"THE COLONEL" 



discover that a knowledge of horseflesh was by 

 no means his only claim to distinction, for, in a 

 dozen different ways, he was one quite out of the 

 ordinary ruck. To start with, he always said 

 what he meant, and meant what he said, whether 

 you liked it or not ; a by no means common 

 quality nowadays. He had no " pious opinions " 

 simply kept on hand, in order to be trotted out 

 at politic moments, when they were not likely to 

 be acted upon. 



Stevenson once said that " To know what you 

 prefer, instead of humbly saying c Amen ' to what 

 the world tells you you ought to prefer, is to have 

 kept your soul alive." If, as I believe, this 

 embodies a good solid truth, the colonel's soul 

 never lacked vitality whilst joined to his body. 

 He was a most self-contained man, in the sense 

 that he had within himself the main ingredients 

 which made up his pleasure in life, for his habits 

 and tastes were simple to a degree. An intimate 

 friend of his used to say, " Give Hal Luttrell a 

 wisp of straw and a pipe, and he'll be happy any- 

 where." He was an adept at taking life's cares 

 lightly, never going forth to meet trouble half- 

 way, and his cheery philosophy stood himself 

 and others in good stead. If I confided to him 

 the fear of some impending show yard contre- 

 temps, he would calmly administer the following 

 sedative between the whiffs from a briar-wood, 

 which, in his case, was almost a necessary adjunct 

 to all conversation : " It's no use to worry about 

 it. If your catastrophe doesn't come off, you'll 

 have all your trouble for nothing. If it does, 

 there'll be lots of other people to worry about it, 



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