JOHN JAMES AUDUBON 15 
drowning. He was leading the party 
down the river in the dusk of the even- 
ing, with a white handkerchief tied to 
a stick, when he came suddenly upon a 
large air hole into which, in spite of 
himself, his impetus carried him. Had 
there not chanced to be another air hole 
a few yards below, our hero’s career 
would have ended then and there. The 
current quickly carried him beneath the 
ice to this other opening where he man- 
aged to seize hold of the ice and to 
crawl out. 
His friendship with the Bakewell fam- 
ily deepened. Lucy taught Audubon 
English, he taught her drawing, and 
their friendship very naturally ripened 
into love, which seems to have run its 
course smoothly. 
Audubon was happy. He had ample 
means, and his time was filled with 
congenial pursuits. He writes in his 
journal: “I had no vices, but was 
thoughtless, pensive, loving, fond of 
