The Outcasts of Poker Flat by Bret Harte

Outcasts of Poker Flat - Page 3

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Whether Mr. Oakhurst had cached his cards with the whiskey as something debarred the free access of the community, I cannot say. It was certain that, in Mother Shipton's words, be "didn't say 'cards' once” during that evening. Haply, the time was beguiled by an accordion, produced somewhat ostentatiously by Tom Simson from his pack. Notwithstanding some difficulties attending the manipulation of this instrument, Piney Woods managed to pluck several reluctant melodies from its keys, to an accompaniment by the Innocent on a pair of bone castanets. But, the crowning festivity of the evening was reached in a rude camp-meeting hymn, which the lovers, joining hands, sang loudly with great earnestness. The defiant tone and Covenanter's swing to its chorus, rather than any devotional quality, caused it speedily to infect the others, who at last joined in the refrain: --

"I 'm proud to live in the service of the Lord, and I 'm bound to die in His army.” The pines rocked, the storm eddied and whirled above the miserable group, and the flames of their altar leaped heavenward, as if in token of the vow.

Snowed in, Detroit Publishing Co., turn of the century.

At midnight the storm abated, the rolling clouds parted, and the stars glittered keenly above the sleeping camp. Mr. Oakhurst, whose professional habits had enabled him to live on the smallest possible amount of sleep, in dividing the watch with Tom Simson, somehow managed to take upon himself the greater part of that duty. He excused himself to the Innocent by saying that he had "often been a week without sleep.” "Doing what?” asked Tom. "Poker! "replied Oakhurst sententiously. "When a man gets a streak of luck, he don't get tired. The luck gives in first. Luck,” continued the gambler reflectively, "is a mighty queer thing. All you know about it for certain is that it's bound to change. And, it's finding out when it's going to change that makes you. We've had a streak of bad luck since we left Poker Flat, -- you come along, and slap you get into it, too. If you can hold your cards right along you 're all right. For,” added the gambler, with cheerful irrelevance, “'I 'm proud to live in the service of the Lord, and I 'm bound to die in His army.'“

The third day came, and the sun, looking through the white-curtained valley, saw the outcasts divide their slowly decreasing store of provisions for the morning meal. It was one of the peculiarities of that mountain climate that its rays diffused a kindly warmth over the wintry landscape, as if in regretful commiseration of the past. Butm it revealed drift on drift of snow piled high around the hut, -- a hopeless, uncharted, trackless sea of white lying below the rocky shores to which the castaways still clung. Through the marvelously clear air the smoke of the pastoral village of Poker Flat rose miles away. Mother Shipton saw it, and from a remote pinnacle of her rocky fastness hurled in that direction a final curse. It was her last reviling attempt, and perhaps for that reason, was invested with a certain degree of grandiosity. It did her good, she privately informed the Duchess. "Just you go out there and cuss, and see.” She then set herself to the task of amusing "the child,” as she and the Duchess were pleased to call Piney. Piney was no chicken, but it was a soothing and original theory of the pair thus to account for the fact that she didn't swear and wasn't improper.

When night crept up again through the gorges, the reedy notes of the accordion rose and fell in fitful spasms and long-drawn gasps by the flickering campfire. But, music failed to fill entirely the aching void left by insufficient food, and a new diversion was proposed by Piney, -- storytelling. Neither Mr. Oakhurst nor his female companions caring to relate their personal experiences, this plan would have failed too, but for the Innocent. Some months before he had chanced upon a stray copy of Mr. Pope's ingenious translation of the Iliad. He now proposed to narrate the principal incidents of that poem -- having thoroughly mastered the argument and fairly forgotten the words -- in the current vernacular of Sandy Bar. And so, for the rest of that night the Homeric demigods again walked the earth. Trojan bully and wily Greek wrestled in the winds, and the great pines in the canyon seemed to bow to the wrath of the son of Peleus. Mr. Oakhurst listened with quiet satisfaction. Most especially was he interested in the fate of "Ash-heels,” as the Innocent persisted in denominating the "swift-footed Achilles."

So, with small food and much of Homer and the accordion, a week passed over the heads of the outcasts. The sun again forsook them, and again from leaden skies the snowflakes were sifted over the land. Day by day, closer around them drew the snowy circle, until at last they looked from their prison over drifted wails of dazzling white, that towered twenty feet above their heads. It became more and more difficult to replenish their fires, even from the fallen trees beside them, now half hidden in the drifts. And yet, no one complained.

