We may now call Peter Cooper a mechanic.
A mechanic is one who has skill in using tools in shaping wood,
metals, etc.
Peter now found a situation in a woolen mill at Hempstead, Long
Island.
Here he received nine dollars a week.
Still he kept trying to find better ways of doing things.
He invented a machine for shearing cloth, and from that earned five
hundred dollars in two years.
With so much money as this he could not rest until he had visited
his mother.
He found his parents deeply in debt.
He gave them the whole of his money, and promised to do more than
that.
His father had not made a mistake in naming him after the Apostle
Peter.
During this time Mr. Cooper had learned to know a beautiful girl
named Sarah Bedell. This girl became his wife.
They moved to New York.
Here Mr. Cooper had a grocery-store.
A friend advised him to buy a glue factory which was for sale.
He knew nothing of the business, but he thought he could learn it.
He soon made not only the best glue, but the cheapest in the
country.
For thirty years he carried on this business almost alone, with no
salesman and no book-keeper.
He rose every morning at daylight, kindled his factory fires, and
worked all the forenoon making glue.
In the afternoon he sold it.
In the evenings he kept his accounts, wrote his letters, and read
with his wife and children.
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