54 ATHLETIC FEATS. CHAP . IV. 



taken. In the course of working it out, the water had 

 collected in considerable quantities ; and there being no 

 means of draining it off, it accumulated to such an 

 extent that the further working of the ochre was almost 

 entirely stopt. Ordinary pumps were tried, and failed ; 

 and then a windmill was tried, and failed too. On this, 

 George was asked what ought to be done to clear the 

 quarry of the water. He said " he would set up for 

 them an engine little bigger than a kail-pot, that would 

 clear them out in a week." And he did so. A little 

 engine was speedily erected, by means of which the 

 quarry was pumped dry in the course of a few days. 

 Thus his skill as a pump-doctor soon became the marvel 

 of the district. 



In elastic muscular vigour, Stephenson was now 

 in his prime, and he still continued to be zealous in 

 measuring his strength and agility with his fellow 

 workmen. The competitive element in his nature was 

 alwavs strong ; and his success in these feats of rivalry 

 was certainly remarkable. Few, if any, could lift such 

 weights, throw the hammer and putt the stone so far, 

 or cover so great a space at a standing or running leap. 

 One day between the engine hour and the rope-rolling 

 hour, Kit Heppel challenged him to leap from one high 

 wall to another, with a deep gap between them. To 

 Heppel' s surprise and dismay, George took the standing 

 leap, and cleared the eleven feet at a bound. Had his 

 eye been less accurate, or his limbs less agile and sure, 

 the feat must have cost him his life. 



But so full of redundant muscular vigour was he, that 

 leaping, putting, or throwing the hammer were not 

 enough for him. He was also ambitious of riding on 

 horseback, and, as he had not yet been promoted to an 

 office enabling him to keep a horse of his own, he some- 

 times borrowed one of the gin-horses for a ride. On 

 one of these occasions, he brought the animal back reek- 

 ing ; when Tommy Mitcheson, the bank horse-keeper, 



