The Devil and Tom Walker

Summary

The story starts with the legend of William Kidd the pirate. It is rumored that Kidd had buried a large treasure in a forest in colonial Massachusetts. Kidd made a deal with the devil to protect his money. The devil's conditions are unknown. Kidd died never able to reclaim his money, but the devil has protected it ever since.

The story continues around 1727. Tom Walker, a greedy, selfish miser of a man, cherishes money along with his shrewish and equally greedy wife. They lived in a tarnished looking house, that had stood alone and had an air of starvation. This is until he takes a walk in the swamp at an old Indian fortress (a relic of King Philip's War of 1675/1678), and starts up a conversation with the Devil incarnate (referred to as "Old Scratch" and "The Black Man" in the story). Old Scratch appears as a lumberjack or a woodsman chopping trees, each with a prominent and wealthy colonialist's name branded on the trunk. One rotted and soon-to-fall tree has the name of a deacon who grew wealthy "trading" with the Indians. Another fallen trunk has that of a wealthy seaman rumored to be a pirate. Old Scratch strikes a deal with Tom Walker, offering the riches hidden in the swamp by Captain Kidd in exchange for a great price, which is often thought to be his soul. Tom agrees to think about it and returns home.

Burdened with this secret, he tells his wife. While he has no scruples in selling himself to Old Scratch for the treasure, he does not wish to do so for his wife's sake. She meets Old Scratch herself but tells her husband Old Scratch requires an offering. When Tom is away, she takes all their valuables in and goes to make a deal with Old Scratch. When Tom searches for his wife and property, all he finds is her apron holding her heart and liver, tied to a tree.

Tom Walker agrees to Old Scratch's deal, as he considered his abusive wife's death a good thing. Because he can only use the treasure in Old Scratch's service, Tom agrees to become a usurer (today commonly called a loan shark), although Tom has scruples about becoming a slave trader.

During the governorship of Jonathan Belcher (1730-1741), speculation runs rampant, and Walker's business flourishes. Becoming a member of the local stock exchange, Tom buys a big house and a coach but furnishes neither even though he has the money (he is so miserly he even half starves his horses). Tom never tires of swindling people until he suddenly becomes fearful about the afterlife. He then becomes fiercely and loudly dedicated to God, always keeping two Bibles at hand—thinking that any sin on his neighbors "account" is a "credit" to his own. He even has his best riding horse saddled and buried upside down so that he might flee when Old Scratch comes to collect his due from Tom.

One day a ruined stock jobber (speculator) who had borrowed money from him asks for clemency and annoys Tom who says, "The Devil take me if I have made but a farthing!" (the smallest currency of the time, 1/4 of a penny). There are three loud knocks at the door. Tom is drawn towards a black-cloaked figure and realizes, in horror, that he has left his Bibles at his desk.

Old Scratch tosses Tom Walker on the back of a black horse which rides toward the old fortress and disappears in lightning. Tom is never seen again. All his assets become worthless—his coach horses become skeletons, the gold and silver Tom hoarded turn into wood chips and shavings, his mortgages and deeds become cinders, and his great house burns to the ground. Since that day, his ghost haunts the site of the old fortress. His only legacy is a New England saying, "The Devil and Tom Walker".

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