XI. THE FOUNDERS OF A SCHOOL 146 XII. THE SEMI-COLONS 158 XIII. MRS. STOWE THE HOME-MAKER 171 XIV. UNCONSCIOUS PREPARATION FOR A WORK 188 XV. THE GREAT INSPIRATION 204 XVI. “UNCLE TOM’S CABIN” AND ITS INFLUENCE 215 XVII. WANDERING IN FOREIGN LANDS 223 XVIII. A UNIQUE JUBILEE 243 XIX. A VISIT TO ABRAHAM LINCOLN 258 XX. WRITING STORIES OF OLD NEW ENGLAND LIFE 274 XXI. A SERENE OLD AGE 294 Harriet Beecher Stowe CHAPTER I THE EARLY HOME OF HARRIET BEECHER STOWE In a little saucer-like valley of the lower Berkshires, where the hills stand about in a wide circle, lies that most beautiful of Connecticut villages, Litchfield. Here Harriet Beecher Stowe was born. There was not a day when she and her brothers and sisters did not run to the window to see that blue rim of hills, and even when they were grown into women and men they did not forget the charm of their early home in the mountains. From the door of the house where they lived there was an extended view. Here Harriet often stood and looked over to the distant horizon, where Mt. Tom reared its round, blue head against the sky, and the Great and Little Ponds gleamed out amid a steel-blue expanse of distant pine groves. Turning to the west, she saw a rounded height called Prospect Hill, and many a pensive, wondering hour she sat on the stone threshold of that doorway, watching the splendor of the sunsets that burned themselves out beyond that hill. Harriet often said that her home was at the precise point of the country where the hills were most inspiring and vivacious, reminding one of the Psalm, “The little hills rejoice on every side.” Mountains are grand, she thought, and sometimes even dreary; but these half-grown hills uplift one like the waves of the sea.