The Elk Mountain pilot., 1916-12-28

dS SOOu. IL was WlndleSS 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
laxative again.
Mary" said Bibbs, after a time,
"am 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
Hes 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
Hercules without eyes and without any
consciousness except that of his
| strength and of his purpose to grow
stronger. Stronger for what? Fol-
nothing"
Are you sure. Bibbs? 1t can't be
for nothing; It must be stronger for
know what 1t is. Perhaps what he
and his kind are struggling for is some
thing 30 great they couldn't see it
SO great none or us could see It,"
"No, he's just like some blind. un-
conscious thing heaving under.
ground-'
It'll 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 dir
tying 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 SCOT on
your cheek. Some pig sent it out into
the air; he might as well have thrown
1t on you. 1t would have been braver.
for then he'd have taken his chance
of my whipping him for 1t II could"
SIS there SCOT on my cheek, Bibbs
Is there?"
"Is there? There are SCOT on your
cheeks, Mary-a fieck on each. One
landed since l mentioned the first"
She halted Immediately, giving him
her handkerchief, and he succeeded in
transferring most Of the black from
her face to the cambric. They were
entirely matter-of-course about it.
An elderly couple, 1t CHANGED. had
been walking behind Bibbs and Mary
for the last block or SO, and passed
ahead during the removal of the SCOT.
''There" said the elderly wife. You're
always wrong when you begin guess
ing about strangers. Those two young
| people aren't honeymooners at all
they've been married for years. A
blind man could see that"
II wish I knew who threw that SCOT
| on you" said Blbbs. looking up at the
neighboring chimneys, as they went
on. They arrest children for throw
ing snowballs at the street cars, but"
But they don't arrest street cars for
shaking all the pictures in the houses
crooked every time they go by. Nor
for the uproar they make. l wonder
what's the cost in nerves for the noise
of the city each year. Yes, we pay
the price for living in growing
town. whether We have money to pay
| or none"
"Who is 1t gets the pay?" said Bibbs.
mot I!' she laughed.
Nobody gets 1t. There isn't any
pay; there's only money. And on.
| some of the men down town get much
| Of that. That's what my father wants
me to get"
Yes" she said, smiling to him, and
nodding. And you don't want it. and
| you don't need it,
But you don't think I'm a sleep
walker, Mary?" He had told her of his
fathers new plans for him, though he
had not described the vigor and pic
turesqueness of their setting forth.
| You think I'm right?"
"A thousand times!'' she cried.
''There aren't so many happy people in
this world, think-and you say
you've found what makes you happy.
| If it's dream-keep it!'
1.-The thought of going down there
| into the money shutiie-I hate it as /
never hated the shopr' he said. Il
hate It! And the city itself, the city
that the money shuttle has made-just
look at it! And the dirt and the ugli-
ness and the rush and the noise aren't
the worst of 1t; it's what the dirt and
ugliness and rush and noise mean
that's the worst, The outward things
are insufferable, but they're only the
expression of a .oirit-a blind embryo
of a spirit, not yet a soul-oh. Just
greed! And this go ahead nonsense!
| Oughtn't it all to be n fellowship? l
shouldn't want to get ahead IL l could
I'd want to help the other fellow to
keep up with me-"
II read something the other day and
remembered 1t COR you" said Mary.
"It was something Burne-Jones said OF
n picture he was going to paint In