Roger was a sallow , plain-featured fellow , small and insignificant looking . And , as if this were not bad enough , he walked with a slight limp and had one thin shoulder a little higher than the other -- `` Jarback '' Temple he had been called in school , and the name still clung to him . To be sure , he had very fine grey eyes , but their dreamy brilliance gave his dull face an uncanny look which girls did not like , and so made matters rather worse than better . Of course looks did n't matter so much in the case of a man ; Steve Millar was homely enough , and all marked up with smallpox to boot , yet he had got for wife the prettiest and smartest girl in South Bay . But Steve was rich . Roger was poor and always would be . He worked his stony little farm , from which his father and grandfather had wrested a fair living , after a fashion , but Nature had not cut him out for a successful farmer . He had n't the strength for it and his heart was n't in it . He 'd rather be hanging over a book . Catherine secretly thought Roger 's matrimonial chances very poor , but it would not do to discourage the b ` y . What he needed was spurring on . `` Ye 'll git someone if ye do n't fly too high , '' she announced loudly and cheerfully . `` Thar 's always a gal or two here and thar that 's glad to marry for a home . ` Tai n't no use for you to be settin ' your thoughts on anyone young and pretty . Ye would n't git her and ye 'd be worse off if ye did . Your grandfather married for looks , and a nice useless wife he got -- sick half her time . Git a good strong girl that ai n't afraid of work , that 'll hold things together when ye 're reading po ` try -- that 's as much as you kin expect . And the sooner the better . I 'm done -- last winter 's rheumatiz has about finished me . An ' we ca n't afford hired help . ''
XXXXX felt as if his raw , quivering soul were being seared .
Bay Catherine Jarback Millar Roger Steve brilliance look rheumatiz settin