Winesburg, Ohio: Tandy

He proclaimed himself an agnostic and was so absorbed in destroying the ideas of God that had crept into the minds of his neighbors that he never saw God manifesting himself in the little child that, half forgotten, lived here and there on the bounty of her dead mother's relatives.

He proclaimed himself an agnostic and was so absorbed in destroying the ideas of God that had crept into the minds of his neighbors that he never saw God manifesting himself in the little child that, half forgotten, lived here and there on the bounty of her dead mother's relatives.

His sojourn in Winesburg was not a success.

One evening when he was recovering from a long debauch the stranger came reeling along the main street of the town.

It was late evening and darkness lay over the town and over the railroad that ran along the foot of a little incline before the hotel.

The stranger began to babble and made a prophecy concerning the child that lay in the arms of the agnostic.

"There is something else. I am a lover and have not found my thing to love. That is a big point if you know enough to realize what I mean. It makes my destruction inevitable, you see. There are few who understand that."

"I have not lost faith. I proclaim that. I have only been brought to the place where I know my faith will not be realized," he declared hoarsely.

"There is a woman coming," he said, and his voice was now sharp and earnest. "I have missed her, you see. She did not come in my time. You may be the woman..."

He kissed them ecstatically.

"Dare to be strong and courageous. That is the road. Venture anything. Be brave enough to dare to be loved. Be something more than man or woman. Be Tandy."

He stopped beneath a tree and, taking her into his arms, began to caress her.