AUDUBON AND DANIEL WEBSTER 201 



" I Lave confidence in the people of Boston/ 7 said Au- 

 dubon to his son. " Live among them if you can." * 



Schooled in nature, Webster's love for great oxen grew. 

 He used to rise early in the morning to feed them with 

 his own hand. It is said that the cattle on the place came to 

 know him, so that not only the houses but the barns of 

 Marshfield were gladdened when he was there. 



There are few more beautiful stories of lovers of natu- 

 ral history than one of the last days of the defender of the 

 Constitution. His biographer, George Ticknor Curtis, thus 

 tells it: 



" It was also during those days of gradual declension 

 of his strength, and after he had become unable to go 

 abroad, that the incident occurred which was so charac- 

 teristic of him, and which has been perhaps more remem- 

 bered than almost anything of the same nature that has 

 been told of him. Mr. Webster, as we have seen, had an 

 extraordinary fondness for great oxen, and he took much 

 pains to possess the choicest breeds. He liked a good horse, 

 and appreciated the fine points of the animal; but he was 

 not a lover of the horse. I am not sure that he cared any- 

 thing for dogs, although, in his most active days of shooting, 

 he may have kept a spaniel or a pointer. But of all the 

 brute creation he loved the ox. Oxen were the pets of his 

 large agricultural tastes, and when he could not see and feed 

 them he missed one of his greatest pleasures. He had come 

 * Audubon's own words. 



