26 IN THE DAYS OF AUDUBON 



piness in the coming summer. They repaired the old nest 

 as if they were preparing for the June and July days of 

 their growing broods. They seemed to anticipate. 



Young Audubon's heart entered into these anticipa- 

 tions. He watched them as they lined their nest. 



One day they came back with swift wings that seemed 

 to tremble with joy. They had found some downy geese 

 feathers, possibly torn from a goose among the briers or 

 shed on the waters. Here was upholstery worthy of a 

 king. They mingled it with the down lining. Then their 

 notes rang out with exultant sweetness. 



And young Audubon, in his leafy studio, sat and asked 

 the questions that we find in the book of Job: How came 

 these happy wings by these instincts and intuitions? 

 Whence came these lessons of inward wisdom more won- 

 derful than reason? When came they — where? There was 

 a divinity behind it all. Xo waters flow without a source, 

 no song fills the air without an origin, there is no evolution 

 without an evolver. 



So for the sake of doing artistic justice to this bird of 

 the south and northern summer, Audubon became one of 

 the family of the pewee, and was adopted by it as a spirit 

 of the woods. 



Think of a young man who had shared the luxuries of 

 a Louisiana plantation and seen the splendors of French 

 life finding content in a rocky cave with the pewees! But 

 the true artist can find his home in his purpose of life, and 



