Sierra Nevada Mountains
Learning Targets:
I can cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.
I can determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text.
I can analyze the impact of the author's choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama (e.g., where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters are introduced and developed).
I can determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including words with multiple meanings or language that is particularly fresh, engaging, or beautiful.
Essential question: Does one's profession define one's character?
vocabulary quiz on Friday. March 3 copy below, if you lost yours
In class: Reading Bret Hart's short story "The Outcasts of Poker Flat".
graphic organizer / copy below.
graphic organizer / copy below.
Directions: I have chunked the story into numbered paragraphs. (graphic organizer / copy belowWe are reading this as a class. We will pause after each paragraph in order that you may annotate, that is write notes that reflect observations about literary techniques (elements: character, theme, plot, dialogue, point of view, setting or figurative language devices (similes, imagery (remember there are 5), metaphors, personification, etc.)
The Outcasts of Poker
Flat by Bret Hart
Name_____________________________________
Before reading the short story, please read the information
below, which is a paraphrasing of the introductory material you received last week.
Realists believed that
humanity's freedom of choice was limited by the power of outside forces. Realism has specific
social, political, and artistic characteristics that set it apart from other
genres. Below are the salient*
points about realism. *most noticeable or important
Plot and Character
1.
Character
is more important than action and plot; complex ethical* choices are often the subject. *relating to moral principles
- Characters appear in the real complexity of temperament
and motive; they are in an explicable relation to nature, to each other,
to their social class, to their own past.
- Humans control their destinies; characters act on their
environment rather than simply reacting to it.
- Reality renders reality closely and in comprehensive
detail. Selective presentation of reality with an emphasis on verisimilitude*, even at the
expense of a well-made plot.
*the appearance of being true or real.
- Events will usually be plausible*. Realistic
novels avoid the sensational and dramatic elements. *seeming reasonable or probable.
- Class is important; the novel has traditionally served
the interests and aspirations of an insurgent
middle class. *rising in active revolt.
7. Realism is viewed as a realization of democracy.
- The morality of Realism is reasonable or probable - intrinsic*(1), integral*(2), relativistic*(3). Relations between people and society are
explored. * (1) belonging
naturally; essential. (2) necessary to make a whole complete;
essential or fundamental (3) conceptions of truth and moral values
are not absolute but are relative to the persons or groups holding them.
- Realists were pragmatic*,
relativistic, democratic and experimental. The purpose of writing is
to instruct and to entertain.
*dealing with things sensibly and realistically
Directions: On the left hand side of
the document, you will find the short story. For each section that has been chunked,
on the right hand side, respond to question. The focus is on how this short
story exemplifies realism. On Friday, you will use this material to support
that argument, by incorporating text-based evidence. This is due on Wednesday,
and I’ll return it to you on Friday, so that you will have it for your in-class
essay.
As Mr. John Oakhurst, gambler, stepped into the main street of Poker
Flat on the morning of the twenty-third of November, 1850, he was conscious
of a change in its moral atmosphere since the preceding night. Two or three
men, conversing earnestly together, ceased as he approached, and exchanged
significant glances. There was a Sabbath lull in the air which, in a
settlement unused to Sabbath influences, looked ominous.
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ominous- giving the impression that something bad or
unpleasant
is going to happen; threatening;
inauspicious.
1.What words tell the reader this is a community
where people do not regularly go to church?
2. What literary technique is best embodied
With the word “ominous?”
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Mr. Oakhurst's calm, handsome face betrayed small concern in these
indications. Whether he was conscious of any predisposing cause was another
question. "I reckon they're after somebody," he reflected;
"likely it's me." He returned to his pocket the handkerchief with
which he had been whipping away the red dust of Poker Flat from his neat
boots, and quietly discharged his mind of any further conjecture.
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conjecture -opinion or conclusion formed on the basis of
incomplete
information
1.
What words
indicate that Mr. Oakhurst is a
conscientious about how he presents himself?
