64: IN THE DAYS OF AUDUBON 



All houses and cabins, as well as taverns, were opened 

 to travelers in those rude times. 



He describes this journey in a most picturesque way. 

 At one point he says: " Thousands of robins were flying 

 southward in the calm clear air; the Ohio was spread before 

 us as smooth as a mirror, and into its waters we leaped with 

 pleasure." 



So they journeyed on, father and son, each sharing 

 each other's delight in nature. 



Queer people they met, but always people with open 

 hearts and doors. 



Among the cabins that they visited, stopping there for 

 food and lodging, was one which Audubon calls the lazy 

 man's. He says: 



" On arriving at the cabin of the lazy man, blessed with 

 an industrious wife and six healthy children, all of them 

 laboring for his support, we were welcomed by a woman 

 whose manners and speech indicated that she belonged to 

 the better class of people. 



" Better breakfast we never ate. The bread was made 

 of new corn ground on a tin grater [think of the time when 

 families grated their own meal!], the chickens were cooked 

 by the daughters; coffee was added, and my son had fresh 

 milk. 



" The kind woman, who held her babe against her 

 bosom, seemed delighted to see how heartily we ate." 



It probably did her good to so enter into a traveler's 



