he life of this extraordinary man reads like a fable. Born
in Virginia in 1793, he was taken to Tennessee at the age of thirteen,
and promptly began his career by running away from home and joining the
Cherokee Indians. When his family found him, he refused to return home,
and the next seven years were spent largely in the wilderness with his
savage friends. The wild life was congenial to him, and he grew up rough
and head-strong and healthy. Then the Creek war broke out, and Houston
enlisted with Andrew Jackson. One incident of that war gives a better
insight into Houston's character than volumes of description. At the
battle of the Horseshoe, where the Creeks made a desperate stand, a
barbed arrow struck Houston in the thigh and sank deep into the flesh.
He tried to pull it out and failed.

"Here," he called to a comrade, "pull out this arrow."

The other took hold of the shaft of the arrow and pulled with all his
might, but could not dislodge it.

"I can't get it out," he said, at last.

"Oh, yes, you can!" cried Houston, and raised his sword. "Pull it out,
or it'll be worse for you!"

The soldier saw he was in earnest, and, taking hold of the arrow again,
gave it a mighty wrench. It came out, but the barbs of the arrow tore
the flesh badly. Houston, however, paused only to tie up the wound
roughly, and hurried back into the fight, though Jackson ordered him to
the rear. Before long, two bullets struck him down, and he lay between
life and death for many days.

Such desperate valor was exactly after "Old Hickory's" heart, and from
that time forward, Jackson was Houston's friend and patron. In 1818, he
managed to gain admittance to the bar, and his rise was so rapid that
within five years he had been elected to Congress, and four years later
governor of Tennessee. Then came the strange catastrophe which nearly
wrecked his life.

Houston was, after Andrew Jackson, the most popular man in the state. He
resembled the hero of New Orleans in many ways, being rough, rude,
hot-headed and honest--just the sort of man to appeal to the people
among whom his lot was cast. When, therefore, in January, 1829, while
governor of the state, he married Miss Eliza Allen, a member of one of
the most prominent families in it, everybody wished him well, and the
wedding was a great affair. But scarcely was the honeymoon over, when he
sent his bride back to her parents, resigned the governorship, and,
refusing to give any explanation