58 THE FELLOW STUDENTS. CHAP. V. 



day. When too busy with other work to be able to call 

 upon Wigham in person, he sent the slate by a fellow- 

 workman to have the former sums corrected and new 

 ones set. Sometimes also, at leisure moments, he was 

 enabled to do a little " figuring " with chalk upon the 

 sides of the coal-waggons. So much patient perse- 

 verance could not but eventually succeed ; and by dint 

 of practice and study, Stephenson was enabled succes- 

 sively to master the various rules of arithmetic. 



John Wigham was of great use to his pupil in many 

 ways. He was a good talker, fond of argument, an 

 extensive reader as country reading went in those days, 

 and a very suggestive thinker. Though his store of 

 information might be comparatively small when mea- 

 sured with that of more highly-cultivated minds, much 

 of it was entirely new to Stephenson, who regarded him as 

 a very clever and extraordinary person. Young as John 

 Wigham was, he could give much useful assistance to 

 Stephenson at the time, and his neighbourly services 

 were worth untold gold to the eager pupil. Wigham 

 taught him to draw plans and sections ; though in this 

 branch Stephenson proved so apt that he soon sur- 

 passed his master. Wigham also possessed some know- 

 ledge of Natural Philosophy, and a volume of ' Fer- 

 guson's Lectures on Mechanics' which he possessed 

 was a great treasure to both the students. One who 

 remembers their evening occupations says he used to 

 wonder what they meant by weighing the air and water 

 in so odd a way. They were trying the specific gra- 

 vities of objects ; and the devices which they employed, 

 the mechanical shifts to which they were put, were often 

 of the rudest kind. In these evening entertainments, the 

 mechanical contrivances were supplied by Stephenson, 

 whilst Wigham found the scientific rationale. The 

 opportunity thus afforded to the former of cultivating 

 his mind by contact with one wiser than himself proved 

 of great value, and in after-life Stephenson gratefully 



