Harriet attended a school for young women kept by a Miss Sarah Pierce, who is described as a woman of "more than ordinary talent, sprightly in conversation, social, and full of benevolent activity." In process of time the school was enlarged, and her nephew, Mr. John Brace, became her assistant. Of him Mrs. Stowe writes:

   "Mr. Brace exceeded all the instructors that I ever knew in the faculty of teaching the art of English 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 teaching composition, the main requisite for which, whatever people may think, is to have something that one feels interested to say.

   "His manner was to divide his school of about one hundred pupils into divisions of about three or four, one of which was to write every week. At the same time, he inspired an ambition to

   "I remember I could have been but nine years old, and my handwriting hardly formed, when the enthusiasm he inspired led me -- greatly to his amusement, I believe -- to volunteer to write every week. The first week the subject of the composition chosen by the class was 'The Difference Between the Natural and the Moral Sublime.'

   "One may smile at this for a child of nine years of age; but it is the best account I can give of his manner of teaching to say that the discussion that he had held in the class not only made me understand the subject as thoroughly as I do now, but so excited me that I felt sure that I had something to say about it.