dinner in the ordinary way, instead of trusting to
the tender mercies of Donald/
' Mamma, you are laughing/
' Why should not I ? It is not any very serious
Proposal to Train ' Donald! 89
matter surely. Whether it is or not, however, I must
leave you to decide ; for I have several poor people
I want to see in the village, and if I do not go at
once, it will be dark before I can return/
As soon as Mrs. Grenville left the room, the chil-
dren, full of their new device, set off to discover
Donald. He was not far off, in fact he seldom was ;
he and the boys were such constant playfellows, that
if he was not allowed to come into the drawing-room,
he generally stationed himself on the mat just out-
side the door, that he might be ready at a moment's
notice to join his companions as soon as he was
wanted.
Here was the dog ; but where was the can, and
v/here was the dinner ?
Charles, who was always the promoter of all fun
and mischief, and had generally a resource at hand,
suggested that one of the milk cans would be just
the very thing they wanted : they were in the dairy,
he knew where ; he would fetch one in no time. The
dinner was not so easy a point to manage. Mrs.
Grenville never allowed the children to go into the
kitchen under any pretence, and Charles knew well
that, if he disobeyed her orders, there would be an
end to all experiments with Donald for all time
coming. Arthur suggested he had one sponge-cake,
he would devote that to the cause. But Charles
said that would never do : there was no savoury smell
in a sponge-cake to make it a temptation to Donald,
9O The Triumphs of Steam.
and it would therefore be no credit to him if he
brought it to them safely.
' Oh, indeed, Charles,' said Mary, ' Donald is so
fond of sponge-cakes ; I know he can smell them
anywhere ; I have seen him stand and watch, and
wag his tail for ever such a long time before the
dining-room sideboard/
' That is because he knows cakes are kept there,
not because he smells them/ replied Charles.
' He will soon find there are cakes in the tin, trust
Donald for that/ said Ernest ' Let us make a be-
ginning : you fetch the J:in, Charles, and, Arthur,
you give me the cake, and we will try what we can
do with him/
Now one of the accomplishments which Ernest
had taught Donald, and of which he was unusually
proud, was to place a piece of cake before the dog,
and then make him sit and look at it, and not offer
to touch it until the word of command was given.
Accordingly, this preliminary training was gone
through whilst Charles went to fetch the tin ; then,
instead of being allowed to munch up the cake as
usual, it was removed from his sight, placed in the
tin, and then the tin was tied round his throat, and
he was ordered to convey it from one end of the
lawn, where Charles was placed, to the other, at
which Ernest was waiting to receive him.
But such a degree of obedience and self-denial
was quite beyond the highest efforts of dog morality.
Failure of the A ttempt. 9 1
Not only was his accustomed reward taken from
him, but the can which enclosed it was actually hung
round his neck, encumbering his movements, and
knocking painfully against his legs. It was too
much to expect that he would patiently submit.
In a series of miserable strugglings he tried to free
himself from his burden, and at length finding this
utterly beyond his power, he sat down in the centre
of the lawn, and yelled as only a Scotch terrier in
an agony of annoyance can yell.
In spite of his manifest distress, poor Donald
looked so exquisitely ridiculous, that at first the
children could do nothing but laugh ; then, finding
that neither coaxing nor threatening had any effect
in making him obedient to their will, they grew
angry and impatient, and it might have gone hard
with their little favourite had not Mr. Grenville
happened fortunately to come upon the lawn at the
identical moment; and asking what they were about,
and what was making poor Donald cry so piteously,
he heard the story of George Stephenson's dog, and
how they were intending to make Donald just as
sagacious.
' I am afraid you are not taking the same way to
teach him, then/ replied Mr. Grenville. * If George
Stephenson had been as irritable with his dog as
you are just now with Donald, I doubt very much
if he would ever have brought him his dinner
at all.'
92 The Triumphs of Steam.
' But, uncle ! he must be made to obey/ inter-
posed Charles.
' Yes, but not by being angry with him. If once
you frighten him, you will never get him to do what
you wish at all. It requires the most extraordinary
patience and perseverance to train an animal. You
must imitate these qualities of Mr. Stephenson, if
you wish to obtain the same success. Here, Donny,
come here/ added Mr. Grenville kindly. Donald
crouched up to his feet, and Mr. Grenville unloosed
the tin, whose battered sides bore evidence of the
violence of the struggle.
