CHAP. III. SAVES HIS FIRST GUINEA. 35 



A friend of his, still living, relates that, after he had 

 finished the shoes, he carried them about with him in 

 his pocket on the Sunday afternoon, and that from time 

 to time he would whip them out and hold them up, ex- 

 claiming, " what a capital job he had made of them !" 

 Other lovers have carried about with them a lock of 

 their fair one's hair, a glove, or a handkerchief; but 

 none could have been prouder of their cherished love- 

 token than was George Stephenson of his Fanny's shoes, 

 which he had just soled, and of which he had made 

 such a " capital job." 



Out of his earnings by shoe-mending at Callerton, 

 George contrived to save his first guinea. The first 

 guinea saved by a working man is no trivial thing. If, 

 as in Stephenson's case, it has been the result of prudent 

 self-denial, of extra labour at bye-hours, and of the honest 

 resolution to save and economise for worthy purposes, 

 the first guinea saved is an earnest of better things. 

 When Stephenson had saved this guinea he was not a 

 little elated at the achievement, and expressed the opinion 

 to a friend, who many years after reminded him of it, 

 that he was " now a rich man." 



Not long after he began to work at Black Callerton 

 as brakesman, he had a quarrel with a pitman named 

 Ned Nelson, a roistering bully, who was the terror of 

 the village. Nelson was a great fighter ; and it was 

 therefore considered dangerous to quarrel with him. 

 Stephenson was so unfortunate as not to be able to 

 please this pitman by the way in which he drew him 

 out of the pit ; and Nelson swore at him grossly because 

 of the alleged clumsiness of his brakeing. George de- 

 fended himself, and appealed to the testimony of the 

 other workmen. But Nelson had not been accustomed 

 to George's style of self-assertion ; and, after a great 

 deal of abuse, he threatened to kick the brakesman, who 

 defied him to do so. Nelson ended by challenging 

 Stephenson to a pitched battle ; and the latter accepted 



