Henry Baird Favill, AB, MD, LL.D., 1860-1916, a ... - University Library

MISCELLANEOUS 583
Delivered, Second Annual Banquet, Wisconsin Society of Chicago,
Deecmber 15, 1910.
Printed, Annual Report.
I
souls, I
OUR LAKES AND WOODS
AM more than gratified at the gentle decency of your
toastmaster's allusion to me. Inasmuch as he has
known me intimately under conditions which try men's
consider the gentle irony of his remarks to be rather
a peace offering. In fact, I am disposed to paraphrase
Kipling's couplet in the "Fuzzywuzzy" and say, "All that
I have got from 'im is pop to what he might 'av made me
swaller.
The fact is, in so far as I have either initiative, capacity,
or inspiration in wood-craft and mountain lore, I acquired
them under the skillful tutelage of your accomplished
toastmaster. I will not pretend that it was
an easy school of instruction. He is critical, rigid, and
infallible. That he is a mighty hunter, no one doubts.
That he is an interesting and convincing raconteur is a
matter of record. The fact that in the bosom of his family
he is known as "Opie Dilldock" is no qualification of my
statement. He is essentially a veracious chronicler and his
lore is subtle and intense. His is not the crass observation
of the stumbling lumberjack, nor the sentimental
claptrap of the amateur "outer." His is the keen eye of
the falcon and the cunning of the fox. In the woods he
sees everything that is there and much that is not, and
in the refinements of his observations will put to test and
to shame the faculties of ordinary men. So, when I pay
him this tribute, I at the same time record my gratitude
that he has not told all that he could.
He and I
were boys together in Wisconsin, in the same
town, with the same lakes and woods and fields and hiUs
upon which to acquire our facility and from which to derive