le cot of the
negro, the funny pranks and songs of the slaves, and the pathos that
touched their lives, all appealed to her so strongly that, years
afterward, she was able to reproduce with utmost faithfulness each
picturesque detail of plantation life.

In her twenty-fifth year Harriet was married to Professor Stowe, of
Lane Seminary. She had for some time been a contributor to various
periodicals, and continued her literary work after her marriage,
producing only short sketches for various papers, an elementary
geography, and a collection of sketches in book form under the title,
_The Mayflower_. These efforts had been well received by publishers,
and friends prophesied a satisfactory career, but it was many years
afterward before the author gave herself to the literary life with the
earnestness and devotion which so characterized her nature.

Some of her experiences in this Western home, where living was so
primitive, were very funny, and some were very trying; but through
them all Mrs. Stowe kept a clear head and brave heart. Sometimes she
would be left without warning with the entire care of her house and
children; often her literary work was done at the sick-bed of a child;
and more than once a promised story was written in the intervals of
baking, cooking, and the superintendence of other household matters;
one of her stories at this time was finished at the kitchen table,
while every other sentence was addressed to the ignorant maid, who
stood stupidly awaiting instructions about the making of brown bread.

After seventeen years' experience in the Western colleges, Professor
Stowe accepted a professorship at Bowdoin, and the family removed
to Brunswick, Me. Here her stories and sketches, some humorous, some
pathetic, still continued to add to the household's income, and many a
comfort that would have been otherwise unknown was purchased with the
money thus obtained.

Mrs. Stowe's first important book took the form of an appeal for the
freedom of the slaves of the South. One day, while attending communion
service in the college chapel, she saw, as in a mental picture, the
death-scene of Uncle Tom, afterward described in her celebrated
book. Returning home, she wrote out the first draft of that immortal
chapter, and calling her children around her read it to them. The two
eldest wept at the sad story, which from this beginning grew into the
book which made its author famous over the civilized world. In _Uncle