'The Eakewell Family. 21 



not a single dish to my taste. I cared nothing for sump- 

 tuous entertainments. Pies, puddings, eggs, and milk oi 

 cream was the food I liked best; and many a time 

 was the dairy of Mrs. Thomas, the tenant's wife of Mill 

 Grove, robbed of the cream intended to make butter for 

 the Philadelphia market. All this while I was fair and 

 rosy, strong as any one of my age and sex could be, and 

 as active and agile as a buck. And why, have I often 

 thought, should I not have kept to this delicious mode of 

 living?" 



Note here a curious incident in connection with his 

 love of skating and his proficiency as a marksman. Hav- 

 ing been skating down the Perkiomen Creek, he met Miss 

 BakewelPs young brother William, and wagered that he 

 would put a shot through his cap when tossed into the air, 

 while Audubon was passing full speed. The experiment 

 was made, and the cap riddled. A still more striking 

 incident is thus related. " Having engaged in a duck- 

 shooting expedition up the Perkiomen Creek with young 

 Bakewell and some other friends, it was found that the ice 

 was full of dangerous air-holes. On our upward journey 

 it was easy to avoid accident, but the return trip was at- 

 tended with an event which had nearly closed my career. 

 Indeed, my escape was one of the inconceivable miracles 

 that occasionally rescues a doomed man from his fate. 

 The trip was extended too far, and night and darkness 

 had set in long before we reached home. I led the party 

 through the dusk with a white handkerchief made fast to 

 a stick, and we proceeded like a flock of geese going to 

 their feeding ground. Watching for air-holes, I generally 

 avoided them ; but increasing our speed, I suddenly 

 plunged into one, was carried for some distance by the 

 stream under the ice, and stunned and choking I was 

 forced up through another air-hole farther down the stream. 

 I clutched hold of the ice and arrested my downward 



