Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1901-12-27
Why Tom Crowder
Re-enliSted
BY JOHN H. RAFFERTY,.

.i-r&@-s-l-s( ..!-l-@. -s-s-: <: .i-ss S-t-t31.t.E
Six months Of soldering in the Phil
ippines had taken all the edge Off Tom
Crowder's military nrdor. In year
the sight of khaki uniform hurt his
eyes, and he began to realize that In all
the world no village was so fair to look
upon as Sugar Creek. Ills, the home
town where Crowder & Sons kept store
and where the event OF each droning
day was "traintime." When two years
had almost passed, he began to dream
OF swinging under the elms In the old
nlbbled at the everlasting hard tack how
many pltted cherry pies he could eat at
one sitting In the dining room at home.
When young soldiers mind begins
to dwell on the pies that mother used
to make, he cannot flourish on SOW
belly. But when he begins to decorate
his tent wall with the photographs OF
Title and Sue and 1.-The folks" he's 1T
for nothing but furloughs and sick
leave, and II there's anything of the
gutter about him he's In imminent dan
ger Of forgetting to answer roll call
some dark evening when the music of
the sea beyond the jungle lures him
with false songs Of home. Tom heard
the siren voice all right, but he didn't
lure little bit. His term of enlistment
was almost at an end, and he salts
fled himself with blotting each dull day
off the calendar, writing doggerel verse
about Tlllle and making himself II null
sance generally to his bunkie.
He used TO swear roundly that he
meant to "hlke back" to Sugar Creek
as fast as ship and train could carry
him, and hoped by all that was holy
that once he was mustered out he'd
never see soldier again. He got to
be the worst "knOcker" In the com
pany and he wrote 80 many letters
that his comrades began to ask him
why he didn't write few to himself.
"If you got such good home and
swell people, why don't some OF 'em
write to your" sneered his tent mate
one night. you can't be very strong
with Tillie, or she'd write you at least
once a year"
Now the latter question was sore
one with Tom, because nobody wrote
to him except his mother. and her let
tiers seldom reached him during the
final months OF his campaigning In the
interior. lie had quarreled with his
brother 10 many times that no love
was lost between them, aud his father
didn't write for the good reason that
he didn't know how. As for Tillie, the
young soldier had no reason 10 expect
letters from her. When he left home,
she was only 10. and his affair" with
her was Of the long distance, incoming,
mental sort peculiar 10 boys and girls
Just out of high school. II Tom had
been perfectly fair In his inlrospection,
lac must have admitted that there was
nothing very tangible In his hopes with
regard to Title. lie told himself n
thousand times that she was "the one
girl" and cOddled himself with the
belief that his fcalty to her was little
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