Winesburg, Ohio: Queer

It was for sale as were also the coat hangers, patent suspender buttons, cans of roof paint, bottles of rheumatism cure, and a substitute for coffee that companioned the honey in its patient willingness to serve the public.

Ebenezer Cowley, the man who stood in the store listening to the eager patter of words that fell from the lips of the traveling man, was tall and lean and looked unwashed.

His unhappiness as a merchant lay in the fact that when a traveling man with wares to be sold came in at the front door he was afraid.

He assumed a flattering wheedling tone.

He was waiting for some word of understanding from his father but when Ebenezer spoke his words only served to reawaken the wrath in the son and the young man ran out of the store without replying.

The distraught young man stood in the middle of the road and glared back at the town.

George Willard, he felt, belonged to the town, typified the town, represented in his person the spirit of the town.

Did he not represent public opinion and had not the public opinion of Winesburg condemned the Cowleys to queerness?

His teeth protruded from between his lips and his eyes were blue with the colorless blueness of the marbles called "aggies" that the boys of Winesburg carried in their pockets.

Sullenly the tall young man tramped along the road with his hands stuffed into his trouser pockets.

His feet also were cold and he sat on the log by the fire, grateful for the warmth and apparently indifferent to what Elmer had to say.

He tried to talk and his arms began to pump up and down. His face worked spasmodically.

After the hours of futile sputtering at nothingness that had occupied the afternoon and his failure in the presence of the young reporter, he thought he could see no hope of a future for himself.

Going to the now darkened store, where Cowley & Son had for over a year waited vainly for trade to come, he crept stealthily in and felt about in a barrel that stood by the stove at the rear.

He would steal a ride on the local and when he got to Cleveland would lose himself in the crowds there. He would get work in some shop and become friends with the other workmen and would be indistinguishable.