r her, he fixed over his house, and with a
friend, Mr. Rozier, and a good-natured housekeeper, lived a simple,
country life. You would have enjoyed a visit to him about this time. He
turned the lower floor into a sort of museum. The walls were festooned
with birds' eggs, which had been blown out and strung on thread. There
were stuffed squirrels, opossums, and racoons; and paintings of gorgeous
colored birds hung everywhere. Audubon had great skill in training
animals and one dog, Zephyr, did wonderful tricks.

When Audubon and Lucy married, they went to Kentucky, where he and his
friend Rozier opened a store. But Rozier did most of the store work, as
Audubon was apt to wander off to the woods, for he had already decided
to make this book about birds. His mind was not on his business, as you
can see when I tell you that one day he mailed a letter with eight
thousand dollars in it and never sealed it! The only part of the
business he enjoyed were the trips to New York and Philadelphia to buy
goods. These goods were carried on the backs of pack horses, and a good
part of the journeys led through forests. He lost the horses for a whole
day once, because he heard a song-bird that was new to him, and as he
followed the sound of the bird so as to get a sight of it, he forgot all
about the pack horses and the goods.

By and by his best friends said he acted like a crazy man. Only his wife
and family stood by him. Finally when his money was gone, and there were
two children growing up, things looked rather desperate. But Lucy, his
wife, said: "You are a genius, and you know more about birds than any
one living. I am sure all you need is time to show the world how clever
you are. I will earn money while you study and paint!"

So Audubon traveled to seek out the haunts of still more birds, while
Lucy went as governess in rich families, or opened private schools where
she could teach her own two boys as well as others. She earned a great
deal of money, and when he had made all his pictures and was ready to
publish the books, she had nearly enough to pay the expense, and gave it
to him.

"No," he said, "I am going to earn part of this myself. I will open a
dancing class." He had danced beautifully ever since he was a child and
could not understand how people could be so awkward and stupid as his
class of sixty Kentuckians proved to be. In their first lesson he broke
his bow and almost ruined his beautiful violin in his excitemen