362 



AUDUBON 



i 



returned to Indian Key, where we arrived three hours 

 before sunset. 



The sailors and other individuals to whom my name and 

 pursuits had become known, carried our birds to the pilot's 

 Louse. His good wife had a room ready for me to draw 

 in, and my assistant might have been seen busily engaged 

 in skinning, while George Lehman was making a sketch 

 of the lovely isle. 



Time is ever precious to the student of nature. I placed 

 several birds in their natural attitudes, and began to out- 

 line them. A dance had been prepared also, and no sooner 

 was the sun lost to our eye, than males and females, in- 

 cluding our captain and others from the vessel, were seen 

 advancing gayly towards the house in full apparel. The 

 birds were skinned, the sketch was on paper, and I told 

 my young men to amuse themselves. As to myself, I could 

 not join in the merriment, for, full of the remembrance of 

 you, reader, and of the patrons of my work both in 

 America and in Europe, I went on " grinding " — not on 

 an organ, like the Lady of Bras d'Or, but on paper, to the 

 finishing not merely of my outlines, but of my notes re- 

 specting the objects seen this day. 



The room adjoining that in which I worked was soon 

 filled. Two miserable fiddlers screwed their screeching, 

 silken strings, — not an inch of catgut graced their instru- 

 ments, — and the bouncing of brave lads and fair lasses 

 shook the premises to the foundation. One with a slip 

 came down heavily on the floor, and the burst of laughter 

 that followed echoed over the isle. Diluted claret was 

 handed round to cool the ladies, while a beverage of more 

 potent energies warmed their partners. After supper our 

 captain returned to the " Marion," and I, with my young 

 men, slept in light swinging hammocks under the eaves of 

 the piazza. 



It was the end of April, when the nights were short, and 

 the days therefore long. Anxious to turn every moment 





