OHAF.I. TIIK WHKBLWBIGHTS AITIIKNTK'K. 817 



persevere in their oj ^rations, but without the slightest 

 appearance of satisfactory progress. About this time 

 an old hand, who happened to he passing the place at 

 which the men were at work, looked in upon them and 

 ex; i mined what they were about, as a mere matter of 

 curiosity. When he had done so, he went on to the 

 nearest public-house and uttered his sentiments on the 

 subject very freely. He declared that the job was a 

 farce, and that Abraham Bennett was only throwing his 

 employer's money away. The statement of what the 

 " experienced hand" had said, was repeated until it came 

 to the ears of young Brindley. Concerned for the 

 honour of his shop as well as for the credit of his master 



though he probably owed him no great obligation on 

 the score either of treatment or instruction Brindley 

 formed the immediate resolution of attempting to master 

 the difficulty so as to enable the work to be brought to a 

 satisfactory completion. 



At the end of the week's work Brindley left the mill 

 without saying a word of his intention to any one, and 

 instead of returning to his master's house, where he 

 lodged, he took the road for Manchester. Bennett was 

 in a state of great alarm lest he should have run away ; 

 for Brindley, now in the fourth year of his apprentice- 

 ship, had reached the age of twenty-one, and the master 

 feared that, taking advantage of his legal majority, he 

 had left his service never to return. A messenger was 

 despatched in the course of the evening to his mother's 

 house ; but he was not there. Sunday came and passed 



still no word of young Brindley : he must have run 

 a way ! On Monday morning Bennett went to the paper- 

 in ill to proceed with his fruitless work ; and lo ! the first 

 person he saw was Brindley, with his coat off, working 

 away with greater energy than ever. His disappear- 

 ance was soon explained. He had been to Smedley Mill 

 to inspect the machinery there with his own eyes, and 

 clear up his master's difficulty. He had walked the 



