This story tells us about a guy whose origins are completely unknown for us readers thorugh the complete story. He is situated in the state of California in the aftermath of the Californian Gold Rush, which took place in 1849.
The Gold Rush was precisely the abandon of their houses by people in other places in the actual United States to go to the actual state of California to get some of the recently found gold. This story probably tells us about the late 1860s.
So we find our character (whose name is not provided, so will be refered as "our character" or "the narrator") walking and looking at the little cabins built by the miners who had once gone after gold and had not found it. These miners did not have the possibility to go back to their previous homes, but did not have the will to stay in there either. This can be infered by the damages and by the lack of care to their cabins.
Suddenly this man arrives to an unexpected cabin, more like a cottage. This was a delight to the eye, or in his words, "a rest to the tired eye" [because of being tired of having seen all kind of deteriorated cabins]. This cabin was well taken care of and gave a sensation more of joy than of unsatisfaction. The inhabitants probably must have found the place not a punishment as the rest of the area's inhabitants. Henry, the man of the house, let him in and gave him a really warm welcome. Our character was very pleased with the comfortance of the place.
Henry began telling him about his wife, who had been the cabin's decoration artist, and how beautiful she was. He mentioned about her soon returning home, and asked the narrator to stay to receive his wife, and that she would be really pleased with him, as she liked visitors with lots of things to talk about. It was a Wednesday, and the lady would return on Saturday. Although our character could not stay for so long, Henry talked that beautifully about his wife that he convinced him.
The fact that Henry talks that good about his wife, can makes us think that he was kind of naïve, because he talked as if he had wanted our character to fall in love with her. He would not care if the other liked her so much without even knowing him. Henry reads a letter to the narrator and made him cry, which is a fact that could have made him fall even more for the lady. We cannot say if the narrator is in love with Henry's wife, but what we can surely say, is that he can't wait to meet her, and so is his will, that he would stay there more than he had planned. And so time seemed neverending to our character, who was always watching the tick-tack on his clock, only to find himself in that neverending wait for this lady.
Then we have the appearance of three new characters in the story, who are Henry's long-time friends: Joe, Tom, and Charlie. Henry reads the letter to them too, and they cry.
Saturday had arrived, and the preparations for her arrival were ready. The three friends and our character along with Henry were expecting full of joy her arrival. But it starts to get late, and the three friends put Henry to sleep, for him not to suffer more. Our character asks about the lady's arrival, and he got a totally unexpected surprise. The friends' answer was "She? Poor thing, she's been dead 19 years." What a surprise he got! And so Henry's friends started explaining how their friend, each year after her death, waited for her and then, they put him to sleep so that he would not suffer. Then everything went back to its place for another year.
This tells us about how the narrative perspective was really important in this short story. Its a character totally new to the situation and who is describing to us what he lives for the first time. So this is a we get as readers: a first time to everything, at the same time with the narrator. So we find out about Henry's insanity at the same time that the narrator does.
To me, it is a very well written short story, with an unexpected ending and which, despite of being so short, make you interested in the plot.
(Image from: http://www.someoldnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/gold-rush-lord.jpg)
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