mates, writing to him during his camp life, had to
suggest that, as the young ladies he had taught were
always inquiring when he had heard from "Master,"
it would doubtless give them pleasure if he could
find tune to write some one of them a note with
friendly messages to others, to show that he still
remembered them.
Many young men would hardly have needed such
a suggestion. But Nathan Hale, so far as we can
learn, while given to warm friendships among his
classmates, and to the cultivation, while in New
Haven, Haddam, and New London, of the society
of the best families, appears, from the beginning,
to have taken life seriously. Disappointed in the
love of the one woman for whom he cared, he had
turned with sincere absorption to the work to
which he felt himself called before entering on the
theological course it is thought that his father had
planned for him.
There is further evidence of Hale's notable gifts
as a teacher. Colonel Samuel Green, who had been
a pupil of Hale in New London, said of him, in old-time
phrase: "Hale was a man peculiarly engaging
in his manners--these were mild and genteel.
The scholars, old and young, were attached to
him. They loved him for his tact and amiability.
"He was wholly without severity and had a
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