JOHN JAMES AUDUBON 89 

 Four hours' sleep out of the twenty- 

 four was his allotted allowance. 



One often marvels at Audubon's ap- 

 parent indifference to his wife and his 

 home, for from the first he was given to 

 wandering. Then, too, his carelessness 

 in money matters, and his improvident 

 ways, necessitating his wife's toiling to 

 support the family, put him in a rather 

 unfavourable light as a " good provider, ' ' 

 but a perusal of his journal shows that 

 he was keenly alive to all the hardships 

 and sacrifices of his wife, and from first 

 to last in his journeyings he speaks of his 

 longings for home and family. "Cut 

 off from all dearest me," he says in one 

 of his youthful journeys, and in his 

 latest one he speaks of himself as being 

 as happy as one can be who is "three 

 thousand miles from the dearest friend 

 on earth." Clearly some impelling 

 force held him to the pursuit of this 

 work, hardships or no hardships. Fort- 

 tunately for him, his wife shared his be- 



