A marked trait of Norman’s early youth was his dashing intrepidity. He began hunting when he was but seven and he never showed a sign of fear. I can see him now in my mind’s eye mounted on his spirited chestnut thoroughbred riding as straight and true as any of the older hunting men. An accident that happened to him and his brother Frederick before they went to school at Groton illustrates the fearlessness of both of them in their childhood. It was a morning appointed for a meet and the rain was falling in torrents, making the riding cross-country more than ordinarily dangerous, so that I deemed it prudent to tell my sons that perhaps it might be better for them not to join us that day. They dearly loved the sport, and I remember how the tears came to the eyes of Norman when he heard my gentle warning, though, as the event proved, he did not take it any too seriously. On my return home that evening I found Norman in the care of a surgeon with a broken thigh, while his brother had a broken collar-bone, the result of fast riding on the slippery turf. Regardless of the dangerous conditions against which they had been warned they had taken not only to hunting but to racing and by accident they had pulled into each other at the finish where both were violently thrown. As they lay stunned on the ground Frederick was the first to gain consciousness and he shortly heard Norman murmuring jokingly, “Fred, I think I’m dead. How do you feel?” Not even this playful disregard of parental counsel operated to check a certain degree of admiration for such an exhibition of calm nerve under painful circumstances. Norman’s interest in hunting and racing witnessed no abatement when he took to aviation, or even after he had experienced some of that stern joy that warriors feel. A post-script to one of his letters from the front in France made the naïve inquiry: “How did my horse run at the Country Club meeting?” Another marked feature of Norman’s personality was his gracious and attractive bearing under any and all circumstances. To his quick intelligence and dash he added a courtesy and graciousness of manner that charmed all those with whom he came in contact, whether at home or abroad, at work or at play, in the rough-and-tumble of life or in the drawing room. His _savoir faire_ which seemed his by instinct, gave him a charm that was rare to meet. [Illustration: _Concours Hippique_]