YOUNG AUDUBON'S CAVE 27 



is only content there. Whatever happens, he must do per- 

 fect work; no other work can satisfy him. This is his tide, 

 and the " current knows the way." 



He came to Pennsylvania with the suggestion for his 

 life. He brought, as it were, his pattern with him. How 

 was he to fulfil this work which he saw in outline? 



He must adopt the best methods of study that he could 

 command. These methods were so interesting and decisive 

 that we give a view of them here in his own words: 



"MY STYLE OF DRAWING BIRDS 



" When, as a little lad, I first began my attempts at 

 representing birds on paper I was far from possessing much 

 knowledge of their nature, and, like hundreds of others, 

 when I had laid the effort aside I was under the impression 

 that it was a finished picture of a bird because it possessed 

 some sort of a head and tail and two sticks in lieu of legs. 

 I never troubled myself with the thought that abutments 

 were requisite to prevent it from falling either backward 

 or forward; and oh, what bills and claws I did draw, to 

 say nothing of a perfectly straight line for a back, and a 

 tail stuck in anyhow, like an unshipped rudder! 



" Many persons besides my father saw my miserable at- 

 tempts, and so many praised them to the skies that perhaps 

 no one was ever nearer being completely wrecked than I 

 by these mistaken though affectionate words. My father, 

 however, spoke very differently to me. He constantly im- 



