54 JOHN JAMES AUDUBON 



bon appears to have returned to his wife 

 again in May, and to have engaged in 

 teaching her pupils music and drawing. 

 But something went wrong, there was a 

 misunderstanding with the Percys, and 

 Audubon went back to Natchez, revolv- 

 ing various schemes in his head, even 

 thinking of again entering upon mer- 

 cantile pursuits in Louisville. 



He had no genius for accumulating 

 money nor for keeping it after he had 

 gotten it. One day when his affairs 

 were at a very low ebb, he met a squatter 

 with a tame black wolf which took Au 

 dubon's fancy. He says that he offered 

 the owner a hundred dollar bill for it on 

 the spot, but was refused. He probably 

 means to say that he would have offered 

 it had he had it. Hundred dollar bills, 

 I fancy, were rarer than tame black 

 wolves in that pioneer country in those 

 days. 



About this time he and his son Victor 

 were taken with yellow fever, and Mrs. 



