On the morning of the first horse race in The Reivers, Lucius sees "seven or eight people, all men," in the hotel dining room (209). Lucius refers to them as "people like us except that they lived" in and around Parsham; "some were in overalls; all but one were tieless" (209-10). Later he calls them "aficionados," in reference to their passion for horse racing (220). The one wearing a tie is one of the two men who talk with Boon about the upcoming race.
One of the two "ladies, girls" whom Lucius sees at supper in Miss Reba's in The Reivers (106). Lucius distinguishes them by their clothes - one wears "a red dress," and the other is "in pink" - and their age: one is a "girl" and the other is "no longer a girl" (106-07). This is the younger one, who complains about having to be so quiet on Sundays.
One of the two "ladies, girls" whom Lucius sees at supper in Miss Reba's in The Reivers (106). Lucius distinguishes them by their clothes - one wears "a red dress," and the other is "in pink" - and their age: one is a "girl" and the other is "no longer a girl" (106-07). This is "the older one," whom Lucius feels a kind of pity for: "There was something wrong about her . . . She was alone. . . . she shouldn't have had to be here, alone, to have to go through this" (107). Exactly what the 11-year-old Lucius means by "this" is not specified, but Mr.
Though their farms are "bigger, more prosperous, with tighter fences and painted houses and even barns" than those on the Mississippi side of Hell Creek, the Tennessee country people whom the travelers pass on the broad road that leads to Memphis in The Reivers are also "still in their Sunday clothes," sitting on their front porches ("galleries"), watching the world go by (91). And when they get closer to the city, "even the little children" who live along the road are no longer excited by the sight of a car (92).
When they cross the Tallahatchie River in The Reivers, the adventurers are in what Lucius calls "foreign country, another county," the county that adjoins Yoknapatawpha to the north (78). Between Ballenbaugh's and Hell Creek bottom the countryside seems rural: along the road are "sprouting fields" (78). Lucius describes the residents they pass as "the people already in their Sunday clothes idle on the front galleries, the children and dogs . . . running toward the fence" to watch an automobile go by (78).
In The Reivers Lucius describes the men who crowd around the race track and bet on the races as "the same overalls, tieless, the sweated hats, the chewing tobacco" that he associated with the men in the hotel dining room that morning (227). But a major difference is that this crowd is racially unsegregated: "people, black and white" (228). One member of this crowd leads Lightning to the starting line after Ned is disqualified. "People" could imply women, of course, but until Minnie arrives at the end of the third race, there is no evidence of them at the track.
After Ballenbaugh takes over Wyott's store in The Reivers, it becomes a stop-over place for the "hard-mouthed hard-souled" men who carry merchandise to and from Memphis (72). But until the 1870s the people at Ballenbaugh's were "just tough men," i.e. no women (72). When the railroad took over the freight traffic in the 1880s, however, Ballenbaugh's becomes a destination point.
