10 LIFE OF AUDUBON. 



He says:— "I ate no butcher's meat, lived chiefly on fruits, 

 vegetables, and fish, and never drank a glass of spirits or wine 

 until my wedding day. To this I attribute my continual good 

 health, endurance, and an iron constitution. So strong was 

 the habit, that I disliked going to dinner parties, where people 

 were expected to indulge in eating and drinking, and where 

 often there was not a single dish to my taste. I cared nothing 

 for sumptuous entertainments. Pies, puddings, eggs, and milk 

 or cream was the food I liked best ; and many a time was the 

 dairy of Mrg. Thomas, the tenant's wife of Mill Grove, robbed of 

 the cream intended to make butter for the Philadelphia market. 

 All this while I was fair and rosy as a girl, strong as any one of 

 my age and sex could be, and as active and agile as a buck. 

 And why, have I often thought, should I not have kept to this 

 delicious mode of living ?" 



Note here a curious incident in connection with his love of 

 seating and his proficiency as a marksman. Having been 

 skating down the Perkiominy Creek, he met Miss Bakewell's 

 young brother William, and wagered that he would put a 

 shot through his cap when tossed into the air, while Audubon 

 was passing full speed. The experiment was made, and the 

 cap riddled. A still more striking incident is thus related : 

 "Having engaged in a duck-shooting expedition up the 

 Perkiominy Creek with young Bakewell and some young 

 friends, it was found that the ice was full of dangerous air-holes. 

 On our upward journey it was easy to avoid accident, but the 

 return trip was attended with an accident which had nearly 

 closed my career. Indeed, my escape was one of ths inconceiv- 

 able miracles that occasionally rescues a doomed man from his 

 fate. The trip was extended too far, and night and darkness 

 had set in long before we reached home. I led the party 

 through the dusk with a white handkerchief made fast to a stick, 

 and we proceeded like a flock of geese going to their feeding 

 ground. Watching for air-holes, I generally avoided them ; but 

 increasing our speed, I suddenly plunged into one, was carried 

 for some distance by the stream under the ice, and stunned and 

 choking I was forced up through another air-hole farther down 

 the stream. I clutched hold of the ice and arrested my downward 

 progress, until my companions arrived to help me. My wet 



