In a few seconds she slipped off my lap and went over and leaned against her mother and patted her arm. Helen started to scold, but I interrupted and said, “Don’t refuse her offer of love, dear; I am sure you will find it the best way to control her. And try not to raise your voice when you have to scold her a bit, it seems to shock her. I know, for I was always that way about anyone scolding at me, and still am.”

Helen answered, “It seems so wonderful when you do it, but I get so impatient at times. Then I read her numeroscope again, to see how it is working out, and it is plain how different she is in so many ways.”

Of course Beverly Anne is a normal child in most ways; she is very naughty at times and self willed and determined, and knows how to get around her parents. I sometimes feel that she knows she can get her own way more by not talking. But I do think she brought over with her a great fund of understanding and wisdom, and I know that I never had a “pal” of my own age with whom I could hold such sweet silent communion.

Feb. 3rd, 1936.

SINCE writing the above I went to call on Beverly. She was in the basement and her mother called her, saying, “Come, see who is here!” When she appeared her mother said, “Who is that?”

Beverly looked a bit puzzled, and I said, “Yes, who am I?” I said it very slowly, and as she started to walk toward me, I repeated, “Who am I?” She looked right in my eyes and said, “Dod. I am Dod.”

Her mother said, “I suppose I should be ashamed to say it, but I don’t know where she ever heard of God.”

I said to the child, “Why of course, Beverly, you are right—you are God. But mother and I meant, what is my name?” She is not quite two and talks very little, so I said to her mother, “Robinson is a big mouthful for such a little girl; I wonder what she had better call me?”

At that Beverly giggled and said, “You—Maudie.” No one in the city calls me Maude, but when Beverly was four or five months old, my niece from Chicago was visiting me and she called me Maudie as a term of endearment.