important ones used. There were no blackboards, and the teacher
set "copies" on paper, and read out the "sums" in arithmetic, and
often the whole school studied aloud. One of Nathan Hale's pupils
in East Haddam, who lived to be an old lady, said of him as a
teacher, "Everybody loved him, he was so sprightly, intelligent,
and kind and withal so handsome."

He was soon offered a better position in New London as the master
of a new school in which he was expected to teach Latin as well
as English. He wrote in one of his letters from New London:--

"I am happily situated here. I love my employment and find many
friends among strangers. I have a school of thirty-two boys, half
Latin, the rest English. In addition to this I have kept, during
the summer, a morning school, between the hours of five and
seven, of about twenty young ladies."

The schoolhouses in East Haddam and New London where Nathan Hale
taught have been restored and are kept now as memorials of him.

While he was teaching in New London the war with England broke
out. There was great excitement when the news came of the battle
of Lexington (April 19, 1775), and a public meeting was held at
which he is reported to have said, "Let us march immediately and
never lay down our arms until we obtain our independence." He
could not march immediately himself, for he was teaching school,
but when summer came he entered the army as a lieutenant, and was
soon made a captain. In September he went with some of the
Connecticut troops to join Washington's army which was besieging
Boston. The American flag was not adopted until the next year,