AUDUBON 



63 



my road, at six o'clock I was at Mr. Johnson's house ; 1 

 a servant took the liorsc, I went at once to my wife's 

 apartment; her door was ajar, already she was dressed 

 and sitting by her piano, on which a young lady was 

 playinij. I pronounced her name gently, she saw me, 

 and the next moment I held her in my arms. Her emotion 

 was so great I feared I had acted rashly, but tears relieved 

 our hearts, on-ce more we were together." 



Audubon remained in Louisiana with his wife till Janu- 

 ary, 1830, when together they went to Louisville, Wash- 

 ington, Philadelphia, and New York, whence they sailed 

 for England in April. All his former friends welcomed 

 them on their arrival, and the kindness the naturalist had 

 received on his first visit was continued to his wife as well 

 as himself. Finding many subscribers had not paid, and 

 others had lapsed, he again painted numerous pictures for 

 sale, and journeyed hither and yon for new subscribers 

 as well as to make collections. 



Mrs. Audubon, meanwhile, had taken lodgings in Lon- 

 don, but that city being no more to her taste than to her 

 husband's, she joined him, and they travelled together 

 till October, when to Audubon's joy he found himself 

 at his old lodgings at 26 George St., Edinburgh, where 

 he felt truly at home with Mrs. Dickie ; and here he began 

 the " Ornithological Biography," with many misgivings, 

 as the journal bears witness: "Oct. 16, 1830. I know 

 that I am a poor writer, that I scarcely can manage to 

 scribble a tolerable English letter, and not a much better 

 one in French, though that is easier to me. I know I am 

 not a scholar, but meantime I am aware that no man 

 living knows better than I do the habits of our birds ; no 

 man living has studied them as much as I have done, and 

 with the assistance of my old journals and memorandum- 

 books which were written on the spot, I can at least put 

 down plain truths, which may be useful and perhaps 

 ^ Mr. Garrett Johnson, where Mrs. Audubon was then teaching. 



