Miggles

by Bret Harte

We were eight, including the driver. We had not spoken during the passage of the last six miles, since the jolting of the heavy vehicle over the roughening road had spoiled the Judge's last poetical quotation. The tall man beside the Judge was asleep, his arm passed through the swaying strap and his head resting upon it-altogether a limp, helpless-looking object, as if he had hanged himself and been cut down too late. The French lady on the back seat was asleep, too, yet in a half-conscious propriety of attitude, shown even in the disposition of the handkerchief which she held to her forehead and which partially veiled her face.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

18 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 11, 2001

About the author

People note American writer Francis Bret Harte for The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Sketches (1870), his best-known collection of his stories about California mining towns.

People best remember this poet for his short-story fiction, featuring miners, gamblers, and other romantic figures of the Gold Rush. In a career, spanning more than four decades, he wrote poetry, plays, lectures, book reviews, editorials, and magazine sketches in addition to fiction. As he moved from California to the eastern United States to Europe, he incorporated new subjects and characters into his stories, but people most often reprinted, adapted, and admired his tales of the Gold Rush.

Parents named him after Francis Brett, his great-grandfather. Bernard Hart, paternal grandfather of Francis and an Orthodox Jewish immigrant, flourished as a merchant and founded the New York stock exchange. Henry, father of the young Francis, changed the spelling of the family name from Hart to Harte. Later, Francis preferred that people know his middle name, which he spelled Bret with only one t.

An avid reader as a boy, Harte at 11 years of age published his first work, a satirical poem, titled "Autumn Musings", now lost. Rather than attracting praise, the poem garnered ridicule from his family. As an adult, he recalled to a friend, "Such a shock was their ridicule to me that I wonder that I ever wrote another line of verse". His formal schooling ended at 13 years of age in 1849.

Reviews

[K. Anna Kraft · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've arranged my thoughts into a haiku:

"Impressive women,
More apparent in some settings
Despite sordid roots."

[John Yelverton · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a pretty odd short story about a group of travelers who happen upon a haven of curiosities led by the indomitable Miggles.

[Phil Syphe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although not a riveting short story, this does have appeal.

Several travellers take shelter in a house that features some strange occupants, such as a man who's more dead than alive, a small grizzly bear, and a woman called Miggles.

The atmosphere is quite eerie. It felt like the potential was there for something bigger and deeper but it didn't have enough space for further development.

Worth a read.