210 IN THE DATS OP AUDUBON 



" A thousand dollars! Has any one bought one yet? " 



" Yes." 



"Who?" 



" The king." 



" You don't say that. Squire, you are joking! " 



" No, no. I have just been reading something in the 

 paper about him. What do you think it is? " 



" That breaks me. He was about the most unlikely man 

 to come to any good end that I ever met. But, as I think 

 of it, he meant to be honest and was good-hearted, and he 

 loved nature, and he studied the woods as though he had a 

 royal commission to find out all about nature and birds and 

 animals, and things that we hold at small account. But, 

 squire, read us what the paper says about him. I hold 

 no grudge against him." 



" He has been given a present." 



" I am glad of that. I hope it is something useful. 

 , Few people can need help more. Who has made him a 

 present? " 



" The emperor." 



"You don't say so, squire! What emperor?" 



" The Czar." 



" The Czar of Kussia? " 



" The Czar of Kussia." 



"How did the Czar of Kussia hear of him?'" 



" He has seen the birds that he painted." 



"What, those that he painted out here?" 



