IN DAYS OF POVERTY 83 



" Without money or means of making it, I applied to 

 Messrs. Keating and Bell for the loan of fifteen dollars, 

 but I had not the courage to do so until I had walked by 

 their house several times, unable to make up my mind how 

 to ask the favor. 



" I got the loan cheerfully, and took a deck passage for 

 Louisville. 



" I was allowed to take my meals in the cabin, but at 

 night slept among some shavings that I managed to scrape 

 together." 



He gave lessons in music, French, and drawing at a 

 country town. 



In these ways he collected money enough to pay his 

 passage to Europe, hoping there to show what America was 

 in the wealth of her birds. 



" I am alone in the world, my son," he would say in 

 substance to Victor, " but I will not always be. The old 

 text rings in my ears, that ' the man diligent in his busi- 

 ness shall stand before kings.' I have done as perfect 

 work as one could do in America, and it will win its own 

 harvest. 



" If I die before my work is completed, you must carry 

 on my work. It is the joy of a father to see his life go on 

 in his son." 



" My father thinks of nothing but birds," said Victor 

 Audubon to his mother. " Nature study is his life, but he 

 is poor. We must guard his honor, and see that he makes 



