grand sum of sixpence a day as picker, increased to eightpence a
little later on, when he rose to the more responsible and serious
work of driving the gin-horse? A proud day indeed it was for him
when, at fourteen, he was finally permitted to aid his father in
firing the colliery engine; though he was still such a very small
boy that he used to run away and hide when the owner went his
rounds of inspection, for fear he should be thought too little to
earn his untold wealth of a shilling a day in such a grown-up
occupation. Humbler beginnings were never any man's who lived to
become the honoured guest, not of kings and princes only, but of
the truly greatest and noblest in the land.

A coal-miner's life is often a very shifting one; for the coal in
particular collieries gets worked out from time to time; and he has
to remove, accordingly, to fresh quarters, wherever employment
happens to be found. This was very much the case with George
Stephenson and his family; all of them being obliged to remove
several times over during his childish days in search of new
openings. Shortly after Geordie had attained to the responsible
position of assistant fireman, his father was compelled, by the
closing of Dewley Burn mine, to get a fresh situation hard by at
Newburn. George accompanied him, and found employment as full
fireman at a small working, whose little engine he undertook to
manage in partnership with a mate, each of them tending the fire
night and day by twelve-hour shifts. Two years later, his wages
were raised to twelve shillings a week, a sure mark of his diligent
and honest work; so that George was not far wrong in remarking to a
fellow-workman at the time that he now considered himself a made
man for life.