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

58 LIFE OF GEOEGE STEPHENSON. [chap. vii.
country reading went in those days, and a very suggestive
thinker. Though his store of information might be compara-
tively small when measured with that of more highly cultivated
minds, much of it was entirely new to Stephenson, who regarded
him as a very clever and extraordinary person. Young as John
Wigham was, he could give much useful assistance to Stephen-
son at that time, and his neighbourly services were worth untold
gold to the eager pupil. Wigham taught him to draw
plans and sections ; though in this branch Stephenson proved so
apt that he soon surpassed his master. Wigham was also a
little versed in Chemistry and Natural Philosophy, and a volume
of Ferguson's Lectures on Mechanics which he possessed was a
great treasure to both the. students. One who remembers their
evening occupations, says he used to wonder what they meant
by weighing the air and water in their odd way. They were
trying the specific gravities of objects ; and the devices which
they employed, the mechanical shifts to which they were put,
were often of the rudest kind. In these evening entertainments,
the mechanical contrivances were supplied by Stephenson, whilst
Wigham found the scientific rationale. The opportunity thus
afforded to the former of cultivating his mind by contact with
one wiser than himself proved of great value, and in after-life
Stephenson gratefully remembered the assistance which, when a
humble workman, he had derived from John Wigham the
farmer's son.
His leisure moments thus carefully improved, it will be inferred
that Stephenson was necessarily a sober man. Though
his notions were never extreme on this point, he was systemat-
ically temperate. It appears that on the invitation of his master,
Ralph Dodds,—and an invitation from a master to a workman
is not easy to resist,—he had, on one or two occasions, been in-
duced to join him in a forenoon glass of ale in the public-house
of the village. But one day, about noon, when Mr. Dodds had
got him as far as the public-house door, on his invitation to
" come and take a glass o' yill," Stephenson made a dead stop,
and said firmly, " No, sir, you must excuse me ; I have made a
resolution to drink no more at this time of day." And he went
back. He desired to retain the character of a steady workman ;