within the week, the mine was dry, and the men were sent to the
bottom. This was a grand job for George's future. The manager, a
Mr. Dodds, not only gave him ten pounds at once as a present, in
acknowledgment of his practical skill, but also appointed him
engine-man of the new pit, another rise in the social scale as well
as in the matter of wages. Dodds kept him in mind for the future,
too; and a couple of years later, on a vacancy occurring, he
promoted the promising hand to be engine-wright of all the
collieries under his management, at a salary of 100 pounds a year.
When a man's income comes to be reckoned by the year, rather than
by the week or month, it is a sign that he is growing into a person
of importance. George had now a horse to ride upon, on his visits
of inspection to the various engines; and his work was rather one
of mechanical engineering than of mere ordinary labouring
handicraft.

The next few years of George Stephenson's life were mainly taken up
in providing for the education of his boy Robert. He had been a
good son, and he was now a good father. Feeling acutely how much
he himself had suffered, and how many years he had been put back,
by his own want of a good sound rudimentary education, he
determined that Robert should not suffer from a similar cause.
Indeed, George Stephenson's splendid abilities were kept in the
background far too long, owing to his early want of regular
instruction. So the good father worked hard to send his boy to
school; not to the village teacher's only, but to a school for
gentlemen's sons at Newcastle. By mending clocks and watches in
spare moments, and by rigid economy in all unnecessary expenses
(especially beer), Stephenson had again gathered together a little
hoard, which mounted up this time to a hundred guineas. A hundred