quantity of water.

It is evident that the office of engineer was not an easy one. It
was all he could do to take care of the steam end of the pump;
another man was needed to look after the lower end, where the
pump-valve worked in another vertical cylinder. The water entered
this cylinder through holes in the sides, some higher, some lower,
according to the stage of water in the mine. The pumps did not run
continuously, but they lowered the water to the bottom as often as
it was necessary. As the level of the water in the mine fell, it was
necessary to plug the upper holes in the pump cylinder; the man who
watched the lower end and plugged those holes was known as the
"plugman." It is difficult to conceive of a less inspiring
occupation than that to which George Stephenson was promoted at the
age of seventeen. Alone in the dark, chilled by the damp air, and
wet by the black water, he was forced, by lack of other occupation,
to note every mechanical detail of the machinery, and to study
methods of improving it.

At the age of eighteen he heard of some wonderful engines made by
Watt & Boulton, at their new factory, and was told that the engines
were fully described and illustrated in books. So he determined to
learn to read. He was encouraged in this resolve by stories that a
French soldier, by the name of Napoleon Bonaparte, was sweeping
everything before him on the continent of Europe, and that he was
planning the subjugation of Great Britain. Information about
Napoleon could be gained from printed newspapers if one could only
read.

But where should he learn? There was no public school in Wylam; none
of our hero's companions went to school; none of the people he
associated with could read or write. However, he found a teacher in
a young man by the name of Robert Cowens, of whom he took three
lessons per week in the evening. He earned money for books and
instruction by mending shoes and repairing clocks. He was handy with
tools, and quick at seeing the relations of things. As soon as he
could read and write he learned to cipher, taking a slateful of
"sums," set by his teacher, to his work in the morning, to be "done"
during odd moments while watching his pump or engine, for he was
soon advanced to the care of the steam end of the machine.

While young Stephenson, now grown a man, is thus busy with his
primer, his copy-book, and "four rules," let us reflect upon the
uncanny circumstances of his early life. He had