The life of George Stephenson, railway engineer - Lighthouse ...

CHAP. IV.] FIGHT WITH NED NELSON. 39
a drinking-bout, as many others did. "William Coe says of him,
that, though he knew Stephenson intimately, he never saw him
« the worse for drink " in his life. On pay Saturday afternoons,
when the workmen at the pit kept their fortnightly holiday,
some spending their afternoon and evening in the public-house,
and others in the adjoining fields, cock-fighting and dog-fighting,
Stephenson, instead of either drinking or playing, used to take
his engine to pieces for the purpose of obtaining " insight " and
practical acquaintance with its details ; and he invariably cleaned
all the parts, and put the machine in thorough working order
before leaving her. Thus his engine was always clean and in
excellent condition, and his knowledge of its powers and its
mechanism became almost complete.
In the winter evenings Stephenson proceeded with his lessons
in arithmetic under Andrew Robertson. ;6ut Robertson had
soon taught his pupil all that he himself knew, which probably
did not amount to much. He even admitted that he could carry
Stephenson no further in arithmetic, the pupil having outstripped
the master. He went on, however, with his writing-lessons
and by the year following, when he signed his name in the par-
ish registry of Newburn, on the occasion of his marriage to
Fanny Henderson, he was able to write a good, legible round
hand.
Not long after he began to work at Black Callerton as brakes-
man, he had a quarrel with a pitman named Ned Nelson, a
roistering bully, who was the terror of the village. Nelson was
a great fighter ; and it was therefore considered dangerous to
quarrel with him. Stephenson was so unfortunate as not to be
able to please this pitman by the way in which, as brakesman,
he drew him out of the pit ; and Nelson swore at him grossly
because of his alleged clumsiness. George defended himself,
and appealed to the testimony of the other workmen as to his
brakeing. But Nelson had not been accustomed to George's
style of self-assertion ;
and after a great deal of abuse, he threat-
ened to kick the brakesman, who defied him to do so. Nelson
ended by challenging Stephenson to a pitched battle ; and the
latter accepted the challenge, when a day was fixed on which
the fight was to come ofi;
;