I do anything for money now a days. |
I feel fully decided that we should all go to Europe together and to work as if an established Partnership for Life consisting of Husband Wife and Children. |
I have now 42 Dollars, health, and as much anxiety to pursue My Plans of Accomplishing My collection as Ever I had and Hope God Will Grant Me the same Powers to proceed. |
I must put myself in a train of doing... and thereby keep the machine in motion. |
I never for a day gave up listening to the songs of our birds, or watching their peculiar habits, or delineating them in the best way I could. |
I purchased excellent and beautiful horses, visited all such neighbors as I found in congenial spirits, and was as happy as happy could be. |
I rise long before day and work till nightfall, when I take a walk and go to bed. |
I waged war against my feelings. |
I wish I had eight pairs of hands, and another body to shoot the specimens. |
If I can procure three hundred good substantial names of persons, or bodies, or institutions, I cannot fail to do well for my family, although I must abandon my life to its success, and undergo many sad perplexities and perhaps never see again my own beloved America. |
In my deepest troubles, I frequently would wrench myself from the persons around me and retire to some secluded part of our noble forests. |
Mathematics was hard, dull work. Geography pleased me more. For dancing I was quite enthusiastic. |
My drawings at first were made altogether in watercolors, but they wanted softness and a great deal of finish. |
My drawings of Owls and other birds of similar plumage were much improved. I have continued the style ever since. |
My father... sailed as a sea captain to the West Indies, where in 1785 I found light and life in the New World. |