54 JOHN JAMES AUDUBON 
bon appears to have returned to his wife 
again in May, and to have engaged in 
teaching her pupils music and drawing. 
But something went wrong, there was a 
misunderstanding with the Percys, and 
Audubon went back to Natchez, revolv- 
ing various schemes in his head, even 
thinking of again entering upon mer- 
cantile pursuits in Louisville. 
He had no genius for accumulating 
money nor for keeping it after he had 
gotten it. One day when his affairs 
were at a very low ebb, he met a squatter 
with a tame black wolf which took Au- 
dubon’s fancy. He says that he offered 
the owner a hundred dollar bill for it on 
the spot, but was refused. He probably 
means to say that he would have offered 
it had he had it. Hundred dollar bills, 
I fancy, were rarer than tame black 
wolves in that pioneer country in those 
days. 
About this time he and his son Victor 
were taken with yellow fever, and Mrs. 
