in order to preserve the valuable situation which he had obtained.

Well, about the wages. When Mr. Maudslay referred his young workman to
the chief cashier as to his weekly wages, it was arranged that Nasmyth
was to receive ten shillings a week. He knew that, by strict economy, he
could live within this amount. He contrived a small cooking apparatus,
of which we possess the drawings. It is not necessary to describe his
method of cooking, nor his method of living; it is sufficient to say
that his little cooking apparatus (in which he still takes great pride)
enabled him fully to accomplish his purpose. He lived within his means,
and did not cost his father another farthing.

Next year his wages were increased to fifteen shillings. He then began
to save money. He did not put it in a bank, but used his savings for the
purpose of making the tools with which he afterwards commenced business.
In the third year of his service, his wages were again increased, on
account, doubtless, of the value of his services. "I don't know," he has
since said, "that any future period of my life abounded in such high
enjoyment of existence as the three years I spent at Maudslay's. It was
a glorious situation for one like myself,--so earnest as I was in all
that related to mechanism--in the study of men as well as of machinery.
I wish many a young man would do as I then did. I am sure they would
find their reward in that feeling of constant improvement, of daily
advancement, and true independence, which will ever have a charm for
those who are earnest in their endeavours to make right progress in life
and in the regard of all good men."

After three years spent at Maudslay's, Mr. Nasmyth returned to Edinburgh
to construct a small stock of engineering tools suitable for starting
him in business on his own account. He hired a workshop and did various