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In point of fact, Poker Flat was "after somebody." It had
lately suffered the loss of several thousand dollars, two valuable horses,
and a prominent citizen. It was experiencing a spasm of virtuous reaction, quite as lawless and ungovernable as
any of the acts that had provoked it. A secret committee had determined to
rid the town of all improper persons. This was done permanently in regard of
two men who were then hanging from the boughs of a sycamore in the gulch, and
temporarily in the banishment of certain other objectionable characters. I
regret to say that some of these were ladies. It is but due to the sex,
however, to state that their impropriety
was professional, and it was only in such easily established standards of
evil that Poker Flat ventured to sit in judgment.
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spasm-a sudden involuntary muscular contraction
impropriety- improper language, behavior, or character.
4. The author uses the technique of innuendo
(insinuation or suggestion), rather
than saying directly
the women’s occupation. What is their occupation?
How is the town going to handle the
situation?
(Use specific text)
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Mr. Oakhurst was right in
supposing that he was included in this category. A few of the committee had
urged hanging him as a possible example, and a sure method of reimbursing
themselves from his pockets of the sums he had won from them. "It's agin
justice," said Jim Wheeler, "to let this yer young man from Roaring
Camp--an entire stranger--carry away our money." But a crude sentiment
of equity residing in the breasts
of those who had been fortunate enough to win from Mr. Oakhurst overruled
this narrower local prejudice.
Mr. Oakhurst received his
sentence with philosophic calmness, none the less coolly that he was aware of
the hesitation of his judges. He was too much of a gambler not to accept
Fate. With him life was at best an uncertain game, and he recognized the
usual percentage in favor of the dealer.
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equity- fairness
5. Look at the list of salient points about
realism above. Write out one
quality that
is applicable to this paragraph.
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A body of armed men
accompanied the deported wickedness of Poker Flat to the outskirts of the
settlement. Besides Mr. Oakhurst, who was known to be a coolly desperate man,
and for whose intimidation the
armed escort was intended, the expatriated
party consisted of a young woman familiarly known as the "Duchess";
another, who had won the title of "Mother Shipton"; and "Uncle
Billy," a suspected sluice-robber and confirmed drunkard. The cavalcade provoked no comments from
the spectators, nor was any word uttered by the escort. Only, when the gulch
which marked the uttermost limit of Poker Flat was reached, the leader spoke
briefly and to the point. The exiles were forbidden to return at the peril of
their lives.
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intimidation-the act of brow beating, scaring
expatriated-banished, exiled
cavalcade- parade
6. List the exiles.
1.
2.
3.
4.
7. What will happen to the exiles if they return to
Poker Flat?
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As the escort disappeared,
their pent-up feelings found vent in a few hysterical tears from the Duchess,
some bad language from Mother Shipton, and a Parthian volley of expletives from Uncle Billy. The
philosophic Oakhurst alone remained silent. He listened calmly to Mother
Shipton's desire to cut somebody's heart out, to the repeated statements of
the Duchess that she would die in the road, and to the alarming oaths that
seemed to be bumped out of Uncle Billy as he rode forward. With the easy good
humor characteristic of his class, he insisted upon exchanging his own riding
horse, "Five Spot," for the sorry mule which the Duchess rode. But
even this act did not draw the party into any closer sympathy. The young
woman readjusted her somewhat draggled plumes with a feeble, faded coquetry;
Mother Shipton eyed the possessor of "Five Spot" with malevolence, and Uncle Billy included
the whole party in one sweeping anathema.
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expletives- swearing
malevolence-hatefulness
plumes- feathers
anathema-curse
8. Class is an important aspect of
realism. To what class
do these characters belong? Give three textual
examples to support your statement.
(They need not be complete sentences.)
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The road to Sandy Bar--a
camp that, not having as yet experienced the regenerating influences of Poker
Flat, consequently seemed to offer some invitation to the emigrants--lay over
a steep mountain range. It was distant a day's severe travel. In that advanced
season, the party soon passed out of the moist, temperate regions of the
foothills into the dry, cold, bracing air of the Sierras. The trail was
narrow and difficult. At noon the Duchess, rolling out of her saddle upon the
ground, declared her intention of going no farther, and the party halted.
