would find him reading with such intense interest he 

 would not notice them. His family provided good read- 

 ing but he would read everything he could find. 



"Although born on a farm he was never very much in- 

 terested in farm life and seldom cared to do farm work. I 

 remember one time when father wanted him to drive the 

 horses on the mowing machine. The field was a large one 

 with woods bordering one side. Nearly every time around 

 the field when he would come to the woods he would 

 leave the horses standing and go into the woods and hunt 

 for bugs. When father spoke to him about it he replied 

 that the horses needed the rest." 



In a letter from an early teacher we learn that "He was 

 my pupil at 6 years of age. A bright, sturdy little lad in 

 high red top rubber boots. Nature study and trout fish- 

 ing were of special interest to him and he would roam the 

 tamarack swamp and wilds of Sulphur Springs territory 

 alone with great pleasure and wonderment. He was very 

 proud of his capture of a loon and had it mounted by a 

 taxidermist. . . . His collecting and mounting butterfiies 

 and insects was so pronounced that the whole community 

 was amazed." 



He doubtless passed through the various grades of ele- 

 mentary and secondary schools required as a preparation 

 of entry to Cornell University, where he entered in 1893 

 and graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy 

 in 1897. 



His further preparation for a scientific career is sum- 

 med up briefly in the obituary note by the writer in 

 Science for July 15, 1938, from which I quote: 



"Later he spent the years '98 and '99 in Germany — ex- 

 cept for six months in India where, according to Mrs. 

 Walton, 'he was interested mostly in collecting butterflies 

 and beetles'. We may question this since Caroline Louise 

 Graham, the daughter of a Missionary to India, later be- 

 came Mrs. Walton. He went to Brown University in 

 1899 and served as Assistant to Dr. A. S. Packard in 1900- 

 1901, while working for the Ph.D. degree. He studied at 

 Woods Hole during the summer of 1901 and was as- 

 sistant to Dr. Bumpus at the American Museum of Nat- 



