● ● ● by two acres more. A heavy mortgage on the property was held by Martha Pilsbury; but with two cows (later reduced to one), the sawmill, and his dental work, Patterson succeeded in eking out some sort of living for two or three years. Eventually the one cow was replaced by a horse—evidence that the dental trips had begun again.
To Mrs. Patterson the move was one more bitter disappointment. George was “wayward and headstrong,” in Sarah Turner’s words, and was not much liked in the village.4 Patterson not only took an aversion to the boy but was more than ever sure that it would upset the mother to have him with her. As a result, he did everything possible to keep the lad away.
George, now eleven years old, showed such a conspicuous lack of schooling and such a disinclination to learn that his presence may indeed have disturbed his mother almost as much as his absence grieved her. At a later date she wrote that she considered being deprived of his early education her severest calamity, then crossed out the words, perhaps remembering others more severe.5
The upshot of the affair is well described by Elmira (Myra) Smith Wilson, the blind girl who served the Pattersons as a maid for a year or two:
Mrs. Patterson came there [North Groton] with the Dr, to be near her child, and so that she could teach him, but this she was not permitted to do as the Dr did not like children and would not allow him to come to the house. The boy was not liked by the other children at school and the Cheneys did not make him go. My Brother was working for Mr Cheney and while there he and the boy slept together. My Brother did not like him because he was rough and would not mind anyone. Mrs. Patterson grieved and worried, because she could not see her child and told the Dr that she had given up her folks and had come off up there with him and that she must see her boy and teach him, ● ● ●
4 [Sarah C. Turner, recorded in Albert E. Miller to Mary Baker Eddy, 5 May 1907, IC168.29.049, p. 2, MBEL.]
↑5 Mary Baker Eddy, manuscript, n.d., A11244A, MBEL. Glover’s daughter, Mrs. Billings, stated after his death that as he grew up he wanted to go to school but Cheney insisted that he work on the farm instead. [Mary B. G. Billings to The Christian Science Board of Directors, 3 July 1932, Subject File, Mary Baker Eddy - Family - Glovers - Mary B. G. Billings - Correspondence with Christian Science Board of Directors, p. 2, MBEL.]
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