Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/24

 His early years exhibited a daring independence and self-reliance very remarkable, and to many minds indicated a disastrous rather than a prosperous future. Not until eight years old could he be induced to enter a school-house. In the imperfect schools then existing in Virginia, he learned to read and write, and obtained some skill in arithmetic. Up to the time of his father's death, which occurred when he was thirteen years old, he had hardly been to an "Old Field" school more than six months in all. Through the exertions of his father, the family had been maintained in comfortable circumstances, but at his death the burden of providing for a family of six sons and three daughters fell on Mrs. Houston. Resolute of purpose, she at once sold out her homestead, and sought to establish a new home on the fertile banks of the Tennessee River. Many incidents occurred on her adventurous journey to seek a forest home, more thrilling than ever really transpired near the classic haunts of the old countries of Europe. Heroic in spirit, this family of four females and six males halted not till it had reached the verge of emigrants' wanderings sixty years ago. The Tennessee River was the boundary line between the white men and the Cherokee Indians. Eight miles from this river the Houstons pitched their tents. Here Sam and his brothers soon commenced breaking up soil never before touched by the plow, and providing subsistence for their mother and sisters. Here hard work and Sam Houston first became familiar. For a short time he went to an Academy, which at that time flourished in East Tennessee. Translations of some of the classics which described the ancient heroes, who stood above the ruins of Rome and Greece in immortal glory, fell into his hands, awakening his imagination and stirring his spirit. It is said that he could repeat Pope's Homer's Iliad almost verbatim. His anxiety to study the languages of Rome and Greece became intense. He asked for permission to study Latin, and for some strange reason the school-master denied his request. So indignant was he at this refusal, that, turning on his heel, he affirmed deliberately that he never would recite another lesson so long as he lived. It is not unlikely that he kept his word. Students of Homer, Demosthenes, Euripides, Ǽschylus, or Sophocles, probably never gathered more of classic lore from their authors in the original, than Sam Houston extracted from Pope's translation of the Iliad. Achilles and Hector were studied by him with admiring wonder. The contests of Trojans and Greeks infused into his breast an enthusiastic desire for the stirring scenes of martial life, and the renown which gathers around the hero's brow. His brothers did not sympathize with what they regarded as his romantic fancies, threw around him galling restraints, and at length placed him as a clerk in a merchant's store. For such a life he had no relish. Very