18 THE BOY GEORGE. CHAP. II. 



birds, which flew about the house, or in and out at the 

 door. In summer time he would go a-birdnesting with 

 his children ; and one day he took his little son George 

 to see a blackbird's nest for the first time. Holding him 

 up in his arms, he let the wondering boy peep down, 

 through the branches held aside for the purpose, into a 

 nest full of young birds a sight which the boy never 

 forgot, but used to speak of with delight to his intimate 

 friends when he himself had grown an old man. 



The boy George led the ordinary life of working- 

 people's children. He played about the doors ; went 

 birdnesting when he could ; and ran errands to the vil- 

 lage. He was also an eager listener, with the other 

 children, to his father's curious tales ; and he early im- 

 bibed from him that affection for birds and animals 

 which continued throughout his life. In course of time 

 he was promoted to the office of carrying his father's 

 dinner to him while at work, and it was on such occa- 

 sions his great delight to see the robins fed. At home 

 he helped to nurse, and that with a careful hand, his 

 younger brothers and sisters. One of his duties was to 

 see that the other children were kept out of the way 

 of the chaldron waggons, which were then dragged by 

 horses along the wooden tramroad immediately in front 

 of the cottage-door. This waggon-way was the first in 

 the northern district on which the experiment of a loco- 

 motive engine was tried. But at the time of which 

 we speak, the locomotive had scarcely been dreamt 

 of in England as a practicable working power ; horses 

 only were used to haul the coal ; and one of the first 

 sights with which the boy was familiar was the coal- 

 waggons dragged by them along the wooden railway 

 at Wylam. 



Thus eight years passed ; after which, the coal having 

 been worked out on the north side, the old engine, 

 which had grown " dismal to look at," as one of the 

 workmen described it, was pulled down ; and then 



