JOHN JAMES AUDUBON 5 

 Audubon says of his mother: "Let 

 no one speak of her as my step- mother. 

 I was ever to her as a son of her own 

 flesh and blood and she was to me a true 

 mother.' 7 With her he lived in the city 

 of Nantes, France, where he appears to 

 have gone to school. It was, however, 

 only from his private tutors that he 

 says he got any benefit. His father de- 

 sired him to follow in his footsteps, and 

 he was educated accordingly, studying 

 drawing, geography, mathematics, fenc- 

 ing, and music. Mathematics he found 

 hard dull work, as have so many men of 

 like temperament, before and since, but 

 music and fencing and geography were 

 more to his liking. He was an ardent, 

 imaginative youth, and chafed under all 

 drudgery and routine. His foster-mother, 

 in the absence of his father, suffered him 

 to do much as he pleased, and he pleased 

 to "play hookey' 7 most of the time, 

 joining boys of his own age and disposi- 

 tion, and deserting the school for the 



