Christian Science came to our family during my early childhood, and through its protective power I was shielded from all but one of the so-called children's diseases. At the time my mother took up the study of Science, a mild case of chicken pox was quickly healed through the help of a practitioner. From that time, even through an epidemic in the high school I attended, my childhood and youth were completely free from contagious disease. If this was all that the truth had done for me, I should be forever indebted to it. However, there have been several other proofs of the power of Christian Science to keep us under the protection of God's ever-watchful and loving care.
On two occasions I was brought through Alaskan storms of near hurricane intensity without so much as a cold resulting. On another occasion a badly sprained or broken ankle was healed through absent treatment by a Christian Science practitioner. During my high school days in a Pacific Northwest city, I spent many holidays mountain climbing, snowshoeing, and hiking with a group of teachers and boys from the school I attended. On one of these trips I turned my ankle in a scuffle with the football coach. Having with me a Bible and my copy of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, together with a Christian Science Quarterly, I turned to these books for help.
It was soon apparent to me, however, that the situation was not being met. So, realizing that I would be required by the rules of the group to report the condition of my ankle and wanting to have Christian Science firmly in control of the situation first, I prevailed on a boy, who was not a Scientist, to walk the three miles from our camp to the railroad station and send a telegram to my mother, asking for help from a practitioner. I, of course, continued to apply the truth to the best of my understanding.
