Scraggly, uncombed hair that looks like dry straw and often has a seed or two caught in it; sun-fretted skin that peels around the knuckles; hands small and callused in odd places as if he learned to hold a plow in the wrong way; shoulders slope as if still growing into them; he moves with the nervous quickness of someone half expecting to be scolded; his smile is thin and sudden and disappears if conversation lingers longer than a minute. Unexpected element: he keeps a tiny paper crane folded from merchants' catalog scraps tucked beneath his collar, pressed flat and perfectly preserved as if it were a talisman.