1892.] ^ «^^ LRiischenberger. 



questions, regardinj;- him as a poor, intelligent bo}- who was striving to 

 instruct himself. This was the beginning of an enduring friendship. In 

 a short time Mr. Kilvington cheerfully assumed to be his systematic in- 

 structor, and, after his pupil had become distinguished, complacently 

 mentioned to friends that he had been Leidy's botanical preceptor. 



On one occasion Cyrus and the young professor spent a whole day in 

 Bartram's garden, near Gray's FerrA^ and did not reach home till night. 



'• The professor," as Cyrus styled him, "used to say that the valley of 

 the Wissahickon was the best place in the neighborliood to find plants. 

 He very soon knew more about them than I did. Sometimes we w^ent all 

 day with nothing to eat but raw turnips we got out of the fields, for the 

 old man was stingy of spending-money to his boys, though he was always 

 a bountiful provider of the very best things in the market for them at 

 home. Once we went into Jersey, and that was the only time I ever 

 cheated the professor. We saw in a thick bush a big snake, four or five 

 feet long, with a white spot under his throat.* The professor wanted to 

 catch him, so he gave me a carpet bag to hold open on one side of the 

 bush for the snake to run into, while he frightened him out from the 

 other. The snake came hissing along towards me. I jumped aside — I 

 couldn't help it— and let him get away, but I never let on that I was 

 scared." 



In the course of his schooldaj's the young naturalist, besides gathering 

 stones and plants, caught butterflies and bugs, which he pinned in a box 

 prepared for the purpose, to be arranged in his cabinets at home. 



Cyrus stated, among other things, that he sometimes acted as caterer 

 and waiter tor the lads on special occasions ; and that whenever the boys 

 came into the hatter's shop, their father always talked to them in German. 

 He also said that Dr. Leidy had taught him a great deal about plants and 

 their medicinal uses, adding, "Through what I learned from him, I have 

 been able through many years to make a decent living." 



The offspring of almost constant companionship during their boyish 

 days, at home or in the fields, was a personal sympathy, a friendship 

 which, to the credit of both, was life-long, notwithstanding the extreme 

 difference and dist.ince between the social places each occupied in adult 

 age. The professor gave him, at different times, several books on medi- 

 cine, and among them his Elementary Treatise on Anatomy, in which is 

 written, "To Cyrus Burris, from liis old friend, the author." These are 

 Cyrus' treasures. He quietly but, no doubt, proudly shows them to a 

 favored few. 



The future professor did not own shinny or hockey stick, kite, skates 

 nor ball ; never played marbles, nor whistled nor hummed a tune at any 

 time. 



He was a good boy in school, always neat and tidy, and never joined 

 his schoolmates in their out-of-door sports during the hour of daily 

 "recess," but sat the while at his desk, pencil in hand, portraying some 

 natural object, as a snail shell, carefully and beautifully shading if, or 

 drawing caricatures suggested by acts of his fellow-pupils. 



