{"id":"01KG16QY80HB58H0D32QC3RH7T","cid":"bafkreievevjdszjjdh2filyfwuscpl2jgqavfkopcjymybwo64zgmi2rku","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":998,"extracted_at":"2026-01-28T02:25:56.264Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG0K71QZ8KK7RGEGSNTB5534","start_line":912,"text":"thought of it burnt him like fire. He got out his worldly wealth and\r\nexamined it—bits of toys, marbles, and trash; enough to buy an exchange\r\nof _work_, maybe, but not half enough to buy so much as half an hour\r\nof pure freedom. So he returned his straitened means to his pocket, and\r\ngave up the idea of trying to buy the boys. At this dark and hopeless\r\nmoment an inspiration burst upon him! Nothing less than a great,\r\nmagnificent inspiration.\r\n\r\nHe took up his brush and went tranquilly to work. Ben Rogers hove in\r\nsight presently—the very boy, of all boys, whose ridicule he had been\r\ndreading. Ben’s gait was the hop-skip-and-jump—proof enough that his\r\nheart was light and his anticipations high. He was eating an apple, and\r\ngiving a long, melodious whoop, at intervals, followed by a deep-toned\r\nding-dong-dong, ding-dong-dong, for he was personating a steamboat. As\r\nhe drew near, he slackened speed, took the middle of the street, leaned\r\nfar over to starboard and rounded to ponderously and with laborious pomp\r\nand circumstance—for he was personating the Big Missouri, and considered\r\nhimself to be drawing nine feet of water. He was boat and captain and\r\nengine-bells combined, so he had to imagine himself standing on his own\r\nhurricane-deck giving the orders and executing them:\r\n\r\n“Stop her, sir! Ting-a-ling-ling!” The headway ran almost out, and he\r\ndrew up slowly toward the sidewalk.\r\n\r\n“Ship up to back! Ting-a-ling-ling!” His arms straightened and stiffened\r\ndown his sides.\r\n\r\n“Set her back on the stabboard! Ting-a-ling-ling! Chow! ch-chow-wow!\r\nChow!” His right hand, mean-time, describing stately circles—for it was\r\nrepresenting a forty-foot wheel.\r\n\r\n“Let her go back on the labboard! Ting-a-ling-ling! Chow-ch-chow-chow!”\r\n The left hand began to describe circles.\r\n\r\n“Stop the stabboard! Ting-a-ling-ling! Stop the labboard! Come ahead on\r\nthe stabboard! Stop her! Let your outside turn over slow!\r\nTing-a-ling-ling! Chow-ow-ow! Get out that head-line! _lively_ now!\r\nCome—out with your spring-line—what’re you about there! Take a turn\r\nround that stump with the bight of it! Stand by that stage, now—let her\r\ngo! Done with the engines, sir! Ting-a-ling-ling! SH’T! S’H’T! SH’T!”\r\n(trying the gauge-cocks).\r\n\r\nTom went on whitewashing—paid no attention to the steamboat. Ben stared\r\na moment and then said: “_Hi-Yi! You’re_ up a stump, ain’t you!”\r\n\r\nNo answer. Tom surveyed his last touch with the eye of an artist, then\r\nhe gave his brush another gentle sweep and surveyed the result, as\r\nbefore. Ben ranged up alongside of him. Tom’s mouth watered for the\r\napple, but he stuck to his work. Ben said:\r\n\r\n“Hello, old chap, you got to work, hey?”\r\n\r\nTom wheeled suddenly and said:\r\n\r\n“Why, it’s you, Ben! I warn’t noticing.”\r\n\r\n“Say—I’m going in a-swimming, I am. Don’t you wish you could? But of\r\ncourse you’d druther _work_—wouldn’t you? Course you would!”\r\n\r\nTom contemplated the boy a bit, and said:\r\n\r\n“What do you call work?”\r\n\r\n“Why, ain’t _that_ work?”\r\n\r\nTom resumed his whitewashing, and answered carelessly:\r\n\r\n“Well, maybe it is, and maybe it ain’t. All I know, is, it suits Tom\r\nSawyer.”\r\n\r\n“Oh come, now, you don’t mean to let on that you _like_ it?”\r\n\r\nThe brush continued to move.\r\n\r\n“Like it? Well, I don’t see why I oughtn’t to like it. Does a boy get a\r\nchance to whitewash a fence every day?”\r\n\r\nThat put the thing in a new light. Ben stopped nibbling his apple.\r\nTom swept his brush daintily back and forth—stepped back to note the\r\neffect—added a touch here and there—criticised the effect again—Ben\r\nwatching every move and getting more and more interested, more and more\r\nabsorbed. Presently he said:\r\n\r\n“Say, Tom, let _me_ whitewash a little.”\r\n\r\nTom considered, was about to consent; but he altered his mind:\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG16PT5D1C7HBB3KXCHPMDHV","peer_label":"CHAPTER II","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG0K71QZ8KK7RGEGSNTB5534","peer_label":"tom_sawyer.txt","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KFXT0KM64XT6K8W52TDEE0YS","peer_label":"More Classics","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG16QY85HWGEJJDMA3S1SPK5","peer_label":"Chunk 1","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG16QY734N9FYH6FXEAF4HX9","peer_label":"Chunk 3","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-28T02:25:56.689Z","ts":"2026-01-28T02:25:57.452Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}