The Queen of the Pirate Isle

by Bret Harte

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Pages: 51

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About this book

The narrator describes assumed characters that were mostly original creations, sometimes maintained for days or weeks and sometimes too vague for general understanding. A creation called The Proud Lady displays such excessive haughtiness that the expression alarms the performer's mother and the character has to be abandoned. Polly's impersonations are mostly disposed of through supposed deaths, although the narrator says that this practice does not prevent their subsequent reappearance.

Polly watches a spectacle with undisguised awe and fascination, while Hickory and Patsey breathe hard with satisfaction at something beyond their wildest dreams of mystery and romance. A disturbance inside the dim tunnel produces a sound like coughing followed by something resembling an oath, alarming the children. Hickory whispers that the Evil Spirit has been made very sick, while Wan Lee suggests trying to speak to the spirit.

About the author

Bret Harte

Bret Harte was an American short-story writer, poet, editor, and diplomat whose name became closely associated with literary depictions of California mining communities. As editor of the Overland Monthly, he published The Luck of Roaring Camp in 1868, the story that brought him broad recognition through its portrait of miners caring for an orphaned child.