I was enrolled in the Christian Science Sunday School at the age of seven, and I remember my early years as happily free from illness and medical care. When on rare occasions a few childhood ailments did appear, they were quickly healed through Christian Science. I learned to turn naturally to the Bible and the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, when there was need for healing.
An experience of protection from accident for which I shall always be grateful occurred when I was about seventeen. I was hitchhiking my way through South Dakota during the wheat harvest. In my pack I carried a Bible and Science and Health and would read them whenever I could because it helped to keep fresh my sense of God's presence, guidance, and protection as I traveled from job to job, working in the wheat fields and following the harvest from state to state.
One late afternoon as I walked along a gravel road, a huge farm truck loaded high with bales of hay stopped. The driver offered me a ride to the nearest town. There was no room for me in the cab, but he said I could ride if I wanted to climb up on top of the load. This was a welcome lift, and I perched up on top as we rolled along at about forty miles per hour.
