He worked this way long after he had an income of thirty thousand dollars a year.
This was not because he wanted to have so much more money for himself.
You remember he had a plan to carry out which would take much money.
That was to build his free school for the poor.
He had no time for parties or pleasures.
But the people of New York knew he was both honest and intelligent.
They asked him to be a member of the City Council, and President of their Board of Education.
Peter Cooper never refused to do anything which might help others.
So he did not refuse these offices.
I must tell you now about Mr. Cooper's first child, and how fine a thing it was to have an inventor for a papa.