CHAPTER X 



IX DAYS OF POVERTY— FATHER AND SOX— DAXIEL BOOXE 



The poverty of Audubon in the middle period of his 

 life, when he was nearly completing his collections, was that 

 of a martyr to science. He had a true wife and true hearts 

 in his boys. 



" The world deemed me mad/' he said, " but my family 

 believed in me." 



Mrs. Audubon wished him to go to London, to study 

 the use of oils in making perfect his paintings. To help 

 him, she opened a school. After a struggle it became suc- 

 cessful, and brought to her a large income. This she 

 offered to her husband: his interests were her interests- his 

 life her life. 



But Victor Audubon, his son — who had traveled with 

 his father, slept with him in the open, ate with him 

 from the bushes, and secured game for him, while he be- 

 came lost in study of some new bird — was a boy indeed 

 worthy of such a grand parent. He went into a store 

 at Louisville for a time, desiring, like his mother, to 

 make his father's noble work as easy and as perfect as 

 possible. 



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