10 IN THE DAYS OF AUDUBON 



Little Audubon found it dead one morning. His heart 

 seemed to stand still; his eyes became suffused with tears. 



" My bird, my darling bird ! I can not let it go ! I 

 will not — it shall not go ! " 



"But what will you do, my boy?" asked his fond 

 father. 



" I will paint it, and it shall live again ; it is too beau- 

 tiful to lose!" 



He sat down and transferred the bird with all of its 

 delicate coloring to the paper. Then they took the form 

 away and buried it; but he had it still in picture, and he 

 loved to dream of or imagine the field note of the little 

 bird that died. 



His home in Louisiana was full of sunshine and love, 

 of beauty and bloom, and tender hearts. It was a home 

 of wealth, but his heart was strange in it. 



" I love nature more than anything else. I was born 

 for the woods; I hear voices in the trees. I do not care 

 much for other things. I was born with an idea! " 



So he thought of himself. In the midst of his life 

 among the sun birds of the wide fields of Louisiana his 

 father was summoned to France, and he took his lively 

 boy with him. 



