The naturalist tells us that his father hoped that he would follow in his footsteps, or else become an engineer, and he saw that his son was instructed in the elements of mathematics, geography, fencing and music. But as Lieutenant Audubon was continually on the move, supervision in those matters fell to the over-indulgent stepmother, with the result that, instead of doing his duties at school, young Audubon took to the fields. Every night, he said, he would return with his lunch basket well laden with the spoils of the day—birds' nests, eggs, and curiosities of every sort destined for the museum into which his room had already been transformed. He was then in the "collecting stage," when that sense of possession dominates the heart of the boy, which, if well directed, can be turned to excellent account.

Lieutenant Audubon encouraged his son's taste for natural history and for drawing, but did not regard such accomplishments as a substitute for what he considered more serious subjects. He himself had suffered too much from lack of a formal education and was resolved to give his children the best opportunities within their reach. "Revolutions," he once remarked, according to his son, "were not confined to society, but could also take place in the lives of individuals," when they were all "too apt to lose in one day the fortune they had before possessed; but talents and knowledge, added to sound mental training, assisted by honest industry," could "never fail, nor be taken from any one when once the possessor of such valuable means."

When the elder Audubon returned from one of his periodic cruises, "my room," said the naturalist, "made quite a show," and the father complimented him on his good taste; but upon being questioned in regard to the progress made in his other studies, he could only hang his head in silence. His sister Rosa, on the contrary, who was also called to account, was warmly commended upon the improvement shown in her musical exercises. The next morning at dawn a carriage was drawn up before the Audubon door, and with the father and son, together with the latter's trunk and violin, was soon proceeding in the direction of Rochefort. The sailor had laid his plans and was about to execute them in his own way. Presently, said the son, his father drew forth a book and began to read, thus leaving him to his own resources. In this way they traveled for a number of days, not an unnecessary word being spoken during the entire journey, until the walls of Rochefort had been passed, and they alighted at the door of the father's house in that city. When they had entered, the naturalist continues, "my father bade me sit by his side, and taking one of my hands, calmly said to me: 'My beloved boy, thou art now safe. I have brought thee here that I may be able to pay constant attention to thy studies; thou shalt have ample time for pleasures, but the remainder must be employed with industry and care. This day is entirely thine, and as I must attend to my duties, if thou wishest to see the docks, the fine ships-of-war, and walk around the wall, thou mayest accompany me.'"

The youth accepted his father's proposal with good grace, and was presented to the officers whom they met, but he soon found that he was like a prisoner of war on parade. He was enrolled at once in the military school, where he was placed under the immediate care of Gabriel Loyen du Puigaudeau, his future brother-in-law. It was not long, however, before young Audubon gave his guardian the slip; he jumped from the window of his prison and made for the gardens of the Marine Secrétariat, but a corporal, whom he had recognized as a friend, suddenly nipped his plans in the bud; he was ordered, he said, aboard a pontoon, then lying in port, and there was obliged to remain until his father, who was absent at the time, finally released him, "not without a severe reprimand." The following record, written long after, is reminiscent of this period: "This day twenty-one years since I was at Rochefort in France. I spent most of the day at copying letters of my father to the Minister of the Navy.... What has happened to me since would fill a volume.... This day, January first, 1821, I am on a keel boat going down to New Orleans, the poorest man on it."

Audubon's stay at Rochefort, the date of which is no doubt correctly given in the journal just quoted, was destined to be short. After a year he returned to Nantes, and later to "La Gerbetière," where as before he spent all of his leisure in roaming the fields and looking for birds, their nests, their eggs and their young. At about this time, when fifteen years of age, Audubon began to make a collection of his original drawings of French birds, which was greatly extended in 1805 and 1806.

He has recorded that at the behest of his foster mother, who was an ardent Catholic, he was confirmed in that Church when "within a few months of being seventeen years old"; he was surprised and indifferent, but "took to the catechism, studied it and other matters pertaining to the ceremony, and all was performed to her liking." Since no record of this act has been found, it is probable that the ceremony in question was confused with that of his baptism, which, as we have noticed, occurred on October 23, 1800, six months before he attained his sixteenth birthday.

After having seen something of the character of Audubon's early training in France, it will not be surprising to find that when, at the age of forty-five, he first seriously began to write for publication and in English, which was not his mother tongue, he found himself handicapped in many ways. In after life he wrote that the only school which he had ever attended was that of Adversity, and that his tuition there had been of a prolonged and elaborate character. Though this statement was made under the stress of present feeling, it was not wholly devoid of truth.

CHAPTER VII
FIRST VISIT TO THE UNITED STATES, AND LIFE AT "MILL GROVE"

Audubon is sent to the United States to learn English and enter trade—Taken ill—Befriended by the Quakers—Settles at "Mill Grove" farm—Its history and attractions—Studies of American birds begun—Engagement to Lucy Bakewell—Sports and festivities.