Unnamed Deputized "Boys"

In The Mansion the Sheriff deputizes "two boys at Varner's store" to keep a look out for Mink Snopes (434). "Boys" of course is a colloquial southern term for lower class men - as in 'good ole boys' - and these "boys" must be full-grown men, since they claim to "remember" Mink from before he went to prison. (In the same vocabulary, "boy" is also a derogatory term for adult black men, but it's not likely that blacks would be "at Varner's store" - and even less likely that they would be given an unofficial job in law enforcement.)