30 SIR ISAAC NEWTON. 



He also made a water clock, about four feet 

 high, with a dial-plate at the top, with figures of 

 the hours. The index was turned by a piece of 

 wood, which either fell or rose by water dropping. 

 Every morning the lad supplied his clock with the 

 proper amount of water. 



Besides these, he invented a four-wheeled car- 

 riage, which was moved with a handle by the per- 

 son who sat in it. For his boy friends, he made 

 lanterns of " criinpled paper " with a candle inside, 

 to light them to school in the dark winter morn- 

 ings, and paper kites of the best form and propor- 

 tion. In dark nights he tied the lanterns to the 

 tails of his kites, and ignorant people sometimes 

 mistook them for comets ! 



On the manor-house at Woolsthorpe he carved 

 sun-dials, which were visible a century later. He 

 was a " sober, silent, and thinking lad," who was 

 always hammering in his room, or making draw- 

 ings with his pen and pencil, designing with char- 

 coal on his walls, birds, animals, ships, and 

 mathematical diagrams. 



Mrs. Newton, the mother, had married again, 

 after a singular courtship. " Mr. Smith, a neigh- 

 boring clergyman, who had a very good estate, had 

 lived a bachelor till he was pretty old, and, one of 

 his parishioners advising him to marry, he said he 

 did not know where to meet with a good wife. 

 The man answered, 'The widow Newton is an 

 extraordinary good woman.' 'But/ said Mr. 

 Smith, 'how do I know she will have me, and 