' Poor dog/ said Mr. Grenville. ' If he is as much
hurt as the can, he must be considerably bruised.
Poor Donny, poor Donny/ he added, as he patted
him gently ; ' see, he is all in a tremble. 1
'Oh! he is a stupid little fellow/ exclaimed Charles
crossly.
' I rather think it is somebody else who is a stupid
little fellow/ replied his uncle, ' to be angry because
a dog does not immediately understand his meaning.
You seem to expect more obedience from an irra-
tional brute than you yourself are often prepared to
give. How came this tin here ? '
' I brought it, uncle ; it is all my fault/ said
Charles. ' I never thought it would get spoiled/
' Well/ replied his uncle, 'if you will promise me
patiently and good-naturedly to teach Donald to
wear it, I will make you a present of it Let him
A Good Advice. 93
forget his present fright, and then teach him very
gradually. It will cost you much trouble, and you
will have need of considerable patience, but he will
learn in time ; and if you thus acquire a habit of
perseverance, you will have learned a valuable
lesson from the story of George Stephenson and
his dog.*
Stcplieiisori and his dog Spot.
P. 94.
STEPHENSQN S COTTAGE AT WILLINGTON QUAY.
CHAPTER V.
Stephenson : anecdotes of his early struggles for independence, and
of his untiring energy and perseverance. 1
?AMMA, do tell us some more about
George Stephenson/ said Ernest, as the
children were the next day sitting with
Mrs. Grenville. ' I want to hear some
more stories/
' But you make such a strange application of
1 See Smiles' Life of 'Stephenson , pp. 27-46.
96 The Triumphs of Steam.
them/ replied Mrs. Grenville. ' Papa tells me you
frightened poor Donald most unmercifully yester-
day/
* But we did not mean to do so, mamma.'
' And besides, aunt, added Charles, ' we are going
to make it all right again. We gave Donald a
double quantity of cake at tea last night, and I
think he has forgotten all his troubles/
' Oh, that he has not/ said Ernest ; ' he cut away
like mad this morning, when he thought you were
going to tie the tin round his neck again/
Charles coloured. 'Is it not a bore, aunt/ he
said, ' that the stupid little fellow is so frightened ?
I did not mean to hurt him, I am sure; and this
morning I was ever so gentle, but he would not let
me come near him with the tin ; and I do not know
what to do. I promised Uncle Henry I would per-
severe till I had taught him to carry it all right; and
if he will not let me catch him, how can I persevere,
aunt ? It is not my fault/
'You must have patience, my love, until he has
forgotten his fright ; till then you will only make
matters worse by persisting in your experiments.
I should advise you to put something nice in the
tin, and feed him out of it, and then let him have
the tin to play with it. He will get used to it in
that way/
' But I am afraid, aunt, if we did that/ said Charles,
' we should never get him to carry the tin safely ; he
Stephenson s Leisure Time. 97
would always be wanting to get the something nice
for himself to eat/
' I do not think he would, if you gave him a re-
ward every time he brought the tin safely. But I
really do not know what else to suggest/
1 1 wish I could ask Mr. Stephenson/ exclaimed
Charles. ' I wonder how he tamed his dog/
' By kindness and patience; you maybe quite sure
of that/ replied Mrs. Grenville.
' Oh, please do go on telling us about him/ said
Arthur ; * I do so want to know how he got on with
his learning/
'Wonderfully, considering the great difficulties
with which he had to contend/ replied Mrs. Gren-
ville ; ' but then he never wasted a moment's time.
When others were drinking and idling, George
Stephenson was hard at work, the only amuse-
ments which he allowed himself being to take a
good long walk in the country with some favourite
companion, or to go on a bird's-nesting excursion,
in search of some new object of interest. His quiet,'
studious tastes of course exposed him to the ridicule
of his more uproarious companions ; and it was per-
haps fortunate that the misconduct of one of these
men afforded Stephenson an opportunity of showing
that peaceful, regular habits are quite compatible
with a strong arm and a brave heart.
