't disbelieve it. All I
know is I want to read, read, read all the time. I was just thinking a
minute ago that if we had the books here it would be perfect. This is
the sort of place where it would be easiest to see that only the good
is the real, and that the unsubstantiality of everything evil can be
proved."

Jewel gave her head a little shake. "Just think of poor Dr. Ballard
being afraid to have you believe that."

"But who wouldn't be afraid to believe it, who wouldn't!" exclaimed the
girl vehemently.

"Why, I've always known it, cousin Eloise," returned the child simply.

"You dear baby. You haven't lived long. I don't want to climb into a
fool's paradise only to fall out with a dull thud."

Jewel looked at her, grasping as well as she could her meaning. "I know
I'm only a little girl; but if you should go to church with me," she
said, "you'd see a lot of grown-up people who know it's true. Then we
could go on Wednesday evenings and hear them tell what Christian Science
has done for them."

"Oh, I'm sure I shouldn't like that," responded Eloise quickly. "How can
they bear to tell!"

"They don't think it's right not to. There are lots of other people
besides you that are sorry and need to learn the truth."

The rebuke was so innocent and, withal, so direct, that honest Eloise
turned toward Jewel and made an impulsive grasp toward her, capturing
nothing but the edge of the child's dress, which she held firmly.

"You're right, Jewel. I'm a selfish, thin-skinned creature," she
declared.

The little girl shook her head. "You've got to stop thinking you are,
you know," she answered. "You have to know that the error Eloise isn't
you."

"That's mortal mind, I suppose," returned Eloise, smiling at the sound
of the phrase.

"I should think it was! Old thing! Always trying to cheat us!" said
Jewel. "All that you have to do is to remember every minute that God's
child must be manifested. He inherits every good and p