CHAPTER IX
HE SEES A STRANGE LIGHT AND GOES ON TIPTOE
Of course, it would have been expecting too much to suppose that the boys in khaki would overlook Tom Slade any more than Frenchy would escape them, and “Whitey” was the bull’s-eye for a good deal of target practice in the way of jollying. It got circulated about that Whitey had a bug—a patriotic bug, particularly in regard to his family, and it was whispered in his hearing as he came and went that his grandfather was none other than the original Yankee Doodle.
Of course, Tom’s soberness increased this good-natured propensity of the soldiers.
“Hey, Whitey,” they would call as he passed with the captain’s tray, “I hear you were born on the Fourth of July. How about that?”
Or
“Hey, Whitey, I hear your great grandfather was the fellow that put the bunk in Bunker Hill!”
But Tom did not mind; joking or no joking, they knew where he stood with Uncle Sam and that was enough for him.