96 



THE OSPREY. 



Ky., with the intent to lead the staid 

 life of a merchant and a Benedict. 

 How he pursued that intent we read 

 in his own artless confession that, 

 engrossed in the study of birds, he 

 never thought of business beyond 

 "the ever-engaging journeys" for 

 the purchase of goods, which took 

 him through "the beautiful, the dar- 

 ling forests" of the country lying be- 

 tween Louisville and New York City. 

 He writes : 



"Were I to tell you that once, 

 when traveling and driving several 

 horses before me laden with goods 

 and dollars, I lost sight of the pack- 

 saddles, and the cash they bore, to 

 watch the motions of a warbler, I 

 should only repeat occurrences that 

 happened a hundred times and more 

 in those days." 



Two years in Louisville were fol- 

 lowed by a brief venture in Hender- 

 son, and a later attempt to build up 

 a trade at St. Genevieve, all of which 

 were fruitful chiefly in depleting his 

 fortune. In 1811 his business rela- 

 tions with his partner were dissolved, 

 Audubon declaring that "Rozier 

 cared only for money and liked St. 

 Gene\ieve ;" and Rozier writing, 

 "Audubon had no taste for com- 

 merce, and was continually in the 

 forest.' 



'i'he succeeding seventeen years 

 comprised a period of trying vicissi- 

 tudes in the experience of the Audu- 

 bons. The wife, always patient and 

 faithful, gave unreserved sympathy 

 to the wandering proclivities of her 

 husband, and while his plan for the 

 ^ ,..„^ . production of his great work deline- 



FROM THE MINIATURE BY F. CRI'IKSHANK, Pl'BLISHED BY ROBERT HAVELI,. ^ 



January 12, 1833. ating ' The Birds of America ' was 

 by a pair of large, beaming eyes, a noble forehead, taking shape, she lent him every possible encour- 

 long locks of curling hair falling to the shoulders, agement. She bore the long terms of separation 

 and an expression of singular energy and intelligence, necessary to his purpose without complaint, mean 

 In his indifference to society, he permitted his future while caring for their two sons, and contributing 

 wife to dwell for months on an adjoining estate before largely toward the family maintenance by teaching, 

 he discovered her proximity. At the first interview which at that early day was a fertile source of 

 he was aware of his mistake. Lucy Bakewell was a revenue in the South. Audubon was often without 

 woman of solid attainments, gained in the English a dollar in his pocket, yet when reduced to the sever- 

 home from which she had lately removed, and of est straits he was able easily to coin money out of 

 the staunch qualities needed in the wife of Audubon, his varied accomplishments: now drawing portraits 

 He was an ardent lover, but the young girl's father in chalk at five dollars a head, and now giving danc- 

 advised him to make some study of business before ing lessons which in a few winter months could be 

 assuming the responsibilities of a family. He there- made to yield two thousand dollars. Like Agassiz, 

 fore turned to the mercantile trade, in which his ex- he could not afford to stop his life-work for mere 

 periences were such as might be anticipated of an un- money-making. "One of the most extraordinary 

 tamable genius whose inclinations were averse to bar- things in all these adverse circumstances," he states, 

 tering in goods and accumulating pelf. He was mar- "was that I never for a day gave up listening to the 

 ried in 1808, and immediately departed for Louisville, songs of our birds, or watching their peculiar habits, 



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