DEBUT AS A NATURALIST 343 



heads of oats, Dutch toys on the floor, a large drum, a bassoon, 

 fur caps along the walls, a hammock and rolls of leather. 

 Closing the extra windows with blankets, I procured a painter's 

 light. 



A young man sat to try my skill ; his phiz was approved ; 

 then the merchant; the room became crowded. In the evening 

 I joined him in music on the flute and violin. My fellow travel- 

 ler also had made two sketches. We wrote a page or two in 

 our journals, and went to rest. 



The next day was spent as yesterday. Our pockets re- 

 plenished, we walked to Pittsburgh in two days. 



A month was spent at Pittsburgh, where Audubon 

 searched the country for birds and continued his draw- 

 ings. While there he made the acquaintance of the 

 Reverend John Henry Hopkins, a man of superb ap- 

 pearance and rare conversational and oratorical powers, 

 later known as the learned and versatile first Episcopal 

 Bishop of Vermont. Audubon attended some of the 

 ministrations of this remarkable man, through whose 

 influence, he said, "I was brought to think, more than 

 I usually did, of religious matters ; but I never think of 

 churches without feeling sick at heart at the sham and 

 show of some of their professors. To repay evil with 

 kindness is the religion that I was taught to practice, 

 and this will forever be my rule." 



In the autumn of 1824 Audubon planned another 

 visit to the Great Lakes in search of new birds, and 

 tried to induce his friend, Mr. Edward Harris, to ac- 

 company him. While wandering in the forests along 

 those lakes he thought out the plan which was finally 

 followed in the publication of his Birds of A merica : 



Chance, and chance alone, had divided my drawings into 

 three different classes, depending upon the magnitude of the 

 objects to be represented; and, although I did not at that time 



