“What?” Hesbern’s gray eyes squinted. “The baby was crying, sir. They wanted to put warm water on its stomach, ’count of the ache.”
The city marshal laughed and strolled on while Hesbern watched him wonderingly. Thereafter in the days that followed, sometimes one, sometimes five or six inquirers would speak to the stroller, asking him about the empty bottle. After listening to the explanation they would say:
“That’s funny!”
Then they would go on their way, leaving the awkward stranger puzzled more and more.
One day Cock Eye, waddling on his short legs and with his rotund stomach protruding, was again strolling around the square in the afternoon. It chanced that he met Hesbern, who greeted him.
“Say, mister,” the stroller asked, “What’s there funny about me getting an empty bottle?”
Cock Eye bristled angrily.
“Who you talkin’ to?” he demanded.
Hesbern’s gray eyes looked wonderingly into the man’s face, steady, narrowing and losing their sparkle in an odd, moon colored opacity.