She had tenderly laid him back upon the pillow. She could not get rid of the fear that it was not good for him to be using his back.
He was silent a few minutes, the old thoughtful expression on his face which she knew so well. Then he said:
"Auntie, the sun was shining this morning long before Nurse drew aside the curtains, and let the light into my room. Suppose while the curtain was drawn I had kept saying, 'Please, dear sun, do shine into my room, and send the darkness away.' It would have had no effect. It would have been foolish, wouldn't it? Well, Auntie, the light of Truth, like the sunlight is everywhere, but we can shut it out of our consciousness by a curtain of false beliefs. Cousin Alicia has not asked God to make me better. She has just known that God's child is always perfect. As Nurse drew aside the curtain to let in the sunlight, she has drawn aside the curtain of false beliefs that were around me, and then Truth came and healed me. Jesus said 'the Truth shall make you free.' It is just as true, Auntie, as if he had said, 'When light appears, darkness disappears.' Wherever Truth appears, error shall flee away, because it is not from God. It is the opposite of God's law. I love that beautiful verse of the hymn more than I have ever loved it, because I can say again:
'The healing of the seamless dress
Is by our beds of pain.'
Christ is Truth, and Truth is the Christ. I was asleep when he came to me. But just as Jesus spoke to the angry waves the Christ has commanded error, 'Peace, be still.' Oh, Auntie! cannot you believe I am quite well? 'I am the Father's perfect child. I have the gift from God, dominion over all.'"
She was longing to realize that it was as the boy said, and she had nothing to fear. Yet it was difficult.
Dr. Burton was out when the messenger from the Manor went for him. He had not returned from a night case to which he had been summoned. Mrs. Burton promised that he would go immediately on his return. Shortly after ten o'clock Dr. Burton arrived, expecting to find from the urgent message that had reached him a change for the worse in his patient. He was considerably taken aback as he entered the room to hear a ripple of laughter, and the boy with a radiant face, sitting upright in bed, who, the day before, had not been able to raise his head from the pillow.
"What does this mean?" Dr. Burton asked in a tone of voice in which surprise became almost consternation.
"I cannot tell you anything, Doctor, except that Carol slept all night and woke this morning feeling quite well and hungry. He has had a fairly substantial breakfast," Mrs. Mandeville said. The doctor then thoroughly examined him, felt his pulse, took his temperature, and when he looked on the places where the terrible bruises had been, and saw only a faint discoloration, he said:
"It is a miracle!"