58 JOHN JAMES AUDUBON 
passage on a schooner bound for Erie, 
farnishing his own bed and provisions 
and paying a fare of one dollar and a 
half. From Hrie he and a fellow-traveller 
hired a man and cart to take them to 
Meadville, paying their entertainers over 
night with music and portrait draw- 
ing. Reaching Meadville, they had only 
one dollar and a half between them, but 
soon replenished their pockets by sketch- 
ing some of the leading citizens. 
Audubon’s belief in himself helped 
him wonderfully. He knew that he had 
talents, he insisted on using them. Most’ 
of his difficulties came from trying to do 
the things he was not fitted to do. He 
did not hesitate to use his talents in a 
humble way, when nothing else offered 
—portraits, landscapes, birds and ani- 
mals he painted, but he would paint 
the cabin walls of the ship to pay his 
passage, if he was short of funds, or 
execute crayon portraits of a shoemaker 
and his wife, to pay for shoes to enable 