The spot was singularly
wild and impressive. A wooded amphitheater, surrounded on three sides by precipitous cliffs of naked granite,
sloped gently toward the crest of another precipice that overlooked the valley. It was, undoubtedly, the
most suitable spot for a camp, had camping been advisable. But Mr. Oakhurst
knew that scarcely half the journey to Sandy Bar was accomplished, and the
party were not equipped or provisioned for delay. This fact he pointed out to
his companions curtly, with a philosophic commentary on the folly of
"throwing up their hand before the game was played out." But they
were furnished with liquor, which in this emergency stood them in place of
food, fuel, rest, and prescience. In spite of his remonstrances, it was not
long before they were more or less under its influence. Uncle Billy passed
rapidly from a bellicose state into one of stupor, the Duchess became maudlin, and Mother Shipton snored.
Mr. Oakhurst alone remained erect, leaning against a rock, calmly surveying
them.
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precipitous-very steep
precipice-steep rock face or cliff
remonstrance- a forcefully
reproachful protest.
maudlin- self-pityingly
or tearfully sentimental
9.To where was the group heading after
leaving Poker Flat and why? (use text)
10.
Paraphrase Mr. Oakhurst’s “philosophic
commentary on the folly of ‘throwing
up their hand
before the game was played out’”.
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Mr. Oakhurst did not
drink. It interfered with a profession which required coolness,
impassiveness, and presence of mind, and, in his own language, he
"couldn't afford it." As he gazed at his recumbent fellow exiles, the loneliness begotten of his pariah trade, his habits of life, his
very vices, for the first time seriously oppressed him. He bestirred himself
in dusting his black clothes, washing his hands and face, and other acts
characteristic of his studiously neat habits, and for a moment forgot his annoyance.
The thought of deserting his weaker and more pitiable companions never
perhaps occurred to him. Yet he could not help feeling the want of that
excitement which, singularly enough, was most conducive to that calm
equanimity for which he was notorious. He looked at the gloomy walls that
rose a thousand feet sheer above the circling pines around him; at the sky,
ominously clouded; at the valley below, already deepening into shadow. And,
doing so, suddenly he heard his own name called.
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recumbent-
lying down
pariah- outcast
11.
Another aspect
of realism is exploring ethical
choices.
What ethical consideration goes
through Mr. Oakhurst’s
mind as he “looked at the gloomy walls that
rose
a thousand feet above the circling
pines around him”?
(use text)
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A horseman slowly ascended
the trail. In the fresh, open face of the newcomer Mr. Oakhurst recognized
Tom Simson, otherwise known as the "Innocent" of Sandy Bar. He had
met him some months before over a "little game," and had, with perfect
equanimity, won the entire
fortune--amounting to some forty dollars--of that guileless youth. After the game was finished, Mr. Oakhurst drew
the youthful speculator behind the door and thus addressed him: "Tommy,
you're a good little man, but you can't gamble worth a cent. Don't try it
over again." He then handed him his money back, pushed him gently from
the room, and so made a devoted slave of Tom Simson.
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equanimity-fairness
guileless-innocent
12.
Another
important aspect of realism is the
idea of
democracy. Consider this when answering
the
following.
Why does Mr. Oakhurst hand back Tommy’s
money?
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There was a remembrance of
this in his boyish and enthusiastic greeting of Mr. Oakhurst. He had started,
he said, to go to Poker Flat to seek his fortune. "Alone?" No, not
exactly alone; in fact (a giggle), he had run away with Piney Woods. Didn't
Mr. Oakhurst remember Piney? She that used to wait on the table at the Temperance House? They had been
engaged a long time, but old Jake Woods had objected, and so they had run
away, and were going to Poker Flat to be married, and here they were. And
they were tired out, and how lucky it was they had found a place to camp and
company. All this the Innocent delivered rapidly, while Piney, a stout,
comely damsel of fifteen, emerged from behind the pine tree, where she had
been blushing unseen, and rode to the side of her lover.
