, even if
successful. But the man who is born with the insatiable desire to do
something, to see what other men have not seen, to push into the waste
places of the world, to make a new discovery, to develop a new theme or
enrich an old, to contribute, in other words, to the fund of human
knowledge, is always something more than a mere seeker for notoriety;
he belongs, however slight may be his actual contribution to knowledge,
however great his success or complete his failure, to that minority
which has from the first kept the world moving on, while the vast
majority have peacefully travelled on with it in its course. The
unpoetical critic will not understand him, will find it easy to call
him a dreamer; yet it is from dreams like these that have come the
world's inspirations and its great achievements."

Without any trace of the finicality that so often is pure morbidity,
Hubbard was the most conscientious man I ever knew, a man who was
continually thinking of others and how he might help them. Doubtless
some will see in his brave life's struggle only a determination to win
for himself a recognised place as a writer and expert upon out-of-door
life; but those who were privileged to enjoy his intimacy know that the
deep, underlying purpose of the man was to fit himself to deliver to
the world a message that he felt to be profoundly true--a message that
should inspire his fellow-men to encounter the battle of life without
flinching, that should make them realise that unceasing endeavour and
loyalty to God, their conscience and their brothers are indeed worth
while. He died before he reached the goal of his ambition, but I do not
believe that his message was undelivered.

Only men that have camped together in a lonely, uninhabited country can
in any degree comprehend the bond of affection and love that drew
Hubbard and me ever closer to each other, as the Labrador Wild lured us
on and on into the depths of its desolate waste. "The work must be
done," he used to say, "and if one of us falls before it is completed,
the other must finish it." His words ring in my ear as a call to duty.
I see his dear, brave face before me now. I feel his lips upon my
cheek. The smoke of the camp-fire is in my blood. The fragrance of
the forest is in my nostrils. Perhaps it is God's will that I finish
the work of exploration that Hubbard began.

End of Project Gutenberg's The Lure of the Labrador Wild, by Dillon Wal