● ● ● and sometimes a school friend of Charles’s. The boys would romp in her room sometimes rather boisterously, but she never seemed to mind it.121
Charles Wentworth, who remembered her as cheerful and sprightly, wrote that “her sojourn with us was one of the brightest spots in my life.” He added that she bought them a backgammon board and taught them to play backgammon; and learning that he loved stories, she subscribed to two fiction magazines, Saturday Night and Chimney Corner, “so we had all the reading we wanted.”122 The Wentworths were musical, and Mrs. Glover joined in their singing, her two favorite songs being “Speed Away” and “Star of the Twilight.” And she entered heartily into the youngsters’ games of checkers and euchre.
But her time with them was not all lighthearted relaxation. In the autograph album of one of the Wentworths’ young friends she wrote, “Youth is a sculptor that chisels the model of manhood.”123 She took youth seriously. Celia clung to her for help, and Lucy looked up to her as a model.124 Charles’s school chum, William Scott, in 1907 recalled:
I was sixteen years old when Mrs. Eddy lived in Stoughton, and I remember her very well. I recall that as often as two or three nights out of every week for over two years, I used to visit Mrs. Eddy with other young people of the town. Mrs. Eddy was at that time living with Alanson Wentworth. We were in the habit of visiting her to listen to her talks, for even then she was regarded by those who knew her as a wonderful woman. Some of the most pleasant recollections of my young days center in that little room at the Wentworth’s.125
121 Wilbur, Life of Mary Baker Eddy, p. 177.
122 Charles O. Wentworth, 27 March 1909, Subject File, Wentworth Family of Stoughton, Massachusetts, MBEL; Charles O. Wentworth, recorded in Alfred Farlow, “Facts and Incidents Relating to Mrs. Eddy,” c. 1909, Subject File, Alfred Farlow - Manuscript - Facts and Incidents Relating to Mrs. Eddy (2 of 2), p. 100, MBEL.
123 Mary Baker Glover, from album of Frank Porter, 10 January 1869, L13308, MBEL.
124 Although Celia’s health improved during Mrs. Glover’s stay, she had a relapse after her departure and passed away in 1871.
125 “Statement made by William Scott,” recorded in Alfred Farlow, “Facts and Incidents Relating to Mrs. Eddy,” c. 1909, Subject File, Alfred Farlow - Manuscript - Facts and Incidents Relating to Mrs. Eddy (2 of 2), p. 83, MBEL.