Before the end of the first term (October, 1773,
to mid-March, 1774) in East Haddam, however,
his work had aroused attention elsewhere, and in
May, 1774, he took charge of a school in New
London, called the "Union School,"--a larger
school and a more lucrative position than that at
East Haddam. In it Latin, English, arithmetic,
and writing were taught. The salary was seventy
pounds a year with a prospect of an increase, and
he was allowed to teach private classes as well.

It will not surprise those acquainted with human
nature that, as we will allow him to tell in a letter
to a relative, he soon had a class of some twenty
young ladies between the unusual hours of five
and seven in the morning! It does not take a very
vivid imagination to picture the vivacity of these
twenty young ladies, the becomingness of their
simple but pretty gowns, and the zest with which
each studied; nor, on the other hand, the ill-concealed,
bantering interest of the big brothers
of the same,--asking perhaps, now and then,
with mock gravity, if mother thought Patty would
be so prompt every morning at five o'clock if old
Parson Browning were the teacher!

But whatever might have been the dominant
interest of the young ladies, "Master Hale" was
quite as practical in his teaching in the early hours

[[32]]

p031 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p032w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p033

v?