CHAPTER IX 



VICTOR, THE SON OF ATJDUBON FATHER AND SON IN THE 



FOREST FOREST TALES PARTRIDGE LAND AN OLD KEN- 

 TUCKY FOURTH OF JULY 



AUDUBON was a loving father. He had two sons, who 

 became companions of his long journeys, John and Victor, 

 and one day he said to Victor, a boy just entering his teens: 



" I am about to make a long journey of two or three 

 hundred miles along the Ohio and Green Rivers. The very 

 sight of the Ohio River fills me with joy." 



" But you will not go alone? " asked his son. 



" I have been alone on many a journey as long and 

 hard." 



" But I was a child then. Now I am a boy. I want 

 to go with you. I can walk." 



" We will have to share the living of the woods," said 

 Audubon; " pork and grated corn and beds of leaves." 



" That does not matter if I can be with you." 



They set out, if not hand in hand yet heart in heart, 

 Audubon stopping to listen to the notes of every new song- 

 bird that appeared among the tangled boughs and cane- 

 brakes. 



