As Mrs. Stowe’s first book had been a reflection of her love for old New England, and her two greatest, considered purely from the artistic point of view, had also come from the same source, so the last novel that she wrote, “Poganuc People,” is again an echo from this music of her youth. The _Tina_ of “Oldtown Folks” is said to be modeled upon her own daughter, Georgiana May; if this is so, the _Dolly_ of “Poganuc People” must be Harriet herself. In fact, a copy of “Poganuc People” exists with Mrs. Stowe’s marginal notes, telling where it is “exact” in its delineation, “my own experience,” “my own childish experience,” “the whole chapter drawn from life,” etc. This book has a pathetic and joyous interest as the very tender memoranda of the child’s life recalled by that all-remembering mind in declining years. CHAPTER XXI A SERENE OLD AGE In 1863 Mrs. Stowe removed from Andover to Hartford, Connecticut, where, in a lovely wooded suburb on the bank of a river, she built a house that was her home until the end of her life. Up to the death of her husband in 1886 she spent the winters at Mandarin, Florida, called thither by the condition of her son Frederick, who, at the close of the war, came back to her in a state of broken health resulting from a wound in the head received at Gettysburg. In the end that dear son was a sacrifice, one of thousands that mothers were called upon to make for their country all over the land from farthest north to farthest south. The earlier years of this later period, while burdened with family cares and sorrows, were a time of great literary activity to Mrs. Stowe. In that time she lengthened the list of her books from ten to thirty. Among these works there were three novels of importance, “Pink and White Tyranny,” “My Wife and I,” and “We and Our Neighbors,” all studies in the conditions of her own time, especially in New York City. Of “My Wife and I” Mrs. Stowe said that she wrote it for the many dear, bright young girls whom she numbered among her choicest friends; if they liked the book, it was no matter what the critics said of it! Then there were many stories for children, “Little Pussy Willow,” “Betty’s Bright Idea,” “The Dog’s Mission,” and many more, all as good to-day as they were thirty years ago. In conjunction with her sister Catherine she published several books of household papers, wise thoughts on house economy, on the beautiful in the house, on home religion, etc. Several books were purely religious in their character; of these “Bible Heroines” is, strangely enough, not reprinted in her complete works.[15] A volume of poems among the number reminds us of Harriet’s passion for poetry in her childhood and of her young ambition to join the band of immortal poets, so carefully extinguished by her eldest sister. In spite of Catherine, however, Mrs. Stowe indulged her desire for poetic expression every now and then all through her life, as she