50 AUDUBON 



that he must make money. He had had to use strong 

 persuasions to induce Mrs. Audubon to join him in New 

 Orleans. She had relatives in Cincinnati, as well as many 

 friends, and several pupils brought her a small income. 

 Who, recalling her early married life, can wonder that she 

 hesitated before leaving this home for the vicissitudes of 

 an unknown city? She and her husband were devotedly 

 attached to each other, but she thought more of the un- 

 certainty for her sons than for herself. They were now 

 boys of twelve and nine years old, and their mother, whose 

 own education was far beyond the average, realized how 

 unwise a thing for them the constant change was. Aud- 

 ubon was most anxious also that his " Kentucky lads," as 

 he often called them, should be given every advantage, 

 but he had the rare quality of being able to work 

 equally well in any surroundings, in doors or out, and he 

 failed to understand why others could not, just as he failed 

 to see why his wife should ever doubt the desirability of 

 going anywhere, at any time, under any conditions. He 

 thus writes to her in a letter, dated New Orleans, May 3, 

 1821 : "Thou art not, it seems, as daring as I am about 

 leaving one place to go to another, without the means. I 

 am sorry for that. I never will fear want as long as I am 

 well ; and if God will grant me health with the little talents 

 I have received from Nature, I would dare go to England 

 or anywhere, without one cent, one single letter of intro- 

 duction to any one." 



This, as we know, was no empty boast, but the principle 

 on which Audubon proceeded numberless times in his life. 

 His own courage, or persuasions, brought his wife, as has 

 been said, to join him in the Crescent City, and here as 

 elsewhere that noble woman proved her courage and en- 

 durance fully equal to his, although perhaps in another 

 line. 



Under the date of January I, 1822, Audubon writes: 

 " Two months and five days have elapsed before I could 



