well fitted to take her place as the new
head of the family. No ignoble mother could rear such children as she
had reared, and Deacon Hale's second choice of a wife proved a wise and
happy one. Providence appears to have smiled upon him when he opened his
doors and invited Mrs. Adams and her children to share his home, and
even the affection of some of his sons. It is said that two of Deacon
Hale's sons fell in love with her youngest daughter, Alice Adams, who,
at Deacon Hale's desire, came to live permanently in the family in 1770
or 1771, while his second son, John, married her eldest daughter, Sarah
Adams, on December 19, 1770.

The lives of both these women, Sarah and Alice Adams, are sufficient
witnesses to the high character of the new mother added to the Hale
household. To several of his biographers it has seemed quite probable
that Nathan Hale wrote one of his last two letters to this mother. We
grant that it may have been addressed to her, while intended for the
reading of another. Of this, later.

In regard to the marriage of John Hale and Sarah Adams it may be as well
to state here that, after a married life of thirty-one years, John Hale
died suddenly in December, 1802, his health probably undermined by his
service in the Revolutionary War, where he held the rank of major. His
widow, desiring to carry out what she believed would have been his
wishes, "bequeathed L1000 to trustees as a fund, the income of which was
to be used for the support of young men preparing for missionary
service,"--probably among the Indians, as this was before the support of
foreign missions was undertaken in America--"and in part for founding
and supporting the Hale Library in Coventry, to be used by the ministers
of Coventry and the neighboring towns." Included in the bequest for
founding the still existing so-called "Hale Donation" was a portrait of
the donor's husband, Major John Hale;--well painted, for the period, and
now of great interest. Mrs. John Hale died a few months after her
husband. It is easy to believe that, though born of different parents,
the Hale and Adams families were congenial mentally and morally, and
that Deacon Richard Hale was a wise and fortunate man in his choice of a
second mother for his children.

According to his mother's and grandmother's wishes, it was early decided
that Nathan should be prepared to enter college. After the fashion of
those times, he and two of his brothers began their preparato