58 IN THE DAYS OF AUDUBON 



" Finally, I paid every bill, and at last left Henderson, 

 probably forever, without a dollar in my pockets. 



" My plantation in Pennsylvania had been sold, and 

 nothing was left me but my humble talents. 



" Were these talents to remain dormant under such 

 exigencies? Was I to see my beloved Lucy and children 

 suffer for want of bread in the abundant State of Ken- 

 tucky? Was I to repine because I acted like an honest 

 man? 



" No. I had talents, and to them I instantly re- 

 sorted." 



His gifts had been made more valuable by this integrity 

 of character. They had grown. He went to nature with 

 a clear vision, and his noble wife, who had been brought 

 up in luxury, now with an infant in her arms, sustained 

 him in what he had done. 



He turned his gifts to portrait painting for the sake of 

 his family, but he suddenly discovered a new power in 

 his work. 



He thus speaks of this enlargement of his talents in his 

 journals: 



" My drawings of birds were not neglected meantime. 

 I would even give up drawing a portrait, the profits of 

 which would have supplied the wants of my family for a 

 week or more, to represent a little citizen of the feathered 

 tribe. 



" Nay, my dear sons, I thought that I now drew birds 



