42 JOHN JAMES AUDUBON 



{t As we were straightened to the very 

 utmost, I undertook to draw portraits at 

 the low price of five dollars per head, in 

 black chalk. I drew a few gratis, and 

 succeeded so well that ere many days 

 had elapsed I had an abundance of 

 work." 



His fame spread, his orders increased. 

 A settler came for him in the middle of 

 the night from a considerable distance 

 to have the portrait of his mother taken 

 while she was on the eve of death, and a 

 clergyman had his child's body exhumed 

 that the artist might restore to him the 

 lost features. 



Money flowed in and he was soon 

 again established with his family in a 

 house in Louisville. His drawings of 

 birds still continued and, he says, be- 

 came at times almost a mania with him ; 

 he would frequently give up a head, 

 the profits of which would have supplied 

 the wants of his family a week or more, 

 "to represent a little citizen of the 

 feathered tribe." 



