72 JOHN JAMES AUDUBON 

 poured from me. I thought I should 

 faint. " But he survived the ordeal and 

 responded in a few appropriate words. 

 He was much dined and wined, and 

 obliged to keep late hours often get- 

 ting no more than four hours sleep, and 

 working hard painting and writing all 

 the next day. He often wrote in his 

 journals for his wife to read later, bid- 

 ding her Good-night, or rather Good- 

 morning, at three A.M. 



Audubon had the bashfulness and 

 awkwardness of the backwoodsman, and 

 doubtless the nai'vet^ and picturesqueness 

 also ; these traits and his very greal 

 merits as a painter of wild life, made 

 him a favourite in Edinburgh society. 

 One day he went to read a paper on the 

 Crow to Dr. Brewster, and was so nervous 

 and agitated that he had to pause for a 

 moment in the midst of it. He left the 

 paper with Dr. Brewster and when he 

 got it back again was much shocked 

 "He had greatly improved the style 



