318 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 



court, and was obliged to preserve the utmost decorum 

 of manner ; he expressed the belief that he had not once 

 laughed in the presence of the young lady during the 

 entire term of his tutorial engagement, which lasted 

 from the 18th of June to the 21st of October. Later, 

 in December of the same year, when his former pupil 

 passed him without recognition in the streets of New 

 Orleans, he indulged in the reflection that she had ap- 

 parently quite forgotten the great pains with which at 

 her own request he had done her portrait in pastels, 

 but, thanks to his talents, he thought that he could run 

 the gauntlet of the world without her help. 15 



At New Orleans Audubon soon found new pupils, 

 particularly through the aid of Mr. R. Pamar and Mr. 

 William Braud, 16 who came to his assistance, Mrs. 

 Braud and her son paying him at the rate of three dol- 

 lars for a lesson of one hour. On November 10, 1821, 

 he wrote: 



Continued my close application to my ornithology, writing 

 every day, from morning until night, omitting no observations, 

 correcting, re-arranging from my notes and measurements, and 

 posting up ; particularly all my land birds. The great many 

 errors I found in the work of Wilson astonished me. I try to 

 speak of them with care, and as seldom as possible, knowing 

 the good will of that man, and the vast many hearsay accounts 

 he depended on. 



15 The vivacious Miss Pirrie did not marry the young doctor, but 

 eloped to Natchez with the son of a neighboring planter, who died within 

 a month in consequence of a cold, said to have been contracted when he 

 waded a deep stream with his lady-love in his arms. Audubon's pupil 

 was thrice married, and bore five children; she died April 20, 1851, and 

 her ashes now rest by the side of her second husband, the Reverend 

 William Robert Bowman, the parish minister at St. Francisville. See 

 Arthur (Bibl. No. 230), loc. cit. 



"Mistakenly written "Brand" by Audubon's biographers, according to 

 Mr. Stanley C. Arthur, who writes that "Braud" is a very common name 

 in New Orleans. 



