When Karl was in the first year of school, he took a trip to the zoo with his parents and brothers and sisters. He enjoyed seeing most of the animals very much. Only when a lion snarled and spat at him was he a little frightened.

Next evening Karl was walking down a dark hall in his home, when all at once there was a hissing sound right next to him. It sounded like one of those big cats at the zoo. Terrified, he ran to his father and screamed, "There's a lion in our hall!"

His father took him by the hand and turned the light on. There, standing tamely in the corner, was no lion but only a new refrigerator! It had been delivered while they were away, his father explained, and had been improperly installed. Every time it started up there was a hissing sound. Karl saw how groundless his fear had been, and went to bed relieved.

One day later on, Karl couldn't get up and go to school. He couldn't move his legs at all. His mother telephoned a Christian Science practitioner, and she soon came to see him. She read to him from the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy: "Your mirrored reflection is your own image or likeness. If you lift a weight, your reflection does this also. If you speak, the lips of this likeness move in accord with yours. Now compare man before the mirror to his divine Principle, God. Call the mirror divine Science, and call man the reflection. Then note how true, according to Christian Science, is the reflection to its original. As the reflection of yourself appears in the mirror, so you, being spiritual, are the reflection of God." ^{Science and Health, pp. 515, 516;}

Karl already knew this passage and had sometimes stood in front of the mirror in his bedroom to see how his reflection imitated each of the movements he made. If he jumped backward, so did his reflection. And nothing could stop his reflection from looking happy when he smiled. Now they spoke of how no one could hinder a reflection in its activity of imitating, and Karl understood very well that nothing could prevent him, either, as God's reflection, from reflecting God's strength, action, and perfection. He thought about that further when he was alone again, until he fell asleep; and when he woke up, he was well. He was able to stay up for the rest of the day.

The following day, however, he still couldn't go to school. He felt very sick. Again the practitioner helped him reduce the error to nothingness, the way Christ Jesus taught his disciples to do.

When he awakened the next day, he had a bad cold and a fever. Things went on that way for several more days. Every morning error wanted to scare him with something new.

Finally the practitioner told him a story about two boys who went into the woods. After a while one of them sat down in a little clearing and leaned against a tree, while his friend ran off to look for berries. All at once an ugly face peered between the bushes surrounding the clearing. The boy screamed and called to his friend. He didn't come, but the face disappeared. Soon another monster appeared from another corner, and this was repeated several times. The boy didn't dare to move at first, until all at once he laughed out loud and called: "You can't scare me anymore. I know it's you." Actually his friend had secretly taken some masks with him. But when his chum only laughed at them, the game didn't work any more and he stopped it.

Karl saw clearly that in the past few days he had repeatedly allowed himself to be frightened unnecessarily, like the boy in the woods. Each day error had literally put on a new mask. And when he had examined them more closely with the truth, he realized that each one was only a belief, just as unreal as the belief that there was a lion in the apartment.

Karl really had a good laugh! From now on no masks of error would be able to scare him. It would be foolish to allow himself to be scared when he knew that God is all-powerful and that there is no power besides Him. The practitioner then read the ninety-first Psalm out loud to him. Today he could understand verse 10 better than ever: "There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling." ^{Ps. 91:10;} Indeed, whoever "dwelleth in the secret place of the most High" ^{v. 1 .} is always safe.

The next morning Karl was completely well.

"We already knew that yesterday, didn't we!" Karl exclaimed to the practitioner over the telephone.

It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord,
and to sing praises unto thy name,
O most High.

Psalm 92:1