The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1919-09-11

paper Syndicate.)
The trouble with Tommy Ellis
showed itself from the first day he
went to school. 1t was q little school,
and there were just fifty hooks on the
walls Of the boys GENTRY" with fifty
one boys TO hang their hats on them.
Half dozen OF the new bows were
younger and smaller than Tommy. who
had reached the ripe aga of seven;
but Tommy it was who had - lay his
cap on the floor in the corner because
he let the other fellows grab while he
held back. Tommy didn't like having
to put his cap on the floor any better
than the other boys. But somebody's
had to so there, and so it was Tom
my's.
1t wasn't because he was slow or
stupid that Tommy, from that time on,
took the dust of his schoolmateS and
later on the choice of whatever was
being given out in the way of favOrs or
jobs or opportunities. On the contrary,
Tommy was brighter and quicker and
naturally more skillful and clever than
the majority of boys. But he was ut
terly lacking in self-aSsertiveness
The only occasion on which Tommy's
hand went up in time to be recognized
by the teacher, when she was showing
off her pupils to visiting parents or
committeeman, was when he was the
only child in the room who knew the
answer to the question. If one or two
or dozen of the others were prepared
with the desired information they were
all sure to beat Tommy to it.
There was a little girl whom Tommy
worshiped in his secret soul. One
day her hat blew off. She was the
school beauty, so five boys put chase
after the hat. Tommy, as usual, got
started last having been bumped out
of his stride by another boy. 1t was
freak wind and of a sudden the hat
shifted its course and came straight
at Tommy and mud puddle. Tommy
headed it off and, all bushes, took a
single step toward his inamorata. Then
another boy grabbed the hat away from
Tommy and himself bestowed it upon
its owner, with the air of one having
rescued it from the puddle instead of
purloining it from the abashed Tom
my's worshpful hand. The little girl,
whose name was Annabelle Hester,
smiled benignantly upon the other boy,
whose name was Floyd Cushman, and
never even gave Tommy a glance.
And so it was. At twenty Tommy
h.
Job in the gift Of the superintendent Of
the one-horse interurban trolley COM
pany, a job which no one else would
take, and which necessitated his get
ting up at an unconscionable hour in
the morning, and walking mile after
taking the last car into the barn at
night. with all his leisure time in the
middle of the day-and what use can
a young fellow make of the hours from
ten TIL three?
The use that Tommy made of them
was to think, hopelessly and with
sinking heart, about that same Anna
belle Hester whose hat he saved from
being muddied when he was a little
boy. Annabelle was stenographer in
town now, but she still lived in the SUI
burban village, and very often rode
on. on the car on which Tommy col
lected the fares.
She was always friendly and nice
to Tommy, and now and then he ven
tured to talk to her little, but only
now and then, because Tommy fan
cied Annabelle seemed little nervous
and i'll at ease at such times, perhaps
as though she didn't just care about
getting too intimate with a conductor.
Another reason was that Floyd Cush-
man. who was in college now, and 60
ing to be lawyer, rode out with An
nabelle whenever he came back to the
village, which was pretty often, and
quite took possession of her. Yes, Tom
my felt altogether "out of it, with An
nabelle.
Then the war came. Tommy went as
a buck private and came back as one.
He wasn't, it appeared, of nOn-cOm ma
terial. though an intelligent studious
and conscientious soldier. Floyd Cush-
man, tanning his way in the atten-
ton of his superiors at Plattsburg and
later in France, attained to a captaincy
before he met his finish above Verdun.
When Tommy was demobilzed they
gave him back his old run, and 1t was
the third evening that he saw Anna
belle Hester. The girl had climbed to
the platform of the car and was on the
point of entering when she glanced up
and saw Tommy. She went white, then
ROSY. "Why, Tommy-Tommy Ellisw
she exclaimed. when on earth did
YOU get back? l didn't never
heard" Annabelle was becoming in
articulate.
Tommy Ellis had been through what
no man can go through and still be
quite as he was before. Much of his
old self-consciousness was gone.
"Annabelle," he said in manly, d.
rect way. Pm dreadfully sorry about
FLOYD. I'm the only one you know who
was there when it happened. All the
IL 7 ,,-oe, Vo1,sl Nropt IN