7 o HER OES OF INVENTION AND DISCO VER Y. 



disposition. While tending his engine fire he would draw 

 around him the young folks of the village and tell them the 

 story of Sinbad the Sailor, or Robinson Crusoe. He was 

 partial to birds, and would sometimes go bird-nesting, and once 

 took young George to see a nestful of young blackbirds, a 

 sight which he never forgot. None of Stephenson's children 

 went to school, as his limited income would not admit of it. 

 The common two-storied, red-tiled building, where they dwelt, 

 stood just beside the wooden tramway on which the coal- 

 waggons were drawn by horses from the coal-pit to the loading- 

 quay, and one of the duties of the elder children was to watch 

 and keep the younger ones out of the way of the waggons, 

 which were daily dragged up and down by horses. Eight years 

 of his life had passed when the Stephenson family removed to 

 Dewley Burn. Young Stephenson's first actual employment 

 was to herd a neighbour's cows at the wage of twopence a-day. 

 Like other boys of his age, he spent much of his time in bird- 

 nesting, in making whistles, and in erecting little water-mills 

 in the streams near by. " But his favourite amusement at this 

 early age was in erecting clay engines in conjunction with his 

 chosen playmate, Tom Thirlaway. 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." His next work was to lead the horses when plough- 

 ing, or to hoe turnips and other farm work.* When taken on 

 at the colliery and employed to clear the coal of stones, bats, 

 and dross, his wages were advanced to sixpence a-day, and 

 afterwards to eightpence, when he was set to drive the gin-horse. 

 While driving the gin at Black Callerton Colliery, two miles 

 from Dewley Burn, he indulged his fondness for bird-nesting in 

 the hedgerows as he passed along to and from his work. He 



