lage. But one day, about noon, when 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-improvement had already
begun to exercise an important influence on his life. This was the
training and education of his son Robert, now growing up an active,
intelligent boy, as full of fun and tricks as his father had been. When
a little fellow, scarcely able 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 the engine was a sort of wag, and thinking to get a laugh at
the boy, he said, "Those bars are getting varra bad, Robert; I think we
main cut up some of that hard wood, and put it in instead." "What would
be the use of that, you fool?" said the boy quickly. "You would no
sooner have put them in than they would be burnt out again!"

So soon as Robert was of proper age, his father sent him over to the
road-side school at Long Benton, kept by Rutter, the parish clerk. But
the education which Rutter could give was of a very limited kind,
scarcely extending beyond the primer and pothooks. While working as a
brakesman on the pit-head at Killingworth, the father had often bethought
him of the obstructions he had himself encountered in life through his
want of schooling; and he formed the noble determination that no labour,
nor pains, nor self-denial on his part should be spared to furnish his
son with the best education that it was in his power to bestow.

[Picture: Rutter's School House, Long Benton]

It is true his earnings were comparatively small at that time. He was
still maintaining his infirm parents; and the cost of liv