ngth of bone and muscle.

When the pit at Mid Mill was closed, George and his companion Coe were
sent to work another pumping-engine erected near Throckley Bridge, where
they continued for some months. It was while working at this place that
his wages were raised to 12s. a week--an event to him of great
importance. On coming out of the foreman's office that Saturday evening
on which he received the advance, he announced the fact to his
fellow-workmen, adding triumphantly "I am now a made man for life!"

The pit opened at Newburn, at which old Robert Stephenson worked, proving
a failure, it was closed; and a new pit was sunk at Water-row, on a strip
of land lying between the Wylam waggon-way and the river Tyne, about half
a mile west of Newburn Church. A pumping engine was erected there by
Robert Hawthorn, the Duke's engineer; and old Stephenson went to work it
as fireman, his son George acting as the engineman or plugman. At that
time he was about seventeen years old--a very youthful age at which to
fill so responsible a post. He had thus already got ahead of his father
in his station as a workman; for the plugman holds a higher grade than
the fireman, requiring more practical knowledge and skill, and usually
receiving higher wages.

George's duty as plugman was to watch the engine, to see that it kept
well in work, and that the pumps were efficient in drawing the water.
When the water-level in the pit was lowered, and the suction became
incomplete through the exposure of the suction-holes, it was then his
duty to proceed to the bottom of the shaft and plug the tube so that the
pump should draw: hence the designation of "plugman." If a stoppage in
the engine took place through any defect which he was incapable of
remedying, it was for him to call in the aid of the chief engineer to set
it to rights.

But from the time when George Stephenson was appointed fireman, and more
particularly afterwards as engineman, he applied himself so assiduously
and so successfully to the study of the engine and its gearing--taking
the machine to pieces in his leisure hours for the purpose of cleaning
and understanding its various parts--that he soon acquired a thorough
practical knowledge of its construction and mode of working, and very
rarely needed to call the engineer of the colliery to his aid. His
engine became a sort of pet with him, and he was never wearied of
watching and inspecting it with admiration.

Though eightee