CHAP. V. STEPHENSON'S SOBRIETY. 59 



remembered the assistance which, when a humble work- 

 man, he had derived from John Wigham, the farmer's 

 son. 



His leisure moments thus carefully improved, it will 

 be inferred that Stephenson continued a sober man. 

 Though his notions were never extreme on this point, 

 he was systematically temperate. It appears that on 

 the invitation of his master, Ealph Dodds and an invi- 

 tation from a master to a workman is not easy to resist 

 he had, on one or two occasions, been induced to join 

 him in a forenoon glass of ale in the public-house of the 

 village. But one day, about noon, when Mr. Dodds had 

 got him as far as the public-house door, on his invitation 

 to " come in and take a glass o' yel," Stephenson made a 

 dead stop, and said, firmly, " No, sir, you must excuse 

 me ; I have made a resolution to drink no more at this 

 time of day." And he went back. He desired to retain 

 the character of a steady workman ; and the instances 

 of men about him who had made shipwreck of their 

 character through intemperance, were then, as now, 

 unhappily but too frequent. 



But another consideration besides his own self-im- 

 provement had already begun to exercise an important 

 influence upon his life. This was the training and 

 education of his son Robert, now growing up a healthy, 

 intelligent boy, as full of fun and tricks as his father had 

 been, but like him also possessing an abundant capacity 

 for knowledge. When a little fellow, not big enough 

 to reach so high as to put a clock-head on when placed 

 upon the table, his father would make him mount a chair 

 for the purpose ; and to " help father " was the proudest 

 work which the boy then, and ever after, could take part 

 in. When the little engine was set up at the Ochre 

 Quarry to pump it dry, Robert was scarcely absent for 

 an hour. He watched the machine very eagerly when 

 it was set to work ; and he was very much annoyed at 

 the fire burning away the grates. The man who fired 



