Matt and Jody lived in a house perched on the side of a hill beside a giant pepper tree with lots of long, thick branches. The boys had fun pretending a large tree house was built among the branches of the tree. Each branch was a different "room" with a special view of the world below.

To get to the tree house they climbed up boards that were nailed to the trunk of the tree. But to come down they could swing on a long rope tied to a large limb up in the tree. The rope would swing way out over the hill, above a high wall, and then back to the tree again. The pepper tree became a place for all the boys on the street to gather and play.

One Saturday the boys decided to make the tree house into a fort. Matt wanted to make a quick trip to the ground for supplies before the action started. As he grabbed the rope and swooped down from the tree, his hands slipped and he found himself tumbling down the hill, over the top of the wall, landing on his head.

For a minute all Matt could do was cry, and yell for his mom and dad. His head hurt and he was frightened. Dad came and carried him into the house, and they said aloud together "the scientific statement of being" from the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy. It begins: "There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all." ^{Science and Health, p. 468.}

When he was settled in his room, Matt and his mom talked about the fact that man is always the perfect image and likeness of God, that God loves him, and that therefore man cannot fall out of this love, out of this perfection. Mom reminded Matt of Mrs. Eddy's words: "Never born and never dying, it were impossible for man, under the government of God in eternal Science, to fall from his high estate." ^{Ibid., p. 258.}

As they talked, Matt became aware that his head was feeling better. He asked his mom, "Can you pray for me so I can go back out and be with my friends? We're playing a neat game."

"How would you pray about it?" Mom asked, and Matt said, "I want you to do the praying because I'm not sure how to do it."

"Matt, when someone in a mask comes to the door on Halloween night and tries to scare you, are you afraid?"

"No, of course not."

"Why not?"

"Because I know the mask isn't real. It's just a guy pretending to be someone else."

"Well, is the picture of a boy with a hurt head something real, or is it something like a mask?" "I guess it's like a mask. And the real child that God made couldn't even have a mask."

"Right. Now every time the mask says something hurts, remove it with the thought that man is perfect. Say to yourself, 'As God's child, man hasn't fallen from perfection, and I am that child.' Then you will be praying."

Matt decided he could do this, and went back out to play with his friends. Whenever he remembered the fall he said to himself, "Man hasn't fallen from perfection." He began to feel more peaceful, and loved. Pretty soon he wasn't bothered by the mask anymore. He forgot about his head hurting, and spent the rest of the afternoon playing in the tree house with Jody and their friends.

That night Matt told Mom and Dad that he had had a healing. His head felt fine, and best of all he had learned something about how to pray on his own. Mom said it made her think of the psalm that says, "Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace." ^{Ps. 37:37.}