Alpine Apothecary by Mark Twain. Short summary

5 seconds

The boys decided to play a trick on the boy and put a skeleton in his bed. He sold it and bought a lot of snacks. To pay off the pharmacist, the kids pawned their skeletons.

1 minute

The author recalls his childhood when he and 3 boys worked in a printing shop. A lanky, moody guy with no sense of humor arrived in their town. The boys decided to make fun of him.

The local doctor had prescribed a visual aid — a skeleton — for $50. It was kept by the pharmacist. The kids borrowed the skeleton for the evening. They lured the boy out of the house and put the skeleton in his bed.

In the evening, their conscience began to torment them. The children were afraid that the boy might die of fright.

But it turned out that he had sold the find for $5 and bought his own groceries.The children told the pharmacist what had happened. He told them to pawn their skeletons as compensation.

But the pharmacist miscalculated. One boy drowned and no remains were found. The second was carried away in a balloon to who knows where. The third investigated a stick of dynamite, and there was nothing left of the skeleton.

The apothecary became friends with the author. In his correspondence, he asked about the condition of his bones.