JOHN JAMES AUDUBON 5 
Audubon says of his mother: ‘Let 
no one speak of her as my step-mother. 
I was ever to her as a son of her own 
flesh and blood and she was to me a true 
mother.’’ ‘With her he lived in the city 
of Nantes, France, where he appears to 
have gone to school. It was, however, 
only from his private tutors that he 
says he got any benefit. His father de- 
sired him to follow in his footsteps, and 
he was educated accordingly, studying 
drawing, geography, mathematics, fenc- 
ing, and music. Mathematics he found 
hard dull work, as have so many men of 
like temperament, before and since, but 
music and fencing and geography were 
more to his liking. He was an ardent, 
imaginative youth, and chafed under all 
drudgery and routine. His foster-mother, 
in the absence of his father, suffered him 
to do much as he pleased, and he pleased 
to ‘‘play hookey’’ most of the time, 
joining boys of his own age and disposi- 
tion, and deserting the school for the 
