he's a solid young man and that he's available. Or, "In short he was twenty-eight and a bachelor" (1.5). And if you were a Victorian reader you would be pretty sure that Oak's single status was going to have something to do with how events play out in the rest of this book.
Unlike many single men in novels, Oak doesn't spend all his days moping around and wishing he had someone to be with. Instead, he just tends to his business as a farmer (and later as a shepherd) as well as he can. As the narrator tells us, "on working days he was a young man of sound judgment, easy motions, proper dress and general good character