LIFE AT "MILL GROVE" 109 



he failed to respond. In the autumn, however, when 

 grouse had become plentiful in the woods, a chance 

 meeting brought them together, and young Audubon, 

 who was a great admirer of his neighbor's expert marks- 

 manship and well trained dogs, duly apologized for his 

 neglect and forthwith paid a visit to "Fatland Ford." 



We shall let the naturalist tell in his own words of his 

 first meeting with the young woman who afterwards 

 became his wife: 



Well do I recollect the morning, and may it please God that 

 I may never forget it, when for the first time I entered Mr. 

 Bakewell's dwelling. It happened that he was absent from 

 home, and I was shown into a parlor where only one young lady 

 was snugly seated at her work by the fire. She rose on my 

 entrance, offered me a seat, and assured me of the gratifica- 

 tion her father would feel on his return, which, she added, would 

 be in a few moments as she would despatch a servant for him. 

 Other ruddy cheeks and bright eyes made their transient ap- 

 pearance but, like spirits gay, soon vanished from my sight; 

 and there I sat, my gaze riveted, as it were, on the young girl 

 before me, who, half working, half talking, essayed to make 

 the time pleasant to me. Oh ! may God bless her ! It was she, 

 my dear sons, who afterward became my beloved wife, and your 

 mother. 



When Mr. Bake well returned, his daughter, Lucy, 

 presided at the tea that was served, and Audubon re- 

 ceived his first experience of hospitality in the English 

 style, that was to be repeated in Britain at a later day 

 on a more lavish scale. A hunting expedition was ar- 

 ranged and the men started out at once. Festivities of 

 various sorts, and, later, skating parties, became the 

 order of the day, and it was not long before hospitali- 

 ties were exchanged, when Audubon, having secured, 



