72 JOHN JAMES AUDUBON 
poured from me. I thought I should 
faint.’’? But he survived the ordeal and 
responded in a few appropriate words. 
He was much dined and wined, and 
obliged to keep late hours — often get- 
ting no more than four hours sleep, and 
working hard painting and writing all 
the next day. He often wrote in his 
journals for his wife to read later, bid- 
ding her Good-night, or rather Good- 
morning, at three A.M. 
Audubon had the bashfulness and 
awkwardness of the backwoodsman, and 
doubtless the naiveté and picturesqueness 
also; these traits and his very great 
merits as a painter of wild life, made 
him a favourite in Edinburgh society. 
One day he went toread a paper on the 
Crow to Dr. Brewster, and was so nervous 
and agitated that he had to pause for a 
moment in the midst of it. He left the 
paper with Dr. Brewster and when he 
got it back again was much shocked: 
“He had greatly improved the style 
