Sevier B & ensse if a few mi-ishmed, wendel erg sading a eder sie f a batting ime stream. They are smered by A FISIKA wooden inige, Viri gaan dhe à caf de boxes in the central Meeroomed smag if is pig, a de nghi bank, Bobert Pregresa ented for a time with his family. The pit st wilt he was employed stood in the rear of the sonages in long since been worked on and dosed in; sad only the marks of is we now ristie, a son of tasted grass covering, ins varat oncealing, the secrie and costed won the morib of the di pi Locking aross the fields, qe sa il discern the marks of the forma nge-nay, bading in the direction of Walborde. It was joined on its onre by azoter magga-mei leading from the direction of Black Callerton Indeed, there is scarcely a field in the neighbourhood that does not exhibit traces of the workings of former pita. But grass now grows over all the waggon-roads there The oval has all been "won," and pit engines, apparatus, and workmen have long since passed away.

7

CHAP. II.

BEGINS A CAREER OF LABOUR.

As every child in a poor man's house is a burden until his little hands can be turned to profitable account and made to earn money towards supplying the indispensable wants of the family, George Stephenson was put to work as soon as an opportunity of employment presented itself. A widow, named Grace Ainslie, then occupied the neighbouring farm-house of Dewley. She kept a number of cows, and had the privilege of grazing them along the waggon ways. She needed a boy to herd the cows, to keep them out of the way of the waggons, and to prevent their straying or trespassing on the neighbours' “liberties;” the boy's duty was also to bar the gates at night after all the waggons had passed. George petitioned for this post, and to his great joy he was appointed, at the wage of two-pence a day.

It was light employment, and he had plenty of spare time on his hands, which he spent in bird-nesting, making whistles out of reeds and scrannel straws, and erecting Lilliputian mills in the little water streams that ran into the Dewley bog. But his favourite amusement at this early age was erecting clay engines, in conjunction with his chosen playmate, Tom Tholoway. They found the clay for their engines in the adjoining bog, and the hemlock, which grew about, supplied them with abundance of imaginary steam-pipes. The place is still pointed out, "just aboon the cut-end," as the people of the hamlet describe it, where the future engineer made his

first essays in modelling. This early indication of a mechanical turn may remind the reader of a similar anecdote of the boy Smeaton, who, when missed one day by his parents, was found mounted on the roof of the cottage fixing a puny windmill.

As the boy grew older and more able to work, he was set to lead the horses when ploughing, though scarce big enough to stride across the furrows. He was also employed to hoe turnips and do similar farm work, for which he was paid the advanced wage of four-pence a day. But his highest ambition was to be taken on at the colliery where his father worked; and he shortly joined his elder brother James there as a "corf-bitter," or picker," where he was employed in clearing the coal of stones, bats, and dross. His wages were now advanced to six-pence a day, and afterwards to eightpence when he was set to drive the Gin-horse.

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Shortly after, he went to Black Callerton Colliery to drive the Gin there. And as that colliery lies about two miles across the fields from Dewley Burn, the boy walked that distance early in the morning to his work, returning home late in the evening. Some of the old people of Black Callerton still remember him as a "grit bare-legged laddie," and they describe him as being then "very quick-witted, and full of fun and tricks." As they said, "there was nothing under the sun but he tried to imitate." He was usually foremost in the sports and pastimes of youth.

Among his first strongly developed tastes, was the love of birds and animals, which he inherited from his father. Blackbirds were his especial favourites. The hedges between Dewley and Black Callerton were capital bird-nesting places; and there was not a nest there that he did not know of. When the young birds were old enough, he would bring them home with him, feed them, and teach them to fly about the cottage unconfined by cages. One of his blackbirds became

so tame, that after flying about the doors all day, and in and out of the cottage, it would take up its roost upon the bedhead at night. And most singular of all, the bird would disappear in the spring and summer months, when it was supposed to go to the woods to pair and rear its young, after which it would reappear at the cottage and resume its social habits during the winter. This went on for several years. George had also a stock of tame rabbits, for which he built a little house behind the cottage, and for many years he continued to pride himself upon the superiority of his breed.

After he had driven the Gin for some time at Dewley and Black Callerton, he was at length taken on as an assistant to his father in firing the engine at Dewley. This was a step of promotion which he had anxiously desired; his only fear being lest he should be found too young for the work. Indeed, he afterwards used to relate how he was wont to hide himself from sight when the owner of the colliery went round, lest he should be thought too little a boy thus to earn his small wages. Since he had modelled his clay engines in the bog, his young ambition was to be an engineman. And to be an assistant fireman was the first step towards this position. Great therefore was his exultation when, at about fourteen years of age, he was appointed assistant fireman, at the wage of a shilling a day.

But the coal at Dewley Burn being at length worked out, and the pit being about to be "laid in,” the family prepared for another removal. This time their removal was to Jolly's Close, a few miles to the south, close behind the village of Newburn, where another coal mine of the Duke's, called "the Duke's Winnin," had recently been opened out.

Jolly's Close then consisted of a small row of cottages situated upon a flat space of ground enclosed by lofty banks on either side, at the bottom of the narrow rift called Walbottle Dean. Jolly's Close, however, no longer exists, and

only a few of the oldest people in the neighbourhood are aware that such a place ever was. A mountain of earth, shale, and debris, the accumulation of fifty years, lies tumbled over its site, the rubbish, or "deeds," having been shot over from the hill side, once a green hill, but now a scarified, blasted rock, along which furnaces blaze and engines labour night and day. The stream in the hollow, which used to run in front of old Robert Stephenson's cottage door, is made to pay tribute in the form of water-power at every wheel in the Dean; and only a narrow strip now remains of what was once a green meadow.

The children of the Stephenson family were now growing up apace, and were most of them of an age to be able to earn money at various kinds of colliery work. James and George, the two eldest sons, worked as assistant-firemen; and the younger boys worked as wheelers or pickers on the bank tops. The two girls helped their mother with the household work.

So far as weekly earnings went, the family were at this time pretty comfortable. Their united earnings amounted to from 35s. to 40s. a week; and they were enabled to command a fair share of the necessaries of life. But it will be remembered that in those days, from 1797 to 1802, it was much more difficult for the working classes to live than it is now; and money did not go nearly so far. The price of bread was excessive. The price of wheat, which for three years preceding 1795 had averaged only 54s., now advanced to 768. a quarter; and it continued to rise, until in December 1800 it had advanced to 130s., and barley and oats in proportion. There was a great dearth of provisions; corn riots were of frequent occurrence; and the taxes on all articles of consumption were very heavy. The war with Napoleon was then raging, derangements of trade were frequent, causing occasional suspensions of employment in all departments of industry, from