Eloise accepted and read it.Every word of the two notes came to the mind of the young girl as suggestions from another planet,so foreign were they to any instruction or advice that had ever fallen to her lot.
She gave a slight exclamation as she finished."Is your mother a saint?"she asked,looking up suddenly.
"No,"returned Jewel innocently."She's a Christian Scientist."Eloise suddenly put out her hand,and drawing Jewel to her,hid her forehead on the child's breast.
"I wish you were older,"she said.
Jewel put her little hands on the shining waves of hair she had admired from afar."I wish my mother was here,"she answered."Did you like those things mother said?""Oh yes;but they're from heaven,and I'm in the other place,"replied Eloise disconsolately.
"Then let's look in another pocket!"exclaimed Jewel."I'll look in my best dress.Perhaps she'd put the best one there."The girl lifted her head,and the child went eagerly to the closet,coming back with a folded paper."We'll read it together.You read it out loud,and I'll look over your shoulder."The rain slanted against the window in gusts as the two heads bent above the paper.Eloise read:--"Mother is thinking of you,little daughter,every day and every night,and the thing she hopes the most is,that you never let the day go by without studying the lesson.The words may be hard sometimes,but perhaps some one will read it with you,and if they do not,then you go on trying your best,and you will learn more and more all the time;for truth will shine into your thought and help you.Grandpa will give you plenty of bread and butter,but you must remember that Spirit,not matter,satisfieth.You would starve without the Bible and the text-book,and very soon the joy would go out of everything.Give my love to Anna Belle,and tell her not to go out to play any day until you have read the lesson.""Your mother speaks as if you learned Christian Science out of the Bible,"said Eloise.