their death, in all the simple luxury that his small means would
then permit him.

That, however, was not the end of George's misfortunes. Shortly
after, he was drawn by lot as a militiaman; and according to the
law of that time (for this was in 1807, during the very height of
the wars against Napoleon) he must either serve in person or else
pay heavily to secure a substitute. George chose regretfully the
latter course--the only one open to him if he wished still to
support his parents and his infant son. But in order to do so, he
had to pay away the whole remainder of his carefully hoarded
savings, and even to borrow 6 pounds to make up the payment for the
substitute. It must have seemed very hard to him to do this, and
many men would have sunk under the blow, become hopeless, or taken
to careless rowdy drinking habits. George Stephenson felt it
bitterly, and gave way for a while to a natural despondency; he
would hardly have been human if he had not; but still, he lived
over it, and in the end worked on again with fuller resolution and
vigour than ever.

For several years Geordie, as his fellow-colliers affectionately
called him, continued to live on at one or other of the Killingworth
collieries. In a short time, he entered into a small contract with
his employers for "brakeing" the engines; and in the course of this
contract, he invented certain improvements in the matter of saving
wear and tear of ropes, which were both profitable to himself and
also in some small degree pointed the way toward his future plans
for the construction of railways. It is true, the two subjects have
not, apparently, much in common; but they are connected in this way,
that both proceed upon the principle of reducing the friction to the