Blizzard, Frank Feller, around the turn of the century.

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The lovers turned from the dreary prospect and looked into each other's eyes, and were happy. Mr. Oakhurst settled himself coolly to the losing game before him. The Duchess, more cheerful than she had been, assumed the care of Piney. Only Mother Shipton -- once the strongest of the party -- seemed to sicken and fade. At midnight on the tenth day she called Oakhurst to her side. "I 'm going,” she said, in a voice of querulous weakness, "but don't say anything about it. Don't waken the kids. Take the bundle from under my head, and open it.” Mr. Oakhurst did so. It contained Mother Shipton's rations for the last week, untouched. You give 'em to the child,” she said, pointing to the sleeping Piney. "You've starved yourself,” said the gambler. "That's what they call it,” said the woman querulously, as she lay down again, and, turning her face to the wall, passed quietly away.

The accordion and the bones were put aside that day, and Homer was forgotten. When the body of Mother Shipton had been committed to the snow, Mr. Oakhurst took the Innocent aside, and showed him a pair of snowshoes, which he had fashioned from the old pack-saddle. "There 's one chance in a hundred to save her yet,”he said, pointing to Piney; "but it's there,” he added, pointing toward Poker Flat. "If you can reach there in two days she's safe.” "And you?”asked Tom Simson. "I'll stay here,” was the curt reply.

The lovers parted with a long embrace. "You are not going, too?” said the Duchess, as she saw Mr. Oakhurst apparently waiting to accompany him. "As far as the canyon,” he replied. He turned suddenly and kissed the Duchess, leaving her pallid face aflame, and her trembling limbs rigid with amazement.

Night came but, not Mr. Oakhurst. It brought the storm again and the whirling snow. Then the Duchess, feeding the fire, found that some one had quietly piled beside the hut enough fuel to last a few days longer. The tears rose to her eyes, but she hid them from Piney.

The women slept but little. In the morning, looking into each other's faces, they read their fate. Neither spoke, but Piney, accepting the position of the stronger, drew near and placed her arm around the Duchess's waist. They kept this attitude for the rest of the day. That night the storm reached its greatest fury, and, rending asunder the protecting vines, invaded the very hut.

Toward morning they found themselves unable to feed the fire, which gradually died away. As the embers slowly blackened, the Duchess crept closer to Piney, and broke the silence of many hours: "Piney, can you pray?” "No, dear,” said Piney simply. The Duchess, without knowing exactly why, felt relieved, and, putting her head upon Piney's shoulder, spoke no more. And so, reclining, the younger and purer pillowing the head of her soiled sister upon her virgin breast, they fell asleep.

The wind lulled as if it feared to waken them. Feathery drifts of snow, shaken from the long pine boughs, flew like white winged birds, and settled about them as they slept. The moon through the rifted clouds looked down upon what had been the camp. But, all human stain, all trace of earthly travail, was hidden beneath the spotless mantle mercifully flung from above.

They slept all that day and the next, nor did they waken when voices and footsteps broke the silence of the camp. And when pitying fingers brushed the snow from their wan faces, you could scarcely have told from the equal peace that dwelt upon them which was she that had sinned. Even the law of Poker Flat recognized this, and turned away, leaving them still locked in each other's arms.

But at the head of the gulch, on one of the largest pine trees, they found the deuce of clubs pinned to the bark with a bowie-knife. It bore the following, written in pencil in a firm hand : --

Beneath this tree
Lies the body of
John Oakhurst,
Who struck a streak of bad luck
On the 23d of November, l850,
And handed in his checks
On the 7th December, 1850.

And, pulseless and cold, with a Derringer by his side and a bullet in his heart, though still calm as in life, beneath the snow lay he who was at once the strongest and yet the weakest of the outcasts of Poker Flat.

Compiled and edited by Kathy Weiser/Legends of America, updated June, 2010.

About the Author: Francis Bret Harte (1836-1902) was an author and poet, best remembered for his accounts of pioneering life in California. Originally from New York, he moved to California in 1853, hwere he worked in a number of jobs including miner, teacher, messenger, and journalist. During his lifetime, he published a number of articles for magazines and several books including The Luck of the Roaring Camp and Other Tales in 1871, from which this article was excerpted. This tale however, is not verbatim as it has been edited for the modern reader.

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