224 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1896. 



Every farmer in those days kept a few swarms of bees. AVhile 

 Mr. Ryder was not a professional apiculturist, he knew in common 

 with his neighbors a good deal about the raising of bees. Ryder 

 developed an interest and without being specially instructed became 

 proficient in the care of bees, and throughout life often reverted to 

 their habits for many points in the economy of insects. 



At three years of age he began to receive instruction from his 

 maternal grandmother from whom he early mastered the rudiments 

 of German. He attributed his subsequent fluency in German (for 

 he could speak it like a native) to this early impression. A little 

 book entitled "Biblische Naturgeschichte fiir Kinder" bears his 

 name on the cover with the date of 1860. 



Ryder spent the life usual to a country boy. He possessed great 

 energy of body and was fond of walking, rarely, if ever, using a 

 horse to ride, although the stable was at his command. He attended 

 the country school from the age of six or seven until his fifteenth 

 year, Avhen he ran away. Soon afterward he was sent to the Acad- 

 emy and then to the Normal School at Millersville from which he 

 also ran away, and did not return home but lived the life of a tramp 

 for some days before he was detected. He was severely punished 

 for both these escapades. It appears that Ryder Avas always very 

 sensitive and never associated with boys of his age in the sports cus- 

 tomary to youth, but wandered about alone through the woods and 

 meadows collecting insects and plants. He soon earned the nick- 

 name of " crazy John." In the end his father prudently inter- 

 viewed the principal of the Academy and made special arrangements 

 which enabled Ryder to live on more agreeable terms. But he was 

 unhappy under restraint. Class work was distasteful to him and 

 discipline of any kind resented. In order to secure his obedience 

 it was sometimes necessary to give him directions adverse to those 

 which it was intended for him to obey. Preferring to study in his 

 own way, he spent the greater portion of his time in the library of 

 one of the local literary societies. He read every book it contained. 

 He was geatly influenced by Horace Mann's " Thoughts for a Young 

 Man,"^ a copy of which he procured. In 1875 in writing to his 

 brother he said " be careful of this book, five dollars would not buy 

 it, if I were unable to get another." In 1868 when in his sixteenth 



^ " A Few Tlionghts for a Young Man : a Lecture delivered before the Bos- 

 ton Mercantile Library Association on its 29th Anniversary. By Horace 

 Mann. Boston : Ticknor, Reed and Fields, 1850. 



