direction of her beloved teachers, she seemed to absorb knowledge with
every sense. She herself writes: "Much of the training and inspiration
of my early days consisted not in the things that I was supposed to be
studying, but in hearing, while seated unnoticed at my desk, the
conversation of Mr. Brace with the older classes. There, from hour to
hour, I listened with eager ears to historical criticisms and
discussions, or to recitations in such works as Paley's Moral
Philosophy, Blair's Rhetoric, Allison on Taste, all full of most
awakening suggestions to my thoughts.

"Mr. Brace exceeded all teachers I ever knew in the faculty of
teaching composition. The constant excitement in which he kept the
minds of his pupils, the wide and varied regions of thought into which
he led them, formed a preparation for composition, the main requisite
for which is to have something which one feels interested to say."

In her tenth year Harriet began what to her was the fascinating work
of writing compositions, and so rapidly did she progress that at the
school exhibition held when she was twelve years old, hers was one of
the two or three essays selected to be read aloud before the august
assembly of visitors attracted by the occasion.

Of this event Mrs. Stowe writes: "I remember well the scene at that
exhibition, to me so eventful. The hall was crowded with all the
literati of Litchfield. Before them all our compositions were read
aloud. When mine was read I noticed that father, who was sitting on
high by Mr. Brace, brightened and looked interested, and at the close
I heard him ask, 'Who wrote that composition?' 'Your daughter, sir,'
was the answer. It was the proudest moment of my life. There was no
mistaking father's face when he was pleased, and to have interested