Chapter III

A Call To Teach

College days behind them, Nathan, now eighteen
years old, and Enoch pressed on toward their
future. Here, to some extent, we part with Enoch,
catching only occasional glimpses of him in a few
straggling letters to his brother. It is probable
that, as he intended to enter the ministry, he soon
began his theological studies. In 1775 he was
licensed to preach. Nathan, however, turned
toward teaching as the next step in his career.

In the meantime Nathan's love for Alice Adams
had not prospered. An older brother, John, had
married Alice Adams's elder sister Sarah, and the
mother and sister of Alice thought that she should
not wait four or five years for Nathan. Perhaps
they decided that two intermarriages in one
family were quite enough; anyway, they induced
Alice to accept the offer of a prosperous merchant
of Coventry, Mr. Elijah Ripley, and a short time
before Nathan's graduation her marriage had
apparently terminated their personal relations.

Nathan Hale was at this time an unusually hand-29

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v?