any years afterwards, in looking back upon these
bitter experiences, she wrote: "I thank God there is one thing running
through all of them from the time I was thirteen years old, and that is
the intense unwavering sense of Christ's educating, guiding presence and
care."

It was in the midst of these dark tragedies that Mrs. Stowe wrote a hymn
entitled "The Secret."

When winds are raging o'er the upper ocean,
And billows wild contend with angry roar,
'Tis said, far down, beneath the wild commotion,
That peaceful stillness reigneth evermore.

Far, far beneath, the noise of tempests dieth,
And silver waves chime ever peacefully;
And no rude storm, how fierce soe'er it flieth,
Disturbs the Sabbath of that deeper sea.

So to the heart that knows Thy love, O Purest!
There is a temple sacred evermore,
And all the babble of life's angry voices
Dies in hushed stillness at its sacred door.

Far, far away, the roar of passion dieth,
And loving thoughts rise calm and peacefully;
And no rude storm, how fierce soe'er it flieth,
Disturbs that deeper rest, O Lord, in Thee!

O Rest of rests! O Peace serene, eternal!
Thou ever livest, and Thou changest never;
And in the secret of Thy presence dwelleth
Fulness of joy, forever and forever.

It was the writing of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" that brought world-wide fame to
this unusual mother. The family had moved from Cincinnati to Brunswick,
Maine, where Professor Stowe had accepted a position in the faculty of
Bowdoin College. There were six children now and the father's income was
meager. In order to help meet the family expenses, Mrs. Stowe began to
write articles for a magazine known as the "National Era." She labored
under difficulties. "If I sit by the open fire in the parlor," she wrote,
"my back freezes, if I sit in my bedroom and try to write my head and my
feet are cold.... I can earn four hundred dollars a year by writing, but
I don't want to feel that I must, and when weary with teaching the
children, and tending the baby, and buying provisions, and mending
dresses, and darning stockings, I sit down and write a piece for some
paper."

The passage of the Fugitive Slave Act aroused the deepest feeling among
Abolitionists in the North. While living in Cincinnati her family had
aided the so-called "underground railway," by which runaway slaves were
helped in their efforts to