{"id":"01KG16RJJ08EFKB308KKH6VB24","cid":"bafkreibeyr3vxjn25d5byccmrgk5ndze2fgrpuge6mbraztvgdjpb3bkn4","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":2412,"extracted_at":"2026-01-28T02:26:17.020Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG0K71QZ8KK7RGEGSNTB5534","start_line":2339,"text":"CHAPTER VII\r\n\r\n\r\nThe harder Tom tried to fasten his mind on his book, the more his ideas\r\nwandered. So at last, with a sigh and a yawn, he gave it up. It seemed\r\nto him that the noon recess would never come. The air was utterly dead.\r\nThere was not a breath stirring. It was the sleepiest of sleepy days.\r\nThe drowsing murmur of the five and twenty studying scholars soothed\r\nthe soul like the spell that is in the murmur of bees. Away off in the\r\nflaming sunshine, Cardiff Hill lifted its soft green sides through a\r\nshimmering veil of heat, tinted with the purple of distance; a few birds\r\nfloated on lazy wing high in the air; no other living thing was visible\r\nbut some cows, and they were asleep. Tom’s heart ached to be free, or\r\nelse to have something of interest to do to pass the dreary time.\r\nHis hand wandered into his pocket and his face lit up with a glow of\r\ngratitude that was prayer, though he did not know it. Then furtively\r\nthe percussion-cap box came out. He released the tick and put him on\r\nthe long flat desk. The creature probably glowed with a gratitude that\r\namounted to prayer, too, at this moment, but it was premature: for when\r\nhe started thankfully to travel off, Tom turned him aside with a pin and\r\nmade him take a new direction.\r\n\r\nTom’s bosom friend sat next him, suffering just as Tom had been, and\r\nnow he was deeply and gratefully interested in this entertainment in\r\nan instant. This bosom friend was Joe Harper. The two boys were sworn\r\nfriends all the week, and embattled enemies on Saturdays. Joe took a\r\npin out of his lapel and began to assist in exercising the prisoner.\r\nThe sport grew in interest momently. Soon Tom said that they were\r\ninterfering with each other, and neither getting the fullest benefit\r\nof the tick. So he put Joe’s slate on the desk and drew a line down the\r\nmiddle of it from top to bottom.\r\n\r\n“Now,” said he, “as long as he is on your side you can stir him up and\r\nI’ll let him alone; but if you let him get away and get on my side,\r\nyou’re to leave him alone as long as I can keep him from crossing over.”\r\n\r\n“All right, go ahead; start him up.”\r\n\r\nThe tick escaped from Tom, presently, and crossed the equator. Joe\r\nharassed him awhile, and then he got away and crossed back again. This\r\nchange of base occurred often. While one boy was worrying the tick with\r\nabsorbing interest, the other would look on with interest as strong, the\r\ntwo heads bowed together over the slate, and the two souls dead to all\r\nthings else. At last luck seemed to settle and abide with Joe. The\r\ntick tried this, that, and the other course, and got as excited and as\r\nanxious as the boys themselves, but time and again just as he would\r\nhave victory in his very grasp, so to speak, and Tom’s fingers would\r\nbe twitching to begin, Joe’s pin would deftly head him off, and keep\r\npossession. At last Tom could stand it no longer. The temptation was too\r\nstrong. So he reached out and lent a hand with his pin. Joe was angry in\r\na moment. Said he:\r\n\r\n“Tom, you let him alone.”\r\n\r\n“I only just want to stir him up a little, Joe.”\r\n\r\n“No, sir, it ain’t fair; you just let him alone.”\r\n\r\n“Blame it, I ain’t going to stir him much.”\r\n\r\n“Let him alone, I tell you.”\r\n\r\n“I won’t!”\r\n\r\n“You shall—he’s on my side of the line.”\r\n\r\n“Look here, Joe Harper, whose is that tick?”\r\n\r\n“I don’t care whose tick he is—he’s on my side of the line, and you\r\nsha’n’t touch him.”\r\n\r\n“Well, I’ll just bet I will, though. He’s my tick and I’ll do what I\r\nblame please with him, or die!”\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG16PT3KEBJQWSRSHS02JKBA","peer_label":"CHAPTER VII","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":"01KG16RJF50QB59GAJGJ24FK1D","peer_label":"Chunk 2","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-28T02:26:17.408Z","ts":"2026-01-28T02:26:18.313Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}