172 JOHN JAMES AUDUBON. 



cheer him. Lucy Bakewell taught Audubon 

 English, and he in return gave her drawing lessons. 



At Mill Grove the weeks passed pleasantly, is 

 not the world always beautiful when we love some- 

 body ? Audubon says in his journal : " I had no 

 vices; but was thoughtless, pensive, loving, fond 

 of shooting, fishing, and riding, and had a passion 

 for raising all sorts of fowls, which sources of 

 interest and amusement fully occupied my time. 

 ... I ate no butcher's meat, lived chiefly on fruits, 

 vegetables, and fish, and never drank a glass of 

 spirits or wine until my wedding day. To this I 

 attribute my continual good health, endurance, and 

 an iron constitution." 



Here at Mill Grove, while yet a boy, he planned 

 his great work, the "Birds of America/ 7 their 

 habits, and a description of them. This one idea 

 dominated Audubon's life. Through poverty and 

 suffering, this one desire was ever before him. It 

 is well to plan early in life what we wish to do, 

 and then do it. 



One writer has well said of Audubon : " For 

 sixty years or more he followed, with more than 

 religious devotion, a beautiful and devoted pursuit, 

 enlarging its boundaries by his discoveries, and 

 illustrating its objects by his art. In all climates 

 and in all weathers; scorched by burning suns, 

 drenched by piercing rains, frozen by the fiercest 

 colds : now diving fearlessly into the densest 

 forest, now wandering alone over the most savage 

 regions ; in perils, in difficulties, and in doubts ; 



