{"id":"01KF7FPQ1NNYGQR3G9ASEYDKKG","cid":"bafkreignn4v7ke2yqsgavvqhu2t557il3hisdoiqoqhvrnojm2hl5p6beu","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":2686,"extracted_at":"2026-01-18T02:42:17.951Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 17","source_file":"01KESYVB66H8YEVTN88DWE9W8D","start_line":2627,"text":"always equal to himself. Surely this was a touch of fine philosophy;\r\nthough no doubt he had never heard there was such a thing as that. But,\r\nperhaps, to be true philosophers, we mortals should not be conscious of\r\nso living or so striving. So soon as I hear that such or such a man\r\ngives himself out for a philosopher, I conclude that, like the\r\ndyspeptic old woman, he must have “broken his digester.”\r\n\r\nAs I sat there in that now lonely room; the fire burning low, in that\r\nmild stage when, after its first intensity has warmed the air, it then\r\nonly glows to be looked at; the evening shades and phantoms gathering\r\nround the casements, and peering in upon us silent, solitary twain; the\r\nstorm booming without in solemn swells; I began to be sensible of\r\nstrange feelings. I felt a melting in me. No more my splintered heart\r\nand maddened hand were turned against the wolfish world. This soothing\r\nsavage had redeemed it. There he sat, his very indifference speaking a\r\nnature in which there lurked no civilized hypocrisies and bland\r\ndeceits. Wild he was; a very sight of sights to see; yet I began to\r\nfeel myself mysteriously drawn towards him. And those same things that\r\nwould have repelled most others, they were the very magnets that thus\r\ndrew me. I’ll try a pagan friend, thought I, since Christian kindness\r\nhas proved but hollow courtesy. I drew my bench near him, and made some\r\nfriendly signs and hints, doing my best to talk with him meanwhile. At\r\nfirst he little noticed these advances; but presently, upon my\r\nreferring to his last night’s hospitalities, he made out to ask me\r\nwhether we were again to be bedfellows. I told him yes; whereat I\r\nthought he looked pleased, perhaps a little complimented.\r\n\r\nWe then turned over the book together, and I endeavored to explain to\r\nhim the purpose of the printing, and the meaning of the few pictures\r\nthat were in it. Thus I soon engaged his interest; and from that we\r\nwent to jabbering the best we could about the various outer sights to\r\nbe seen in this famous town. Soon I proposed a social smoke; and,\r\nproducing his pouch and tomahawk, he quietly offered me a puff. And\r\nthen we sat exchanging puffs from that wild pipe of his, and keeping it\r\nregularly passing between us.\r\n\r\nIf there yet lurked any ice of indifference towards me in the Pagan’s\r\nbreast, this pleasant, genial smoke we had, soon thawed it out, and\r\nleft us cronies. He seemed to take to me quite as naturally and\r\nunbiddenly as I to him; and when our smoke was over, he pressed his\r\nforehead against mine, clasped me round the waist, and said that\r\nhenceforth we were married; meaning, in his country’s phrase, that we\r\nwere bosom friends; he would gladly die for me, if need should be. In a\r\ncountryman, this sudden flame of friendship would have seemed far too\r\npremature, a thing to be much distrusted; but in this simple savage\r\nthose old rules would not apply.\r\n\r\nAfter supper, and another social chat and smoke, we went to our room\r\ntogether. He made me a present of his embalmed head; took out his\r\nenormous tobacco wallet, and groping under the tobacco, drew out some\r\nthirty dollars in silver; then spreading them on the table, and\r\nmechanically dividing them into two equal portions, pushed one of them\r\ntowards me, and said it was mine. I was going to remonstrate; but he\r\nsilenced me by pouring them into my trowsers’ pockets. I let them stay.\r\nHe then went about his evening prayers, took out his idol, and removed\r\nthe paper fireboard. By certain signs and symptoms, I thought he seemed\r\nanxious for me to join him; but well knowing what was to follow, I\r\ndeliberated a moment whether, in case he invited me, I would comply or\r\notherwise.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 17"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KF7FPMMNM5YQGSAV1J5A319H","peer_label":"Wheelbarrow","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KF7FPMMNM5YQGSAV1J5A319H","peer_label":"Wheelbarrow","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"partOf"},{"peer":"01KF7FPKDT5SHSH1ZQV6ABHQCA","peer_label":"Moby Dick; Or, The Whale","peer_type":"book","predicate":"partOf"},{"peer":"01KESYJX0Z6XE0HWTS5N3SDG0B","peer_label":"The Classics","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KF7FPQ187YHZHAQET6N3KH7F","peer_label":"Chunk 18","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"},{"peer":"01KF7FPPZPMQKVRW4VQDM79CCA","peer_label":"Chunk 16","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-18T02:42:18.431Z","ts":"2026-01-18T02:42:26.662Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KF7FCDA7SCSJ6A30TDPDSJQV"}}