e taught school with much success, being respected
and loved by his pupils. He was teaching in New London, Connecticut, when
the Revolutionary War broke out.

He felt sorry to leave his school, but believing his country needed the
service of every patriotic man, he joined the army and was made a captain.

When he learned that his commander needed a spy, he said: "I am ready to
go. Send me."

He was only twenty-one, hardly more than a boy, yet he knew the danger.
And although life was very dear to him he loved his country more than his
own life.

[Illustration: Nathan Hale.]

His noble bearing and grace of manner might easily permit him to pass as a
Loyalist, that is, an American who sympathized with England--there were
many such in the British camp--and Washington accepted him for the
mission.

He dressed himself like a schoolmaster, so that the British would not
suspect that he was an American soldier.

Then, entering the enemy's lines, he visited all the camps, took notes,
and made sketches of the fortifications, hiding the papers in the soles of
his shoes. He was just about returning when he was captured. The papers
being found upon him, he was condemned to be hanged as a spy before
sunrise the next morning.

The marshal who guarded him that night was a cruel man. He would not allow
his prisoner to have a Bible, and even tore in pieces before his eyes the
farewell letters which the young spy had written to his mother and
friends.

But Nathan Hale was not afraid to die, and held himself calm and steady to
the end. Looking down upon the few soldiers who were standing near by as
he went to his death, he said: "I only regret that I have but one life to
lose for my country." All honor to this brave and true young patriot!

A TIME OF TRIAL FOR WASHINGTON

But the death of Nathan Hale was only one of the hard things Washington
had to bear in this trying year of 1776. We have seen that when the
Americans left the Long Island shore, the British promptly occupied it. On
Brooklyn Heights they planted their cannon, commanding New York. So
Washington had to withdraw, and he retreated northward to White Plains,
stubbornly contesting every inch of ground.

In the fighting of the next two months the Americans lost heavily. Two
forts on the Hudson River with three thousand men were captured by the
British. The outlook was gloomy enough, and it was well for the Americans
that they could not foresee the even more tryin