nother flag, never let a night pass but you pray God
to bless that flag. Remember, boy, that behind all these men you have to
do with, behind officers, and government, and people even, there is the
Country Herself, your Country, and that you belong to Her as you belong
to your own mother."

No one justly comprehending the bed rock of Edward Everett Hale's
boundless patriotism can doubt that if the same call of duty had come
to him that came in bygone days to his relative, young Nathan Hale, he
would have done exactly as Nathan Hale did. That call did not come, but
to the end of his days Edward Everett Hale lived for his country as
nobly as Nathan Hale died for it.

CHAPTER X

ANCESTORS AND DESCENDANTS OF NATHAN HALE'S PARENTS

Robert Hale arrived in Massachusetts in 1632. He was one of those sent
from the first church in Boston to form the first church in Charlestown
in 1632, and was a deacon of this church. He was a blacksmith by trade.
He also had a gift for practical mathematics, being regularly employed
by the General Court of Massachusetts as a surveyor of new plantations.
His son John, of whom mention has been made in connection with the
witchcraft delusion, was a graduate of Harvard in 1657. Samuel, the
fourth son of John, was the father of Richard, father of Nathan Hale.

Elizabeth Strong, wife of Deacon Richard Hale and mother of Nathan, came
from a family more notable than that of her husband. Her grandfather,
Joseph Strong, represented Coventry in the General Assembly of
Connecticut for sixty-five sessions and presided over town-meeting in
his ninetieth year.

Mrs. Hale had four immediate relatives who were graduates of Yale
college. Three of the sons of Deacon Richard Hale and Elizabeth Strong
Hale graduated from Yale,--Enoch, the fourth son, Nathan, the sixth
child, and David, the eighth son. Three of the sons were officers in the
Revolutionary army, and the husband of a daughter was a surgeon there.
John was a major; Joseph, who died as the result of the privations
endured there, was a lieutenant; and Nathan was a captain. Elizabeth,
daughter of Joseph, married Rev. Abiel Abbot, for many years minister in
Coventry. Three of their sons were college graduates--two of Yale and
one of Dartmouth. Rebekah, another daughter of Joseph, married Ezra
Abbot of Wilton, N.H. Three sons were graduates of Bowdoin. One son, the
Rev. Abiel Abbot, was settled in East Wilton.

Two daughters also married clerg