' At the mine where Stephenson was brakesman
there worked a man of the name of Nelson, a strong,
G
98 The Triumphs of Steam.
powerful, vigorous fellow, but of such a violent tem-
per that he was the terror of the whole neighbour-
hood, and by sheer dint of bullying he carried every-
thing before him, and lorded it just as he pleased
over all his more timid companions. Very likely
Nelson was jealous of Stephenson, for most men of
this class hate superiority in another, which they
feel, though they refuse to imitate. Relying on
Stephenson being as much afraid of him as every
one else, he one day took occasion to swear at him
most savagely for the awkward manner in which he
said Stephenson did his work. To this language
Stephenson, who knew quite as well what he was
about as Nelson, would not for a moment submit,
and so he quietly told the bully. Nelson only re-
iterated his charge, and following it up by very in-
sulting words, he ended by challenging his opponent
to settle their differences in a fair and open stand-
up fight. To the surprise of all the lookers on,
Stephenson instantly accepted the challenge, and
fixing a day when he should be quite prepared to
meet his adversary, he returned with -the most per-
fect composure to the care of his engine. The news
that Geordie Stephenson was going to fight Nelson
spread like wildfire through the neighbourhood, caus-
ing the most unbounded excitement ; and though
people were afraid openly to express their ardent
hopes that Nelson might get just such a thrashing as
he deserved, yet their silent sympathy was not the less
A Fight. 99
sincere. There were some few, however, who, think-
ing the contest too unequal, and dreading even that,
it might end in Stephenson's death, would have dis-
suaded him from fighting at what seemed to them
such dreadful odds ; but to all their well-meant ex-
postulations he had but one reply : " Never fear for
me ; I will fight him." And fight him he did, and
beat him too ; and from that day forth he would
have been a bold man who would have ventured to
find fault unjustly with George Stephenson, or to
call in question either his spirit or his courage/
' Why, mamma/ exclaimed Ernest, ' I thought you
did not approve of fighting/
'Fighting for fighting's sake is what I dislike/
replied Mrs. Grenville ; ' that seems to me both
cowardly and brutal : but fighting in support of
some great principle, or to protect the weak and
helpless, is often not only justifiable, but positively
necessary. I agree with our friend Tom Brown: 1
"As to fighting, keep out of it by all means if you
can. When the time comes, if it ever should, that
you have to say ' Yes ' or ' No ' to a challenge to
fight, say ' No ' if you can, only take care to make
it clear to yourself why you say ' No/ It is a proof
of the highest courage, if done from Christian motives ;
but do not say ' No ' because you fear a licking, and
pretend it is because you fear God ; that is neither
1 See Tom Browrfs School Days, by an Old Boy.
ioo The Triumphs of Steam.
Christian nor honest. But when you must fight,
fight it out, and do not give in whilst you can see
and stand ; " a passage I was so struck with, that
I know it by heart. Once be quite clear what are
the motives which actuate your conduct ; be sure
that they are noble and right ones, and such as God
would approve, and then fight as much as you like.
Stephenson's victory was of the greatest use, not
only to him, but to the whole neighbourhood ; and
his character for bravery once established, he had
but little difficulty in following his own inclinations.
He had now a double motive for wishing to lead
a quiet, steady life, as he had become extremely
attached to a very sweet, pretty girl, named Fanny
Henderson. Anxious to be married as soon as pos-
sible, and yet wishing to save a small sum first to
buy the furniture necessary for commencing house-
keeping, it occurred to him he might employ his
spare time profitably by turning shoemaker ; and he
set to work with such a hearty good-will to learn
this new trade, that in a very short time he was the
most popular cobbler in the whole neighbourhood ;
and his earnings soon reaching the sum he thought
necessary to justify his taking a cottage, there was
nothing to delay his marriage ; and on the 28th of
November 1802 it accordingly took place, and he
and his wife settled down in their new home at
Willington ; and a happy home it was.
