ephenson's evenings at home were not, however, exclusively devoted
either to business or to the graver exercises above referred to. He
would often indulge in cheerful conversation and anecdote, falling back
from time to time upon the struggles and difficulties of his early life.
The not unfrequent winding up of his story addressed to the young men
about him, was, "Ah! ye young fellows don't know what _wark_ is in these
days!" Mr. Swanwick takes pleasure in recalling to mind how seldom, if
ever, a cross or captious word, or an angry look, marred the enjoyment of
those evenings. The presence of Mrs. Stephenson gave them an additional
charm: amiable, kind-hearted, and intelligent, she shared quietly in the
pleasure of the party; and the atmosphere of comfort which always
pervaded her home contributed in no small degree to render it a centre of
cheerful, hopeful intercourse, and of earnest, honest industry. She was
a wife who well deserved, what she through life retained, the strong and
unremitting affection of her husband.

When Mr. Stephenson retired for the night, it was not always that he
permitted himself to sink into slumber. Like Brindley, he worked out
many a difficult problem in bed; and for hours he would turn over in his
mind and study how to overcome some obstacle, or to mature some project,
on which his thoughts were bent. Some remark inadvertently dropped by
him at the breakfast-table in the morning, served to show that he had
been stealing some hours from the past night in reflection and study.
Yet he would rise at his accustomed early hour, and there was no
abatement of his usual energy in carrying on the business of the day.

CHAPTER XI.
ROBERT STEPHENSON'S RESIDENCE IN COLOMBIA, AND RETURN--THE BATTLE OF THE
LOCOMOTIVE--"THE ROCKET."

We return to the career of Robert Stephenson, who had been absent from
England during the construction of the Liverpool railway, but was shortly
about to join his father and take part in "the battle of the locomotive,"
which was now impending.

On his return from Edinburgh College in the summer of 1823, he had
assisted in the survey of the Stockton and Darlington line; and when the
Locomotive Engine Works were started in Forth Street, Newcastle, he took
an active part in that concern. "The factory," he says, "was in active
operation early in 1824; I left England for Colombia in June of that
year, having finished drawing the designs of the Brusselton stationa