We have two from Iowa and Wisconsin who were actually
crowded from secular pursuits into the ministry by the wants of the
people about them. Revivals began, and the people came to them saying,
'We have no minister, and you must preach to us, for you know more
than we do.'"
In the spring of 1844 Professor Stowe visited the East to arouse an
interest in the struggling seminary and raise funds for its
maintenance. While he was there he received the following letter from
Mrs. Stowe:--
"I am already half sick with confinement to the house and overwork. If
I should sew every day for a month to come I should not be able to
accomplish a half of what is to be done, and should be only more unfit
for my other duties."
This struggle against ill-health and poverty was continued through
that year and well into the next, when, during her husband's absence
to attend a ministerial convention at Detroit, Mrs. Stowe writes to
him:--
_June_ 16, 1845.
"MY DEAR HUSBAND,--It is a dark, sloppy, rainy, muddy, disagreeable
day, and I have been working hard (for me) all day in the kitchen,
washing dishes, looking into closets, and seeing a great deal of that
dark side of domestic life which a housekeeper may who will
investigate too curiously into minutiae in warm, damp weather,
especially after a girl who keeps all clean on the _outside_ of
cup and platter, and is very apt to make good the rest of the text in
the _inside_ of things.
Pages:
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138