' Mrs. Stephenson was a sweet, bright, cheerful
Death of Mrs. Stephenson. i o i
woman, just the very person to gladden up a poor
man's home, when he returned to it tired out with
his day's work ; and I question whether, amidst all
the luxurious splendour of his later life, George
Stephenson did not look back on that first year of
his married life, when he used to return home and
work out his problems by his humble but bright
and cheery fireside, as to one of the happiest por-
tions of his whole career. It was well he made the
most of it ; it was destined to be but a shortlived
happiness, for soon after the birth of their little boy,
Mrs. Stephenson's health gave way. It was thought,
that it might be only a temporary indisposition,
from which she would gradually rally ; but, alas !
the seeds of disease had taken root. The progress
of the ill might be delayed, but could not be
averted. For two years George Stephenson hoped
against hope, and then, to his -inexpressible grief,
the birth of a little daughter cost Mrs. Stephenson
her life. The child lived only a few months, and
then was laid by its mother's side in her early
grave. But Fanny was not forgotten : the memory
of her sweetness, her gentleness, her beauty, never
faded from her husband's mind. Neither the lapse
of years, nor the whirl of business, nor the incessant
claims which the world arid society made upon his
time, ever dimmed his recollections of his first love.
She held her own place in his heart, as warmly and
as vividly as when, in the days of his early struggles,
IO2 The Triumphs of Steam.
she was his joy, his support, his comforter. He loved
to trace all that was good in himself and his boy to
her gentle influence ; and years and years after, when
Robert had attained to fame and fortune, his father
would look at him proudly and exclaim, " He owes
it all to his mother."
' It was natural that with this exceeding love for
his wife, Mr. Stephenson should after her death
cling, more fondly than ever, to the child who re-
mained to him. Robert, his darling boy, became
his father's inseparable companion ; and to procure
. for his son, when he should be old enough to profit
by them, those advantages of education, the want of
which he felt so acutely himself, was the one absorb-
ing subject of George Stephenson's thoughts and
anxieties. But how was it to be done ? How was
he, a simple brakesman, to save such a sum of
money as would suffice for his purpose ? It was
hard matter enough to live, let alone education.
But difficulties never disheartened George Stephen-
son ; on the contrary, the more insuperable they
appeared, the more they excited his determination
to conquer them. He would deny himself in all
but the bare necessaries of life, and Robert should
obtain what he valued above meat and drink. But,
deny himself as he would, his savings increased but
slowly. This was the time of the great Continental
v/ar. Provisions were extraordinarily dear ; and the
distress caused by heavy taxation was pressing
A Calamity. 103
cruelly on the lower orders. Chance opened a new
source of wealth to the ingenious mechanic.
' One day when George was busily at work at the
mine, the chimney of his cottage caught fire ; the
neighbours ran to put it out, deluging in their zeal
the chimney with water, which of course made its
way into the cottage below, covering everything
with soot, and spoiling all that could be ruined by
dampness. Amongst the articles that suffered was
a clock, the most precious of all his household
stores. It was a terrible blow to Stephenson to
come home and find his poor friend silenced, whilst
its hands pointed motionless to the time of its de-
cease. What was to be done ? If his clock was sent
to a clockmaker to be repaired, he must of course
be paid for his work, and that was so much taken
from Robert's schooling. Why should he not put it
to rights himself? True enough, he had never done
anything of the sort, but there must have been a
time when the most expert clockmaker who ever
lived had been in the same predicament : why should
he not do what another man had already done ? He
could make an engine go : why could he not make
a clock go likewise ? Accordingly the clock was
taken down, and its works carefully studied, until
the principle of its mechanism was thoroughly under-
stood. Then commenced the work of reparation,
costing him many hours of patient thought, until at
length he had the delight 01 seeing his friend once
IO4 The Triumphs of Steam.
more established in his old niche, and hearing him
tick out his gratitude with a loud and regular beat.
The story of this new achievement was soon spread
abroad, and petitions poured in from the owners of
all the invalid clocks in the neighbourhood, that
they also might be put to rights ; until at length
George Stephenson's fame as clock-mender must
have caused a panic amongst the regular members
of the profession, while it added materially to the
weekly savings of the self-taught artist.
' It is an old saying, but a very true one, " That
we none of us know what we can do till we try."
It is because we will not give our minds to our
occupations, and set about them with downright
earnestness, as George Stephenson did, that we fall
so far short of the success which he obtained. Not
but that he was a very remarkable man, for the
qualities of his heart were quite as good as those of
his head ; and fond as I am of intellectual power, I
must confess that this is not always the case.
' Not very long after his wife's death, Stephenson
received an offer from a Scotch firm who had large
works near Montrose, that he should take employ-
ment under them, and superintend the working of
one of those engines of Boulton and Watt which
had for so long been the object of his admiration.
