JOHN JAMES AUDUBON. 175 



by a bad speculation in indigo. The drying of 

 bird's skins in his rooms was so disagreeable to his 

 neighbors that a message was sent him, through a 

 constable, insisting on his abating the nuisance ! 



Finance did not seem the specialty of the young 

 man, and he returned to Mill Grove. 



Dear as the place was to him, he sold it, invested 

 the capital in goods, married Lucy Bakewell, April 

 8, 1808, when he was twenty-eight years old, and 

 started for the West. They were twelve days in 

 sailing down the Ohio River in a flat-bottomed 

 float, called an ark. He engaged in trade at Louis- 

 ville, and the young couple were extremely happy. 

 Fortunate it was that they had these few months 

 of comfort, for hardship was soon to test their 

 affection. 



The war of 1812 so crippled business that he 

 and his partner decided to go to Hendersonville, 

 while Lucy and her infant son went home to her 

 father for a year. If Mr. Bakewell ever regretted 

 the choice which his daughter had made, she did 

 not, and never failed, when days were darkest, to 

 encourage him to write and win renown. When 

 all others bemoaned his lack of business success, 

 and his devotion to a non-paying pursuit, she alone 

 was his comforter, and was willing to suffer poverty 

 if thus his great work might be done. 



There was no success at Hendersonville, and the 

 goods were taken to St. Gene vie ve. Here the part- 

 ner married, and Audubon sold his interest to him, 

 purchased a horse, and started across the country 



