The next day was spent as yesterday. Our pockets replenished, we walked to Pittsburgh in two days. [Illustration: MISS JENNETT BENEDICT AN EXAMPLE OF AUDUBON'S ITINERANT PORTRAITURE; DRAWN AT MEADVILLE, PENNSYLVANIA, IN 1824. AFTER THE ORIGINAL CRAYON DRAWING IN POSSESSION OF MR. FREDERICK A. STERLING.] [Illustration: MISS ELIZA PIRRIE "MY LOVELY MISS PIRRIE OF 'OAKLEY,'" AUDUBON'S PUPIL IN 1821. AFTER A PORTRAIT IN POSSESSION OF HER GRANDDAUGHTER, MISS LUCY M. MATTHEWS. PUBLISHED BY COURTESY OF MR. STANLEY CLISBY ARTHUR.] A month was spent at Pittsburgh, where Audubon searched the country for birds and continued his drawings. While there he made the acquaintance of the Reverend John Henry Hopkins, a man of superb appearance and rare conversational and oratorical powers, later known as the learned and versatile first Episcopal Bishop of Vermont. Audubon attended some of the ministrations of this remarkable man, through whose influence, he said, "I was brought to think, more than I usually did, of religious matters; but I never think of churches without feeling sick at heart at the sham and show of some of their professors. To repay evil with kindness is the religion that I was taught to practice, and this will forever be my rule." In the autumn of 1824 Audubon planned another visit to the Great Lakes in search of new birds, and tried to induce his friend, Mr. Edward Harris, to accompany him. While wandering in the forests along those lakes he thought out the plan which was finally followed in the publication of his _Birds of America_: Chance, and chance alone, had divided my drawings into three different classes, depending upon the magnitude of the objects to be represented; and, although I did not at that time possess all the specimens necessary, I arranged them as well as I could into parcels of five plates—I improved the whole as much as was in my power; and as I daily retired farther from the haunts of man, determined to leave nothing undone, which my labor, my time, or my purse could accomplish.[317] Audubon's journal kept on the lakes has been lost, but that journey was fresh in mind when he wrote the following letter to Edward Harris.[318] _Audubon to Edward Harris_ BEECHWOODS. Near BAYOU SARA, LA. _Jany. 31 1825._ Surely I have not dismerited your esteem; when on the Lakes, both Ontario and Champlain, I wrote to you—again from Pittsburgh, all without any answer, and I am sorry to say that I have been either abandoned or forgotten by all those other persons who had promised to keep up a correspondence with me.... The country I visited was new, in great measure, to me. I have been delighted with the tour, but will forever regret that your sister's indisposition could not allow you time to augment my pleasure by your company.