that morning, Mrs. Sheridan would have lost.
Nevertheless, Bibbs and Mary did certainly set out from Mr. Vertrees's
house with the purpose of going to church. That was their intention, and
they had no other. They meant to go to church.

But it happened that they were attentively preoccupied in a conversation
as they came to the church; and though Mary was looking to the right and
Bibbs was looking to the left, Bibbs's leftward glance converged with
Mary's rightward glance, and neither was looking far beyond the other
at this time. It also happened that, though they were a little jostled
among groups of people in the vicinity of the church, they passed this
somewhat prominent edifice without being aware of their proximity to it,
and they had gone an incredible number of blocks beyond it before
they discovered their error. However, feeling that they might be
embarrassingly late if they returned, they decided that a walk would
make them as good. It was a windless winter morning, with an inch of
crisp snow over the ground. So they walked, and for the most part they
were silent, but on their way home, after they had turned back at noon,
they began to be talkative again.

"Mary," said Bibbs, after a time, "am I a sleep-walker?"

She laughed a little, then looked grave. "Does your father say you are?"

"Yes--when he's in a mood to flatter me. Other times, other names. He
has quite a list."

"You mustn't mind," she said, gently. "He's been getting some pretty
severe shocks. What you've told me makes me pretty sorry for him, Bibbs.
I've always been sure he's very big."

"Yes. Big and--blind. He's like a Hercules without eyes and without any
consciousness except that of his strength and of his purpose to grow
stronger. Stronger for what? For nothing."

"Are you sure, Bibbs? It CAN'T be for nothing; it must be stronger for
something, even though he doesn't know what it is. Perhaps what he and
his kind are struggling for is something so great they COULDN'T see
it--so great none of us could see it."

"No, he's just like some blind, unconscious thing heaving underground--"

"Till he breaks through and leaps out into the daylight," she finished
for him, cheerily.

"Into the smoke," said Bibbs. "Look at the powder of coal-dust already
dirtying the decent snow, even though it's Sunday. That's from the
little pigs; the big ones aren't so bad, on Sunday! There's a fleck of
soot on your cheek. Some pig sent it out into the air;