re sent to school.

Old Robert was a general favourite in the village, especially amongst the
children, whom he was accustomed to draw about him whilst tending the
engine-fire, and feast their young imaginations with tales of Sinbad the
Sailor and Robinson Crusoe, besides others of his own invention; so that
"Bob's engine-fire" came to be the most popular resort in the village.
Another feature in his character, by which he was long remembered, was
his affection for birds and animals; and he had many tame favourites of
both sorts, which were as fond of resorting to his engine-fire as the
boys and girls themselves. In the winter time he had usually a flock of
tame robins about him; and they would come hopping familiarly to his feet
to pick up the crumbs which he had saved for them out of his humble
dinner. At his cottage he was rarely without one or more tame
blackbirds, which flew about the house, or in and out at the door. In
summer-time he would go a-birdnesting with his children; and one day he
took his little son George to see a blackbird's nest for the first time.
Holding him up in his arms, he let the wondering boy peep down, through
the branches held aside for the purpose, into a nest full of young
birds--a sight which the boy never forgot, but used to speak of with
delight to his intimate friends when he himself had grown an old man.

The boy George led the ordinary life of working-people's children. He
played about the doors; went birdnesting when he could; and ran errands
to the village. He was also an eager listener, with the other children,
to his father's curious tales; and he early imbibed from him that
affection for birds and animals which continued throughout his life. In
course of time he was promoted to the office of carrying his father's
dinner to him while at work, and it was on such occasions his great
delight to see the robins fed. At home he helped to nurse, and that with
a careful hand, his younger brothers and sisters. One of his duties was
to see that the other children were kept out of the way of the chaldron
waggons, which were then dragged by horses along the wooden tramroad
immediately in front of the cottage-door. This waggon-way was the first
in the northern district on which the experiment of a locomotive engine
was tried. But at the time of which we speak, the locomotive had
scarcely been dreamt of in England as a practicable working power; horses
only were used to haul the coa