Peter Wilks was a
tanner who died an year after his married brother George, leaving Harvey,
William, and Mary Jane, left in the Wilks’ family. It was noted that Peter was
hanging on his last string. “He was pretty old” (page 168), “Peter said then that
he sorter felt like he warn’t going to get well this time” (page 168). He left
a letter significantly for Harvey being that he did not get a chance to see him
before his departure. The letter specifically said “…where his money was hid, and
how he wanted he rest of the property divided up so George’s g’yirls would be
all right-for George didn’t leave nothing” (page 169). He was such a kind and
considerate man to leave a letter despite the fact he “was one of them kind
that can’t bear to make a will” (page 169). He was “pretty well off. He had houses and
land, and it’s reckoned he left three or four thousand in cash hid up som’ers”
(page 170). Mr. Wilks will be leaving “the dwelling-house and three thousand
dollars, gold, to the girls; and the tanyard, along with some other houses and
land…three thousand dollars in gold will go to Harvey and William” (page 174). However,
there was a hidden amount of $6,000 dollars that ended up disappearing. Huck
Finn was a brave lad who would have made Mr. Wilks a happy man by taking a stand
and informing Miss Mary Jane: “I put it in the coffin…It made my eyes water a little,
to remember her crying there all by herself in the night, and them devils
laying there right under her own roof, shaming her and robbing her” (page 199).
What a valiant man who I’m sure Mr. Peter Wilks would be proud to have known.
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