l"0 AUDUBON THE NATURALIST. 



CHAPTER II. 



A S Audubon advanced towards manhood, his 

 -*-^ father desired to present him with some 

 enduring evidence of the affectionate regard he 

 had ever manifested. An estate, or, according 

 to American phraseology, a plantation, in the 

 beautiful State of Pennsylvania,* surrounded 

 by woodlands, meadows, and verdurous hills, 

 was the appropriate token selected. This spot 

 offered many an enticing subject for the artist's 

 pencil. 



Rambling at dawn, to return wet with the 

 fresh dews of morning — ^rejoiced if the bearer of 

 a feathered prize — Audubon here passed deli- 

 cious days in the pursuit of his favourite studies. 



His plantation reposed on the sloping declivity 

 of the Perkioming Creek. Along the rocky 

 banks, it was his habit fondly to loiter. There 

 he could watch the sweet flowers cordially un- 

 folding their beauty to the sun, see the contem- 

 plative kingfisher perched with dignity on some 



* At that time Pennsylvania was a slave state, and the 

 farms were called plantations. 



