The Luck of Roaring Camp

“The Luck of Roaring Camp” is the short story that established Bret Harte’s (also spelled Hart) reputation in the United States and internationally. Set in a gold prospecting camp in 1850 California, the story explores the themes of relationships between man and nature, the possibility of man’s redemption, and the rejection of standard gender roles. Widely published in newspapers and magazines, Harte was known for his depictions of rough or romantic life in the American West. He was often controversial for his explorations of racism and injustice. In “The Luck of Roaring Camp,” the unnamed narrator describes the rough men living in a gold prospecting camp and how they are affected by a child’s birth and his mother’s death. Intertwined with these events are questions about man’s essence, family, religion, and nature itself.

This guide refers to the story as it appears in the Dover Thrift Editions book The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Short Stories (1992, reissued in 2015).

Content Warning: The characters in “The Luck of Roaring Camp” hold racist ideologies and use racist language toward Indigenous Americans. Racist slurs are replicated in this guide only in direct quotations. 

The story opens with “commotion in Roaring Camp” (1). Normally, not even fatal shootings command much attention in the camp, but now, the men gather before a cabin. Inside, “Cherokee Sal” is giving birth. The cabin’s owner, Stumpy, is sent inside to care for her because of his previous experience as the head of two families. The “legal informality” of these families is why he came to Roaring Camp, a “city of refuge” (2).

The other 100 men are all “reckless,” and some are fugitives or criminals. The men’s softer aspects—one has a “Raphael” face, one the “intellectual abstraction of a Hamlet,” and another is only five feet tall—are contrasted against battle scars like missing fingers. At first quiet and respectful, the men soon revert to type, excitedly taking bets on the survival of mother and child and the child’s sex and complexion. The child’s first cry silences them, and even the forest and river’s natural noises seem to cease.

The prospectors defer plans for a noisy celebration because Cherokee Sal dies within the hour. The men wonder if the motherless child can survive, but a female donkey in the camp successfully provides milk. The men form a queue and process through the cabin to view the baby in its improvised crib, a candle box. The first man removes his hat, and the others follow suit, commenting on the baby’s size and complexion and leaving offerings in the hat Stumpy places on the table.

The otherwise monotonous queue livens when the baby grabs Kentuck’s finger. He gently and carefully removes the baby’s hand, voicing the phrase he will often repeat: “He rastled with my finger […] the d-d little cuss!” (4) Kentuck walks and meditates on this event while the others sleep. During the night, he knocks on Stumpy’s cabin door for reassurance that the baby remains well.

The next day, the men unanimously agree to adopt the infant. They argue over how its needs will be met, but they reject any involvement by women. Stumpy maintains that he and the donkey will be sufficient. They will not send the baby to a town for female care, nor will they employ a female nurse. They agree that no decent woman would come to the camp, and “they didn’t want any more of the other kind” (4-5), referring to Cherokee Sal. The narrator calls this declaration “the first symptom of the camp’s regeneration” (5).

The baby thrives, and after a month, it needs a name. The superstitious prospectors believe the child brought luck and success to the camp, so they name him Tommy Luck. One of the men prepares a satirical christening service and appoints a godfather. However, Stumpy insists this should be a formal occasion and claims the role of godfather for himself. Stumpy proclaims the child Thomas Luck “so help me God” (6), and the child is christened in earnest.

Slowly, the camp and its inhabitants change, experiencing “regeneration.” Stumpy’s cabin is scrubbed, repaired, and painted, provoking Tuttle’s grocery to install a carpet and mirrors. A rosewood cradle arrives from Sacramento. Stumpy insists on cleanliness in anyone who will hold the child, and noise is banished from the cabin’s surroundings. Singing is permitted, which soothes both the child and the men. The child lies on a blanket near where the men work, and they bring him flowers and other pretty objects. They begin to appreciate the beauty around them, and one man calls the camp “‘evingly” (heavenly).

Tommy is a quiet, reserved child with thoughtful, gray eyes. One day, an excited Kentuck observes him talking with a blue jay sitting on his lap. In the absence of other company and activities, “Nature was his nurse and playfellow” (8). Even the expressman praises the camp, though he notes that the men “worship an Ingin baby” (8). The men plan to build a hotel the next year, perhaps to attract women with families who might benefit Tommy. This is a concession to the female sex, and some of the men hope something will prevent it.

Summer ends, and the winter brings disaster. Deep snow melting in the Sierras sends water coursing down the mountains through rivers and streams, and eventually, the torrent reaches Roaring Camp. The next morning, Stumpy’s cabin is gone, his body lying in the gulch. Tommy Luck is nowhere to be found. A rescue boat arrives, and in it, Kentuck clasps Tommy’s “cold and pulseless” (9) body. Kentuck dies, telling the men the boy is “taking me with him. Tell the boys I’ve got the Luck with me now” (9).