. TIIK WIIKKLWUICIIT'S AIM'IIKXTKT. 31f> 



supper mid drink ;it flic- only tavern in the town, then 

 on Parsonage (iivm. Brindley' s share in the work was 

 a good deal ridiculed by the men when the drink began 

 to operate ; on which Mr. Milner, to whose intercession 

 liis participation in the work had been entirely attribu- 

 table, interposed and said, " I will wager a gallon of the 

 best ale in the house, that before the lad's apprentice- 

 ship is but he will be a cleverer workman than any 

 here, whether master or man." We have not been in- 

 formed whether the wager was accepted ; but it was 

 l<>ng remembered, and Brindley was so often taunted 

 with it by the workmen, that he was not himself allowed 

 to forget that it had been offered. Indeed, from that 

 time forward, he zealously endeavoured so to apply him- 

 self as to justify the prediction, for it was nothing less, 

 of his kind friend Mr. Milner ; and before the end of his 

 third year's apprenticeship his master was himself con- 

 strained to admit that Brindley was not the " fool " and 

 the " blundering blockhead " which he and his men had 

 so often called him. Very much to the chagrin of the 

 latter, and to the surprise of Bennett himself, the neigh- 

 bouring millers, when sending for a workman to execute 

 repairs in their machinery, would specially request that 

 " the young man Brindley " should be sent them in pre- 

 ference to any other of the workmen. Some of them 

 would even have the apprentice in preference to the 

 master himself. At this Bennett was greatly surprised, 

 and, quite unable to understand the mystery, he even 

 went so far as to inquire of Brindley where he had 

 obtained his knowledge of mill-work ! Brindley could 

 not tell ; it " came natural-like ;" but the whole secret 

 consisted in Brindley working with his head as well as 

 with his hands. The apprentice had already been found 

 peculiarly expert in executing mill repairs, in the course 

 of which he would frequently suggest alterations and 

 improvements, more especially in the application of the 

 water-power, which no one had before thought of, but 



