had just soled, and of which he had made such a 'capital job.'

By shoe-mending and self-denial at Callerton, Stephenson succeeded in saving his first guinea. He was very proud of it, and said that he was now a rich man.' He maintained his character for steadiness and sobriety; his surviving fellow-workmen testify that Stephenson never in his life was seen the worse for drink.' On the fortnightly holidays, while the other workmen were cock-fighting and drinking, he was musing over his engine, taking it to pieces, cleaning it, and always leaving it in thorough working order. His relaxation was a ramble through the fields seeking birds' nests. But though quiet and unobtrusive, he was not a muff; and the story is still told in the neighbourhood of a desperate fight between Stephenson and a certain bully, the terror of the neighbourhood, named 'Ned Nelson, the Fighting Pitman of Black Callerton.' The 'Fighting Pitman' mistook Stephenson's quietness for want of spirit, and, without provocation, threatened to kick him. But Stephenson, although no pugilist, held his own by determination and pluck, and gave the bully such a drubbing as had a most wholesome effect on his general demeanour.

With a little money, scraped together by industry and self-denial, Stephenson furnished in a very humble style a cottage at Willington Quay, on the Tyne, six miles below Newcastle. When everything had been prepared, he brought his young wife, Fanny Henderson, there. They were married in Newburn Church, on the 28th of November, 1802. After the ceremony

S

George and his wife rode to their home on a stout farm-horse, a distance of fifteen miles.

Thus married and settled, Stephenson remained steady and industrious as before. He was attentive to

his engine through the day; and he sat in the evenings beside his wife in his little cottage, busy in making mechanical experiments, and in modelling machines. He spent much time in a fruitless endeavour after the perpetual motion. Learning by experience, he advanced from mending shoes to making them; and he grew skilful at making shoe-lasts. An event which happened about this time turned his industry to a more profitable channel. One day, in his absence, his cottage chimney took fire. The neighbours, in their zeal to extinguish the flames, poured buckets of water down the chimney. The flames were extinguished, but the house was soaked, and an eight-day clock, a highly-prized possession, was spoiled with steam and dust. The neighbours advised sending it to the clockmaker; but poor Stephenson grudged the expense. He tried to clean it himself, and succeeded to admiration. And from that time he drove a profitable trade as a clock-doctor.

While at Willington Quay, on the 16th of December, 1803, was born George Stephenson's only son, Robert. The kind-heartedness of the father, formerly expended on dogs and rabbits, now found a better object. In 1804 he became brakesman at Killingworth Colliery, seven miles north of Newcastle; and here, after a short time of married life, his wife died. It was a sad blow to a man of his strong affections, and it

paralysed him for the time: and we grieve to think that poor Fanny Henderson never knew how the names of her husband and her son would become known over the world. Soon after her death Stephenson went for about a year to Montrose to work at a colliery. He walked there and home again, with his kit upon his back; and he brought with him, on his return, twenty-eight pounds which he had saved. One night, on his homeward journey, footsore and weary, he besought a small farmer and his wife, at a little cottage on the Border, to allow him to lie down in the outhouse on some straw. At first they refused; but afterwards they received him into the cottage, treated him kindly, and in the morning declined to receive any remuneration for his lodging, but asked him to remember them, and if he ever came that way to be sure and call again. He did not return that way till he was a great man; but he did not forget to 'call again.' He found the worthy couple grown old; and when he left them they had good reason to rejoice that they had spared George Stephenson a little clean

straw.

When he reached Killingworth, on his return, he found that by an accident his aged father had lost his sight, and was reduced to great distress. His sons who were at home were as poor as himself. George instantly employed the savings of his weary journey and hard work in paying the old man's debts, and establishing him and his wife (George's mother) in a comfortable cottage near Killingworth. Here the old man lived for many years, entirely supported by his son,

quite blind, but cheerful to the last, and delighted to receive a visit from his grandson Robert.

Stephenson was taken on again as brakesman at Killingworth; but so disheartened was he about 1807-8 that he thought of emigrating to Canada. Speaking to a friend long afterwards of his feelings at this time, he said, You know the road from my house at the West Moor to Killingworth. I remember when I went along that road I wept bitterly, for I knew not where my lot would be cast.' He persevered, however, working at the colliery as before, mending clocks and making shoes, manufacturing shoe-lasts, and even cutting out the pitmen's clothes for their wives to make up. It is said that to this day there are clothes worn at Killingworth which have been made after 'Geordy Steevie's cut.' His reputation was greatly extended through his succeeding in setting to rights a pumping engine which had foiled the endeavours of all the neighbouring workmen to get it into working trim. For this he received ten pounds from the proprietor; he got into extensive practice as a curer of all the old wheezy pumping machines of the district, and many odd contrivances of his excited great wonder at Killingworth. His cottage was full of models of all

sorts.

He taught the women to connect their cradles with the smoke-jack, and make them self-acting. And he prepared a lamp which burned under water. At length his character for ingenuity procured him the situation of engine-wright to the colliery, with a salary of a hundred a year and the use of a pony. He v very fond of riding, and this was a great privilege to

was

him. From this time forward he was comparatively free from the necessity of manual labour. And the main end which he held in view in his improved circumstances was to give his son Robert a thoroughly good education. Like worthy Ned Cheeryble, in Nicholas Nickleby, worthy George Stephenson might have said, Education is a fine thing:-I know it is a fine thing,--because I never had any myself." It was while engine-wright at Killingworth that Stephenson began to turn his attention to the locomotive steam-engine.

Railways had been known in England for many years. As early as the beginning of the seventeenth century rude beams of wood had been laid down, along which coal-wagons ran from the pit to the shipping-place. Iron came gradually into use; and in 1789 a considerable improvement was made by placing the flange, or raised rim to keep the wagon in the track, upon the wheel, instead of, as formerly, on the rail itself. In 1800 Mr. Outram introduced stone supports for the rails; hence such roads were called Outram roads, which was afterwards abbreviated into tram-roads. Various kinds of propelling power were proposed for use on railways. Some advocated sails; and James Watt had the idea of a locomotive engine. Several travelling engines,' as they were termed, had been made by different engineers, but they had all proved practically useless. In 1804 Trevethick constructed a locomotive, which was placed on the Merthyr Tydvil Railway, in South Wales; but it was abandoned after a few experiments. A great difficulty was anticipated from the wheels