AUDUBON 



73 



I- -J 



as artist, and Lewis Squires as secretary and general 

 assistant. With the exception of Mr. Harris, all were 

 engaged by Audubon, who felt his time was short, his 

 duties many, while the man of seventy ( ?) had no longer 

 the strength of youth. 



November of 1843 saw him once more at Minniesland, 

 and the long journeys were forever over; but work 

 on the " Quadrupeds " was continued with the usual 

 energy. The next few years were those of great happi- 

 ness. His valued friend Dr. Thomas M. Brewer, of 

 Boston, visited him in 1846. Writing of him Dr. Brewer 

 says : ^ " The patriarch had greatly changed since I had 

 last seen him. He wore his hair longer, and it now hung 

 down in locks of snowy whiteness on his shoulders. His 

 once piercing gray eyes, though still bright, had already 

 begun to fail him. He could no longer paint with his 

 wonted accuracy, and had at last, most reluctantly, been 

 forced to surrender to his sons the task of completing the 

 illustrations to the " Quadrupeds of North America." 

 Surrounded by his large family, including his devoted wife, 

 his two sons with their wives,' and quite a troop of grand- 

 children, his enjoyments of life seemed to leave him little 

 to desire. ... A pleasanter scene, or a more interesting 

 household it has never been the writer's good fortune to 

 witness." 



Of this period one of his daughters-in-law ' speaks 

 in her journal as follows : " Mr. Audubon was of a most 

 kindly nature ; he never passed a workman or a stranger 

 of either sex without a salutation, such as, ' Good-day, 

 friend,' 'Well, my good man, how do you do?' If a 

 boy, it was, ' Well, my little man,' or a little girl, ' Good 

 morning, lassie, how are you to-day?' All were noticed, 



\m 



• mi] 



^ -m 



1; ,,'i 



^ i- 



n 



» Harper's Monthly Magazine, October, 1880, p. 665. 



* Both sons had married a second time. Victor had married Georgiana 

 R. Mailory of New York, and John, Caroline Hall of England. 



• Mrs. V. G. Audubon. 



