Just prior to Thanksgiving Day the writer's husband with two friends went on a short cruise to some nearby islands in his thirty-foot cabin cruiser. Although the writer had been invited to go along, her desire to attend the Thanksgiving Day service in a Church of Christ, Scientist, was greater than her desire to go on the pleasure cruise; so she had declined the invitation. Three days after their departure the writer's husband telephoned home to give his exact sailing time from the islands and approximate arrival time at the harbor where the boat was berthed, which he thought would be about one o'clock on Thanksgiving Day.
After church the writer made preparations for their Thanksgiving dinner and waited for her husband to arrive. When evening came and the party had failed to arrive she became disturbed, particularly so because there was a ship-to-shore radio telephone aboard which she knew her husband would have used if he were going to be late. Since he had not done so, she feared that something had gone wrong with this means of communication. And so she worked most of the night for their safety.
The following morning she was awakened early by the blowing of the foghorns in the nearby harbor. To her dismay she saw that the fog had rolled in from the ocean and had blanketed the entire bay and area where she lived. Having been out on the ocean in dense fog herself, she knew how frightening it could be. She had seen her husband's poise and intelligence in trying situations, but she did not know what the reaction of his guests would be. Relatives of these guests had already begun to call her, and their anxiety and fear were intense. She tried to study, but as the foghorns continued to blow she felt a sense of fear and dread almost as heavy and depressing as the fog outside envelop her. Since undivided attention to the Lesson-Sermon in the Christian Science Quarterly seemed impossible, she closed her books and vigorously denied aloud the existence of evil. She knew that fear and panic claim to cause confusion; so she prayed fervently for that quietness and calmness which would enable her to remain unafraid herself and to be poised, alert, intelligent, and capable of imparting the truth to others.