Stephenson had nothing now to tie him down to his
own old home, and the remuneration offered to him
at Montrose was so much higher than that which
Stephenson at Montrose. 105
he received as brakesman at Killingworth, that he
determined at once to close with the offer, thinking
that he should now have the opportunity of saving
a considerable sum of money, which could all be
laid by for Robert's education. Full of this one
idea, Stephenson made all his arrangements as
quickly as possible, placed his boy with a friend
on whose care he hoped he might fully rely, and
then, bidding his darling good-bye, he started on
his solitary journey with a brave spirit, though
somewhat heavy heart.
' Arrived at Montrose, he entered immediately on
his new duties, and made his arrangements for living
as economically as possible, spending every hour in
work that was not actually needed for rest and for
refreshment. Unfortunately, before Stephenson had
been very long in his new situation, his active spirit
conceived a notion that he could make some im-
provement in the engine of which he had the charge.
He might have been right enough ; but his scientific
knowledge could hardly at that time have been equal
to that of so experienced an engineer as James Watt,
consequently his experiment failed. His employers
were dissatisfied, and Stephenson was told that his
services were no longer required. This must have
been a sad blow, just at the very moment when he
was laying by a sufficiency for his darling purpose.
However, it could not be helped ; he must make the
best of it, and seek employment elsewhere. He
io6 The Triumphs of Steam.
might, very likely, easily have obtained what he
sought in Scotland, but he was longing to see Robert
again ; his own people understood him best, he felt ;
and if he was to attain to celebrity, it must be
amongst those with whom already he had obtained
a certain prestige. So, with the 28 which he had
saved, he made up his mind to go back again to
Newcastle, and there to seek occupation amongst
old friends.
' A curious story is told of his journey back again.
Not wishing to encroach upon the sum he had put
away for Robert, he travelled on foot, contenting
himself with the plainest possible fare, and drinking
only a good draught of water from some of the bright
sparkling streams he passed by the way. Evening
was drawing on ; he had had a more than usually
fatiguing day's march, when, tired and hungry, he
was crossing a moorland, where he saw not a sign of
a habitation. Suddenly a bright light glimmered
from a distance. There, then, perhaps was some
cottage where he could find shelter for the night.
He made towards the light immediately, and found,
to his great joy, that it proceeded from the window
of a farmhouse. Stephenson knocked at the door.
It was opened by the farmer himself; and Stephen-
son made known his wants, and begged for a night's
shelter. But those were perilous times : the country
was unsettled, and robbers were very frequent visi-
tors to lonely and unprotected houses. No wonder,
An Adventure. 107
then, that the farmer refused admission to a per-
fect stranger, who, tired and worn out with his day's
march, and in his common working dress, very
probably looked to the good man of the house a
somewhat suspicious character. Nothing daunted
by his refusal, Stephenson begged that if he would
not admit him indoors, he would kindly let him have
a little clean straw in an outhouse. " He wanted
nothing," he said, " but a night's rest, and surely the
farmer would not refuse that to a poor, houseless
traveller." The sound of Stephenson's cheery voice
attracted the attention of the farmer's wife ; so out
she came from the kitchen to see what all the talking
was about, and what the stranger wanted with her
husband.
' Women are generally gifted with a quicker
power of perception than men : their judgment may
not be so good in the long run, but certainly every
now and then they jump to the best conclusions.
No sooner did the good dame set eyes upon
Stephenson, than she read in his open countenance
a guarantee for his honesty ; and drawing her hus-
band aside, she so worked upon his feelings, that
he not only gave Stephenson permission to come
inside the house and rest himself, but offered him
cordially a share of their evening meal. The good
people must have wondered who they had got with
them ; for Stephenson, grateful for their kindness,
exerted himself to be as agreeable as possible, and
io8 The Triumphs of Steam.
told story after story, and anecdote after anecdote,
till it was far on in the night before any of them
thought of going to bed ; and the next morning,
when Stephenson, after thanking them for their
hospitality, begged to be allowed to make a proper
remuneration, his host and hostess angrily scouted
such a notion. " His stories were worth more than
the bread and cheese which he had eaten," they
said, " or the ale which he had drunk." They only
asked one thing of him, " that he would never pass
that way without coming to see them." Little any