Characters

John Oakhurst

• Main character
• Expert gambler
• Banished from Poker Flat
• Traveling to Sandy Bar with Mother Shipton, The Duchess, and Uncle Billy
• Commits suicide at the end of the story

Tom Simson

• Nickname: “The Innocent”
• Traveling to Poker Flat with lover, Piney, to get married
• Continues the venture to Poker Flat in the snow for help

 Mother Shipton

• Owner of a brothel
• Banished from Poker Flat
• Eldest of the traveling party
• Dies of starvation

Piney Woods

• The virgin
• Fifteen years old
• Tom’s lover
• Died of hypothermia while sleeping

The Duchess

• Prostitute
• Banished from Poker Flat
• Died of hypothermia while sleeping

 Uncle Billy

• Suspected thief
• Alcoholic
• Leaves the others in the night while it snowed, and took the mules