Mrs. Skaggs's Husbands Page #4

"Mrs. Skaggs's Husbands" is a humorous and insightful short story by Bret Harte, set in the American West during the late 19th century. The narrative follows Mrs. Skaggs, a resilient and resourceful woman who has had multiple husbands, each with their own unique quirks and characteristics. The story explores themes of gender roles, love, and the complexity of relationships, all while offering a satirical look at frontier life. Harte's deft storytelling and vibrant characters make this tale a delightful reflection on the challenges and triumphs of marriage in a rugged landscape.

• Short story

								

knows it but you and the agint in 'Frisco. The boys workin' round yar
passes by and sees the old man grubbin' away, and no signs o' color, not
even rotten quartz; the boys loafin' round the Mansion House sees the
old man lyin' round free in bar-rooms, and they laughs and sez, 'Played
out,' and spects nothin'. Maybe ye think they spects suthin now, eh?"
queried Johnson, suddenly, with a sharp look of suspicion.

Tommy looked up, shook his head, threw a stone at a passing rabbit, but
did not reply.

"When I fust set eyes on you, Tommy," continued Johnson, apparently
reassured, "the fust day you kem and pumped for me, an entire stranger,
and hevin no call to do it, I sez, 'Johnson, Johnson,' sez I,' yer's a
boy you kin trust. Yer's a boy that won't play you; yer's a chap that's
white and square,'--white and square, Tommy: them's the very words I
used."

He paused for a moment, and then went on in a confidential whisper,
"'You want capital, Johnson,' sez I, 'to develop your resources, and
you want a pardner. Capital you can send for, but your pardner,
Johnson,--your pardner is right yer. And his name, it is Tommy
Islington.' Them's the very words I used."

He stopped and chafed his clammy hands upon his knees. "It's six months
ago sens I made you my pardner. Thar ain't a lick I've struck sens
then, Tommy, thar ain't a han'ful o' yearth I've washed, thar ain't
a shovelful o' rock I've turned over, but I tho't o' you. 'Share, and
share alike,' sez I. When I wrote to my agint, I wrote ekal for my
pardner, Tommy Islington, he hevin no call to know ef the same was man
or boy."

He had moved nearer the boy, and would perhaps have laid his hand
caressingly upon him, but even in his manifest affection there was
a singular element of awed restraint and even fear,--a suggestion of
something withheld even his fullest confidences, a hopeless perception
of some vague barrier that never could be surmounted. He may have been
at times dimly conscious that, in the eyes which Tommy raised to his,
there was thorough intellectual appreciation, critical good-humor, even
feminine softness, but nothing more. His nervousness somewhat heightened
by his embarrassment, he went on with an attempt at calmness which his
twitching white lips and unsteady fingers made pathetically grotesque.
"Thar's a bill o' sale in my bunk, made out accordin' to law, of an ekal
ondivided half of the claim, and the consideration is two hundred and
fifty thousand dollars,--gambling debts,--gambling debts from me to you,
Tommy,--you understand?"--nothing could exceed the intense cunning of
his eye at this moment,--"and then thar's a will."

"A will?" said Tommy, in amused surprise.

Johnson looked frightened.

"Eh?" he said, hurriedly, "wot will? Who said anythin' 'bout a will,
Tommy?"

"Nobody," replied Tommy, with unblushing calm.

Johnson passed his hand over his cold forehead, wrung the damp ends of
his hair with his fingers, and went on: "Times when I'm took bad ez I
was to-day, the boys about yer sez--you sez, maybe, Tommy--it's whiskey.
It ain't, Tommy. It's pizen,--quicksilver pizen. That's what's the
matter with me. I'm salviated! Salviated with merkery.

"I've heerd o' it before," continued Johnson, appealing to the boy, "and
ez a boy o' permiskus reading, I reckon you hev too. Them men as works
in cinnabar sooner or later gets salviated. It's bound to fetch 'em some
time. Salviated by merkery."

"What are you goin' to do for it?" asked Tommy.

"When the agint comes up, and I begins to realize on this yer mine,"
said Johnson, contemplatively, "I goes to New York. I sez to the
barkeep' o' the hotel, 'Show me the biggest doctor here.' He shows me.
I sez to him, 'Salviated by merkery,--a year's standin',--how much?' He
sez, 'Five thousand dollars, and take two o' these pills at bedtime, and
an ekil number o' powders at meals, and come back in a week.' And I goes
back in a week, cured, and signs a certifikit to that effect."

Encouraged by a look of interest in Tommy's eye, he went on.

"So I gets cured. I goes to the barkeep', and I sez, 'Show me the
biggest, fashionblest house thet's for sale yer.' And he sez, 'The
biggest, nat'rally b'longs to John Jacob Astor.' And I sez, 'Show him,'
and he shows him. And I sez, 'Wot might you ask for this yer house?' And
he looks at me scornful, and sez, 'Go 'way, old man; you must be sick.'
And I fetches him one over the left eye, and he apologizes, and I gives
him his own price for the house. I stocks that house with mohogany
furniture and pervisions, and thar we lives, you and me, Tommy, you and
me!"

The sun no longer shone upon the hillside. The shadows of the pines were
beginning to creep over Johnson's claim, and the air within the cavern
was growing chill. In the gathering darkness his eyes shone brightly
as he went on: "Then thar comes a day when we gives a big spread. We
invites govners, members o' Congress, gentlemen o' fashion, and the
like. And among 'em I invites a Man as holds his head very high, a Man I
once knew; but he doesn't know I knows him, and he doesn't remember me.
And he comes and he sits opposite me, and I watches him. And he's very
airy, this Man, and very chipper, and he wipes his mouth with a white
hankercher, and he smiles, and he ketches my eye. And he sez, 'A glass
o' wine with you, Mr. Johnson'; and he fills his glass and I fills mine,
and we rises. And I heaves that wine, glass and all, right into his
damned grinnin' face. And he jumps for me,--for he is very game, this
Man, very game,--but some on 'em grabs him, and he sez, 'Who be you?'
And I sez, 'Skaggs! damn you, Skaggs! Look at me! Gimme back my wife and
child, gimme back the money you stole, gimme back the good name you
took away, gimme back the health you ruined, gimme back the last twelve
years! Give 'em to me, damn you, quick, before I cuts your heart out!'
And naterally, Tommy, he can't do it. And so I cuts his heart out, my
boy; I cuts his heart out."

The purely animal fury of his eye suddenly changed again to cunning.
"You think they hangs me for it, Tommy, but they don't. Not much, Tommy.
I goes to the biggest lawyer there, and I says to him, 'Salviated by
merkery,--you hear me,--salviated by merkery.' And he winks at me,
and he goes to the judge, and he sez, 'This yer unfortnet man isn't
responsible,--he's been salviated by merkery.' And he brings witnesses;
you comes, Tommy, and you sez ez how you've seen me took bad afore; and
the doctor, he comes, and he sez as how he's seen me frightful; and the
jury, without leavin' their seats, brings in a verdict o' justifiable
insanity,--salviated by merkery."

In the excitement of his climax he had risen to his feet, but would have
fallen had not Tommy caught him and led him into the open air. In
this sharper light there was an odd change visible in his yellow-white
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