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temperance- abstinence
from alcoholic drink.
13.
Name the two new characters that are
introduced.
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Mr. Oakhurst seldom
troubled himself with sentiment, still less with propriety; but he had a vague idea that the situation was not
fortunate. He retained, however, his presence of mind sufficiently to kick
Uncle Billy, who was about to say something, and Uncle Billy was sober enough
to recognize in Mr. Oakhurst's kick a superior power that would not bear
trifling. He then endeavored to dissuade Tom Simson from delaying further,
but in vain. He even pointed out the fact that there was no provision, nor
means of making a camp. But, unluckily, the Innocent met this objection by
assuring the party that he was provided with an extra mule loaded with
provisions and by the discovery of a rude attempt at a log house near the
trail. "Piney can stay with Mrs. Oakhurst," said the Innocent,
pointing to the Duchess, "and I can shift for myself."
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propriety-
the state conforming to conventionally
accepted standards of behavior or
morals.
14.
What did the
Innocent bring along and
what had he discovered? (use text)
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Nothing but Mr. Oakhurst's admonishing foot saved Uncle Billy
from bursting into a roar of laughter. As it was, he felt compelled to retire
up the canyon until he could recover his gravity.
There he confided the joke to the tall pine trees, with many slaps of his
leg, contortions of his face, and the usual profanity. But when he returned
to the party, he found them seated by a fire--for the air had grown strangely
chill and the sky overcast--in apparently amicable conversation. Piney was
actually talking in an impulsive, girlish fashion to the Duchess, who was
listening with an interest and animation she had not shown for many days. The
Innocent was holding forth, apparently with equal effect, to Mr. Oakhurst and
Mother Shipton, who was actually relaxing into amiability. "Is this yer a damned picnic?" said Uncle
Billy with inward scorn as he surveyed the sylvan group, the glancing firelight, and the tethered animals in
the foreground. Suddenly an idea mingled with the alcoholic fumes that
disturbed his brain. It was apparently of a jocular nature, for he felt impelled to slap his leg again and
cram his fist into his mouth.
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to
admonish-to reprimand
gravity- seriousness
profanity- swearing
amiability-friendliness
sylvan-woodland
jocular- humorous
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As the shadows crept
slowly up the mountain, a slight breeze rocked the tops of the pine trees,
and moaned through their long and gloomy aisles. The ruined cabin, patched
and covered with pine boughs, was set apart for the ladies. As the lovers
parted, they unaffectedly exchanged a kiss, so honest and sincere that it
might have been heard above the swaying pines. The frail Duchess and the
malevolent Mother Shipton were probably too stunned to remark upon this last
evidence of simplicity, and so turned without a word to the hut. The fire was
replenished, the men lay down before the door, and in a few minutes were
asleep.
Mr. Oakhurst was a light sleeper. Toward morning he awoke benumbed
and cold. As he stirred the dying fire, the wind, which was now blowing strongly,
brought to his cheek that which caused the blood to leave it--snow!
He started to his feet
with the intention of awakening the sleepers, for there was no time to lose.
But turning to where Uncle Billy had been lying, he found him gone. A suspicion
leaped to his brain and a curse to his lips. He ran to the spot where the
mules had been tethered; they were no longer there. The tracks were already
rapidly disappearing in the snow.
The momentary excitement brought Mr. Oakhurst back to the fire with
his usual calm. He did not waken the sleepers. The Innocent slumbered
peacefully, with a smile on his good-humored, freckled face; the virgin Piney
slept beside her frailer sisters as sweetly as though attended by celestial guardians; and Mr.
Oakhurst, drawing his blanket over his shoulders, stroked his mustaches and
waited for the dawn. It came slowly in a whirling mist of snowflakes that
dazzled and confused the eye. What could be seen of the landscape appeared
magically changed. He looked over the valley, and summed up the present and
future in two words--"snowed in!"
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celestial- heavenly
15.
What has Uncle Billy done?
