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[197]

March 28, 1853, Professor Stowe sent the following communication to the Committee of Examination of the Theological Seminary at Andover:

As I shall not be present at the examinations this term, I think it proper to make to you a statement of the reasons of my absence. During the last winter I have not enjoyed my usual health. Mrs. Stowe also became sick and very much exhausted. At this time we had the offer of a voyage to Great Britain and back free of expense.

This offer, coming as it did from the friends of the cause of emancipation in the United Kingdom, was gladly accepted by Mr.Stowe and Mrs. Stowe, and they sailed immediately.

The preceding month Mrs. Stowe had received a letter from Mrs. Follen in London, asking for information with regard to herself, her family, and the circumstances of her writing Uncle Tom's Cabin.

In reply Mrs. Stowe sent the following very characteristic letter, which may be safely given at the risk of some repetition :--

Andover, February 16, 1853.
My dear Madam,--I hasten to reply to your letter, to me the more interesting that I have long been acquainted with you, and during all the nursery part of my life made daily use of your poems for children.

I used to think sometimes in those days that I would write to you, and tell you how much I was obliged to you for the pleasure which they gave us all.

So you want to know something about what sort of a woman I am! Well, if this is any object, you shall have statistics free of charge. To begin, then, I am a little bit of a woman,--somewhat more than forty,


Houghton, Mifflin and Company, The Riverside Press, Cambridge, 1889.

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