[Sidenote: =Enters Harvard=] At fifteen, after a year or more spent in Egypt, Palestine, and Germany, Theodore came home a more enthusiastic American than ever. He now began to prepare for college. He entered Harvard in 1876. He made a good but not a brilliant student. Throughout his course he taught a mission Bible class. He would not be without something to do even on Sunday. [Sidenote: =A boxing match=] He graduated with Phi Beta Kappa honors. Yet he was not a "bookworm," but fond of all college sports. He was a genuine sportsman without being "sporty," as a boxing match once proved. One day Roosevelt and another student were having a hard fight. Students crowded around. The battle was hot. Time was called. Roosevelt promptly dropped his hands, while the other fellow landed a smashing blow on Roosevelt's nose. "Foul! foul!" shouted the students. "No! He did not hear," cried Roosevelt, and warmly shook hands with the offending student. How many boys can stand a blow in the face and not get angry? Roosevelt could. [Sidenote: =Fought hard for health=] Roosevelt had a resolute will, and he determined to make himself stronger, so far as he could. He took boxing lessons, and became skilled in this art. He rode horseback in the chase. He took long tramps into the dark woods of Maine. In the summer he went on canoe trips, and in winter on long hikes on snowshoes. This frail boy, through his determination, became a man noted for his ruggedness and ceaseless energy. He had a keen love of adventure. As a rancher, hunter and explorer he met constant hardship and danger. But Roosevelt welcomed it all as part of the game. [Sidenote: =Beginnings of political life=] =186. Enters Politics.= He joined a local Republican association in New York. His rich friends laughed at him for joining hands with saloonkeepers and "ward heelers." They would not do it, but this young democrat did. He was nominated for the assembly. He must now show his mettle. He began canvassing the saloon vote. A saloonkeeper declared his license too high. Roosevelt declared it too low; he said if elected he would make it higher. In spite of opposition he won. Before he got through at Albany he learned that no man could be a fearless leader whose moral character was weak. Another lesson he learned was that a man must act in office as if he were never to hold another. He was elected three times to the assembly and made a name for himself in fighting bad laws and demanding good ones. [Sidenote: =Often lived life of cowboy on ranches=]