to pursue my studies
at home." Again: "My parents are not in a situation to send me to school
this summer, so I must make every exertion in my power to improve at
home." Again, in a note to a little friend, "I feel very anxious to
adopt some plan for our mutual improvement." How touching are these
simple expressions! How severely do they rebuke the apathy of thousands
of young persons, who allow golden opportunities of improvement to slip
away from then forever--opportunities which to Sarah Hall and such as
she, were of priceless value! Yet it is not one of the least of the
_compensations_ with which the providence of God abounds, that the very
lack of favorable circumstances is sometimes _most_ favorable to the
development of latent resources. Thus it was with Sarah. Her whole
career shows that her mind had been early trained and disciplined in
that noblest of all schools, the school of adverse fortune.

CHAPTER II.

CONVERSION.--BIAS TOWARD A MISSIONARY LIFE.--ACQUAINTANCE WITH MR.
BOARDMAN.

Amiable as she was, and conscientious in a degree not usual, Sarah knew
that "yet one thing she lacked;" and this knowledge often disquieted
her. But her first deep and decided convictions of sin, seem to have
been produced, about the year 1820, under the preaching of Mr.
Cornelius. Her struggles of mind were fearful, and she sunk almost to
the verge of despair; but hope dawned at last, and she was enabled to
consecrate her whole being to the service of her Maker. She soon after
united with the first Baptist church in Salem, under the care of Dr.
Bolles.

The missionary spirit was early developed in her heart. Even before her
conversion, her mind was often exercised with sentiments of
commiseration for the situation of ignorant heathen and idolaters; and
after that event it was the leading idea of her life.

The cause of this early bias is unknown, but it was shown in her
conversations, her letters and notes to friends, and in her early
poetical effusions. She even tremblingly investigated her own fitness
to became a vessel of mercy to the far off, perishing heathen; and then,
shrinking from what seemed to her the presumptuous thought, she gave
herself with new zeal to the work of benefitting these immediately
around her. "Shortly after her conversion," says her brother, "she
observed the destitute condition of the children in the neighborhood in
which she resided. With the assistance of some young friends as
teac