 for the Republican, mostly humorous, followed in late 1863 and early 1864, during which time she may also have been writing for the Unitarian periodical Christian Register. In addition to writing and working at the bank, Mary was active in local affairs, especially during the Civil War, when the town endeavored to make the soldiers of the 52nd Regiment stationed nearby comfortable and, after their departure, to provide them with additional aid via the local Sanitary Commission.  Ultimately, the combination of war work and Thaddeus's death may have limited her writing, for no publications have been located for 1865 or 1866.
For a brief period, Mary may have concentrated on writing for religious markets. Her next identified publication did not appear until 1867 -- an eight-page tract, published by the American Unitarian Society. Titled How To Be Happy: A Lay Sermon, it remained in print for over forty years (and, as recently as 2008, was used as the basis for a Universalist service).  She also may have begun writing for children during these years, for she had at least two short stories and a minor piece published in a juvenile periodical, the Sunday-School Gazette, in 1868.
By 1869, Mary had progressed from writing for local newspapers and Sunday-School periodicals to national magazines. Like her Republican pieces, these were primarily social commentary mixed with humor, not children's stories. "Pleasures of Poverty" appeared in Lippincott's in October 1869; a short story about farm life, "The Consequences," in Harper's in February 1870 (and was promptly excerpted in the Ohio Farmer), and one of her more telling pieces, "The Coming Woman," in Lippincott's in May 1870.
"The Coming Woman" -- somewhat ironic reflections on girls and women of the future -- suggests Mary's awareness of societal limitations on young women. In it, she speaks of a future with active, carefully educated girls, girls
who will be made to feel that something is expected of [them] too -- that [they] are to have a living interest in the world and all its doings . . . Instead of endeavoring to crush all originality out of her into the one mould of standard conventional young-ladyhood, she will be recognized as an independent, individual soul, free to work out her own life in her own way. (529)
Wells also addresses the idea of equal wages, noting
The days when a woman was employed because 'she will do it just as well as a man, and we shall not have to pay her but a third as much,' will be looked back upon with . . . incredulous disgust . . . Such meanness, such taking advantage of weakness and necessity, will hardly be credited. (530)
As for work, she saw potential for women as doctors and ministers (but not politicians, for the Coming Woman would not "choose to degrade her mind with the strife, the clamor and brawl, the corruption, the belittling and lowering influences of politics"), though she was clearly wedded to a class society: should the Coming Woman decide to marry, her housekeeping duties will be lightened by "the Coming Irish Girl" and numerous others -- "Esquimaux, Kamschatkans, Terra-del-Fuegans" who might "emigrate to this country and prove domestic treasures." (531) (Perhaps tellingly, after Wells did marry, her household in 1880 included three servants -- all Irish.)
Further consideration of women's lives and work shaped Mary's next piece, "Cacoethes Scribendi and What Came of It." Appearing in the December 1870 Lippincott's, the humorous short story turned its attention to women writers, via an account of Lucia Lammermoor, a well-educated, well-intentioned young girl living in the small rural community of Topknot, Vermont. Lucia has led a "harmless -- and, to tell the truth, useless" life, but when her family falls upon difficult times so that she and her siblings cannot buy the newest fashions, Lucia resolves to earn money. Reflecting that "Three ways of earning money are open to women who lack strength or inclination for housework -- viz.: teaching, sewing, writing," Lucia decides to "become an authoress and earn, if not fame, at leas