f distress that must have
filled that loyal boy's heart to overflowing when he learned of the
tragic death of his hero friend.

Two notable records from Captain Hale's diary are these:

November 6. It is of the utmost importance that an officer should
be anxious to know his duty, but of greater that he should
carefully perform what he does know. The present irregular state of
the army is owing to a capital neglect in both of these.

November 7. Studied ye best method of forming a Reg't for a review,
of arraying the Companies, also of marching round ye reviewing
Officer. A man ought never to lose a moment's time. If he put off a
thing from one minute to the next, his reluctance is but increased.

Later in November, when the men in his company were unwilling to
reenlist, this notable entry was made, signed with his full name:

28, Tuesday. Promised the men if they would tarry another month,
they should have my wages for that time.

NATHAN HALE.

These brief quotations, proving as they do Hale's intense devotion to
duty, and his practical efforts to hold his men to their duty, show how
clearly he understood the tremendous responsibility resting upon the
commander-in-chief as given in Washington's own words in letters to
friends and to Congress, soon to be quoted; and that, known or unknown
to Washington, there were men among his officers fully aware of the
condition of the army, and as anxious to serve it as was their
magnificent leader.

We here quote from Washington's letters; the first one was written to a
friend:

I know the unhappy predicament in which I stand; I know that much
is expected of me; I know that without men, without arms, without
ammunition, without anything fit for the accommodation of a
soldier, little is to be done, and what is mortifying, I know that
I cannot stand justified to the world without exposing my own
weakness, and injuring the cause, by declaring my wants which I am
determined not to do farther than unavoidable necessity brings
every man acquainted with them. My situation is so irksome to me at
times, that if I did not consult the public good more than my own
tranquillity, I should long ere this have put everything on the
cast of a die. So far from my having an army of twenty thousand
men, well armed, I have been here with less than half that number,
including s