a glue factory which was for sale.

He knew nothing of the business, but he thought he could learn it.

He soon made not only the best glue, but the cheapest in the
country.

For thirty years he carried on this business almost alone, with no
salesman and no book-keeper.

He rose every morning at daylight, kindled his factory fires, and
worked all the forenoon making glue.

In the afternoon he sold it.

In the evenings he kept his accounts, wrote his letters, and read
with his wife and children.

He worked this way long after he had an income of thirty thousand
dollars a year.

This was not because he wanted to have so much more money for
himself.

You remember he had a plan to carry out which would take much
money.

That was to build his free school for the poor.

He had no time for parties or pleasures.

But the people of New York knew he was both honest and intelligent.

They asked him to be a member of the City Council, and President of
their Board of Education.

Peter Cooper never refused to do anything which might help others.

So he did not refuse these offices.

I must tell you now about Mr. Cooper's first child, and how fine a
thing it was to have an inventor for a papa.

Mr. Cooper made for this baby a self-rocking cradle, with a fan
attached to keep off the flies, and with a musical instrument to
soothe the dear baby into dreamland.

Mr. Cooper's business prospered.

[Illustration: THE "BEST FRIEND,"--FIRST LOCOMOTIVE BUILT IN
AMERICA. BUILT BY PETER COOPER.]

Once the glue factory burned, with a loss of forty thousand dollars.

But at nine o'clock the next morning there was lumber on the ground
for a factory three times as large as the one burned.

He then built a rolling mill and furnace in Baltimore.

They were then trying to build the Baltimore and Ohio railroad.

Only thirteen miles of the road had been finished.

The directors were about to give up the work.

There were many sharp turns in the track.

The directors were discouraged because they thought no engine could
be made to make those turns.

Mr. Cooper knew that this road would help his rolling mill.

Nothing could discourage him.

[Illustration: FIRST TRAIN IN AMERICA.]

He went to work and made the first locomotive made in America.

He attached a box-car to it.

Then he invited the directors to take a ride.

He took the place of engineer himself.

Away they flew over the thirteen miles in an h