HOW TO GET STRONG
to Congress, he rode on horseback eight hundred miles from Tennessee to Washington. He was twenty years of age when he finished the preliminary part of his education at Salisbury. He had grown to be a tall fellow. He stood six feet and one inch in his stockings. He was remarkably slender for that robust age of the world; but he was also remarkably erect; so that his figure had the effect of symmetry without being symmetrical. His movements and carriage were graceful and dignified. In the accomplishments of his day and sphere he excelled the young men of his own circle; and was regarded by them as their chief and model. He was an exquisite horseman; as all will agree whoever saw him on horseback. Jefferson tells us that General Washington was the best horseman of his time. But he could scarcely have been a more graceful or a more daring one than Jackson. One who knew him said: "Andy was a wild, frolicsome, wilful, mischievous, daring, reckless boy, generous to a friend, but never content to submit to a stronger enemy. He was passionately fond of those sports which are mimic battles; above all, wrestling. Being a slender boy, more active than strong, he was often thrown. I could throw him three times out of four; but he would never stay thrown. He was dead game even then; and never would give up. He was exceedingly fond of running foot-races; of leaping the bar; and jumping, and in such sports he was excelled by no one of his years. To younger boys, who never questioned his mastery, he was a generous protector. There was nothing he would not do to defend them. His equals and superiors found him self-willed; somewhat overbearing; easily offended; very irascible; and, upon the whole, 'difficult to get along with.' One of them said, many years after, in the heat of controversy, that of all the boys he had ever
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