nal. What
did Samuel Morse say to himself? Tell about Morse as a painter. What
did he want to find? What was he talking about on his voyage back
to America? What is a telegraph? How can you make a small wire
telegraph? What did Professor Morse make? How did he live? What did
he do in 1839? How did he get help about his telegraph? What did he
ask Congress to do? What did some men in Congress say? What news did
Miss Annie Ellsworth bring him? What was the first message sent by
telegraph in 1844? How many miles of telegraph are there now in the
United States? Is there a telegraph line under the sea? What is said
about the telephone?

GENERAL SAM HOUSTON
(1793-1863)

229. Sam Houston and the Indians; Houston goes to live with the
Indians.--When General Jackson whipped the Indians in Alabama,[1]
a young man named Sam Houston[2] fought under Jackson and was
terribly wounded. It was thought that the brave fellow would
certainly die, but his strong will carried him through, and he lived
to make himself a great name in the southwest.

Although Houston fought the Indians, yet, when a boy, he was very
fond of them, and spent much of his time with them in the woods of
Tennessee.

Long after he became a man, this love of the wild life led by the
red men in the forest came back to him. While Houston was governor
of Tennessee (1829) he suddenly made up his mind to leave his home
and his friends, go across the Mississippi River, and take up his
abode with an Indian tribe in that part of the country. The chief,
who had known him as a boy, gave him a hearty welcome. "Rest with
us," he said; "my wigwam is yours." Houston stayed with the tribe
three years.

[Illustration: SAM HOUSTON.]

[Footnote 1: See paragraph 216.]

[Footnote 2: Sam Houston (Hew'ston): he always wrote his name Sam
Houston; he was born near Lexington in Rockbridge County, Virginia.]

230. Houston goes to Texas; what he said he would do; the murders
at Alamo[3]; the flag with one star; what Houston did; Texas added
to the United States; our war with Mexico.--At the end of that time
he said to a friend, "I am going to Texas, and in that new country
I will make a man of myself." Texas then belonged to Mexico; and
President Andrew Jackson had tried in vain to buy it as Jefferson
bought Louisiana. Houston said, "I will make it part of the United
States." About twenty thousand Americans had already moved into
Texas, and they felt as he did.

War broke