“I ain't sick,” said the stranger, in a low and gentle voice.
“I never seen many fellers that looked as sad as you do,” volunteered Ben Grevis. “There was a mighty sad-lookin' tramp, that resembled you in the face some, was arrested here for bein' drunk eight or nine years ago, only he wasn't as tall as you an' his skin was different. After Si Emery, our city marshal, had kep' him in the lock-up over Sunday and turned him loose again, it come to light he was wanted over in I'way for killin' a feller with a piece of railroad iron.”
“I ain't killed anybody with any railroad iron over in I'way,” said the lengthy man. And he added, with a sigh: “Nor nowheres else, neither.”
Hennery McNabb, who disagreed with everyone on principle—he was the Village Atheist, and proud of it—addressed himself to Ben Grevis. “This feller ain't nigh as sad-lookin' as that tramp looked,” said Hennery. “I've knowed any number of fellers sadder-lookin' than this feller here.”
“I didn't say this feller here was the saddest-lookin' feller I ever seen,” said Ben Grevis. “All I meant was that he is sadder-lookin' than the common run of fellers.” While Hennery disagreed with all the world, Ben seldom disagreed with any one but Hennery. They would argue by the hour, on religious matters, always beginning with Hennery's challenge: “Ben Grevis, tell me just one thing if you can, where did Cain get his wife?” and always ending with Ben's statement: “I believe the Book from kiver to kiver.”
The tall man with the educated skin—it was educated, very evidently, for with a contraction of the hide on the back of his hand he nonchalantly picked up a shaving that had blown his way—spoke to Ben and Hennery in the soft and mild accents that seemed habitual to him:
“Where did you two see sadder-lookin' fellers than I be?”
“Over in Indianny,” said Hennery, “there's a man so sad that you're one of these here laughin' jackasses 'longside o' him.”
And, being encouraged, Hennery proceeded.
This here feller (said Hennery McNabb) lived over in Brown County, Indianny, but he didn't come from there original. He come from down in Kentucky some-wheres and his name was Peevy, Bud Peevy. He was one of them long, lank fellers, like you, stranger, but he wasn't as long and his skin didn't sort o' wander around and wag itself like it was a tail.