Is there any word that is alternative word to 'sufferer' in the context? Here is the example, which is from a novel 'Baker's blue-jay yarn' by Mark Twain.
As for the plot of this novel, there is a blue-jay that has found a very deep hole, and keeps dropping acorns in there without realizing the fact that the hole is actually not a hole but a knothole of the roof. I guess that's why the author calls the blue-jay a sufferer.
"Another jay was going by, and heard him doing his devotions, and stops to inquire what was up. The sufferer told him the whole circumstance, and says 'Now yonder's the hole, and if you don't believe me, go and look for yourself.'