16.
How has the landscape changed?
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A careful inventory of the
provisions, which, fortunately for the party, had been stored within the hut
and so escaped the felonious fingers
of Uncle Billy, disclosed the fact that with care and prudence they might
last ten days longer. "That is," said Mr. Oakhurst, sotto voce to the Innocent, "if
you're willing to board us. If you ain't--and perhaps you'd better not--you
can wait till Uncle Billy gets back with provisions." For some occult
reason, Mr. Oakhurst could not bring himself to disclose Uncle Billy's rascality, and so offered the
hypothesis that he had wandered from the camp and had accidentally stampeded
the animals. He dropped a warning to the Duchess and Mother Shipton, who of
course knew the facts of their associate's defection. "They'll find out
the truth about us all when they find out anything," he added,
significantly, "and there's no good frightening them now."
Tom Simson not only put
all his worldly store at the disposal of Mr. Oakhurst, but seemed to enjoy
the prospect of their enforced seclusion. "We'll have a good camp for a
week, and then the snow'll melt, and we'll all go back together." The
cheerful gaiety of the young man, and Mr. Oakhurst's calm, infected the
others. The Innocent with the aid of pine boughs extemporized a thatch for the roofless cabin, and the Duchess
directed Piney in the rearrangement of the interior with a taste and tact
that opened the blue eyes of that provincial maiden to their fullest extent.
"I reckon now you're used to fine things at Poker Flat," said Piney.
The Duchess turned away sharply to conceal something that reddened her cheeks
through its professional tint, and Mother Shipton requested Piney not to
"chatter." But when Mr. Oakhurst returned from a weary search for
the trail, he heard the sound of happy laughter echoed from the rocks. He
stopped in some alarm, and his thoughts first naturally reverted to the
whisky, which he had prudently cached. "And yet it don't somehow sound
like whisky," said the gambler. It was not until he caught sight of the blazing
fire through the still-blinding storm and the group around it that he settled
to the conviction that it was "square fun."
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felonious- criminal
sotto
voce- low voice
rascality- trickery
to
extemporize-to put together without
much preparation
17. For
how many days does the party have
provisions?
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Whether Mr. Oakhurst had cached his cards with the
whisky as something debarred the free access of the community, I cannot say.
It was certain that, in Mother Shipton's words, he "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 with great
earnestness and vociferation. I fear that a certain 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.
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,—nigger 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.'"
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To
beguile-to charm or enchant
sententiously-
with feeling
18.
How did the
snowed-in party pass the time?
19.
What is Mr.
Oakhurst’s attitude toward luck?
(use
text)
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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.
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. But 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 malediction. It was her last vituperative attempt, and perhaps for
that reason was invested with a certain degree of sublimity. 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."
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to
abate- to stop
vernacular- common language
malediction- curse
vituperative-bitter and abusive
wrath- anger
20.
What is the relationship developing
among the women? (Incorporate text)
21.How does Oakhurst telling the story of
the Illiad in the
vernacular indicate that
the story is an
example of realism?
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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 walls
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. 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. "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.
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querulous-shaking
22.
What is happening to Mother Shipton? (use
text)
querulously
– shaking
curt- short and to the point
23.
How do her actions in terms of
rations relate to
Realism? (look
at the list)
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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 someone 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 pines, 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, 1850,
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.
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to render asunder- to tear apart
wan- pale
24. Why
did Mr. Oakhurst turn “suddenly
and kiss the Duchess”?
25.
What
happened to Mr. Oakhurst? (use text)
26.
In what way is Oakhurst a realist character?
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Vocabulary- quiz on Friday, March 3
1 1. promiscuous- (adj) a person having many transient relationships
2. garret- (noun)attic room
3. slovenliness-(adj) marked by negligence
4. cupidity- (noun) greed
5. maxim-(noun) saying
6. to augur- to portend or foretell
7. rumpus- noisy disturbance or commotion
8. perambulate- to walk
9. hegira - a flight to escape danger
10. turpitude- moral depravity
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