CHAPTER Y 



A STRANGE ADVENTURE ON THE ICE A WEDDING JOURNEY IN 



AN "ARK" 



THE beautiful farm on the Schuylkill, which the elder 

 Audubon had secured during the Revolution, was called 

 Mill Grove. The house was fine, after the Pennsylvania 

 Dutch manner, and we may suppose that it contained one 

 of the first portraits of General Washington. For just 

 before the terrible scenes of suffering that followed the en- 

 campment of the American army at Valley Forge "Wash- 

 ington presented a portrait of himself, by an artist named 

 Polk, to Captain Audubon, which the captain, or " ad- 

 miral," highly valued, and it is hardly probable that he 

 had removed it to Nantes at this time. 



Near Mill Grove, and in view of it, was a mansion called 

 Flatland Ford, where lived Mr. William Bakewell, an Eng- 

 lish gentleman. One frosty morning young Audubon 

 chanced to meet Mr. Bakewell in the woods. The Eng- 

 lishman, too, loved nature, birds, and flowers. The new 

 country was full of promise to him. 



He had a lovely daughter named Lucy, who had her 



father's tastes. She heard the birds sing with delight. 



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