onsisted of but
one apartment on the ground-floor, with the garret over-head, to which
access was obtained by means of a step-ladder. But with his own hands
Stephenson built an oven, and in the course of time he added rooms to the
cottage, until it became a comfortable four-roomed dwelling, in which he
lived as long as he remained at Killingworth.

He continued as fond of birds and animals as ever, and seemed to have the
power of attaching them to him in a remarkable degree. He had a
blackbird at Killingworth so fond of him that it would fly about the
cottage, and on holding out his finger, would come and perch upon it. A
cage was built for "blackie" in the partition between the passage and the
room, a square of glass forming its outer wall; and Robert used
afterwards to take pleasure in describing the oddity of the bird,
imitating the manner in which it would cock its head on his father's
entering the house, and follow him with its eye into the inner apartment.

Neighbours were accustomed to call at the cottage and have their clocks
and watches set to rights when they went wrong. One day, after looking
at the works of a watch left by a pitman's wife, George handed it to his
son; "Put her in the oven, Robert," said he, "for a quarter of an hour or
so." It seemed an odd way of repairing a watch; nevertheless, the watch
was put into the oven, and at the end of the appointed time it was taken
out, going all right. The wheels had merely got clogged by the oil
congealed by the cold; which at once explains the rationale of the remedy
adopted.

There was a little garden attached to the cottage, in which, while a
workman, Stephenson took a pride in growing gigantic leeks and astounding
cabbages. There was great competition amongst the villagers in the
growth of vegetables, all of whom he excelled, excepting one of his
neighbours, whose cabbages sometimes outshone his. In the protection of
his garden-crops from the ravages of the birds, he invented a strange
sort of "fley-craw," which moved its arms with the wind; and he fastened
his garden-door by means of a piece of ingenious mechanism, so that no
one but himself could enter it. His cottage was quite a curiosity-shop
of models of engines, self-acting planes, and perpetual-motion machines.
The last-named contrivances, however, were only unsuccessful attempts to
solve a problem which had effectually baffled hundreds of preceding
inventors. His odd and eccentric contr