in work, Nathan Hale followed in the steps of those
devoted American patriots whose blood, so freely
shed at Lexington, was calling upon their countrymen
to shed theirs as freely, should duty demand it.

Dead almost one hundred and forty years, we
still are thrilled by proofs of the splendid manhood
henceforth to be so prominent in every remaining
day of Hale's brief life. A few letters to friends, a
fairly comprehensive diary for a few months, his
camp-book, and the recollections of a few of the
officers and of his body-servant, give a moderately
complete picture of Nathan Hale for a few brief
weeks, during which time he had been doing all in
his power to perfect himself and the men under
him in the duties of soldiers.

By the middle of September the Connecticut
troops, having received orders from General
Washington to proceed to the camp near Boston,
the 7th Regiment, containing Lieutenant Hale's
company, went to the spot appointed, remaining
there during the winter, and leaving for New York,
again by Washington's orders, in the spring. Of
these intervening months, so momentous to the little
army whose many members were impatient for the
close of the war, Nathan Hale himself gives us
vivid pictures; of the work he was trying to do;
of the men he was meeting; of the religious life

[[45]]

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v?