{"id":"01KG16SH06APH43QZZH1YN3EG6","cid":"bafkreihsiczwd3g2lokvdebwtfgowkqdrhbeoewcjtno2lorlqrl6tao7u","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":4331,"extracted_at":"2026-01-28T02:26:48.195Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG0K71QZ8KK7RGEGSNTB5534","start_line":4276,"text":"better in some ways—”\r\n\r\n“_Sid!_” Tom felt the glare of the old lady’s eye, though he could not\r\nsee it. “Not a word against my Tom, now that he’s gone! God’ll take care\r\nof _him_—never you trouble _your_self, sir! Oh, Mrs. Harper, I don’t\r\nknow how to give him up! I don’t know how to give him up! He was such a\r\ncomfort to me, although he tormented my old heart out of me, ’most.”\r\n\r\n“The Lord giveth and the Lord hath taken away—Blessed be the name of\r\nthe Lord! But it’s so hard—Oh, it’s so hard! Only last Saturday my Joe\r\nbusted a firecracker right under my nose and I knocked him sprawling.\r\nLittle did I know then, how soon—Oh, if it was to do over again I’d hug\r\nhim and bless him for it.”\r\n\r\n“Yes, yes, yes, I know just how you feel, Mrs. Harper, I know just\r\nexactly how you feel. No longer ago than yesterday noon, my Tom took\r\nand filled the cat full of Pain-killer, and I did think the cretur would\r\ntear the house down. And God forgive me, I cracked Tom’s head with my\r\nthimble, poor boy, poor dead boy. But he’s out of all his troubles now.\r\nAnd the last words I ever heard him say was to reproach—”\r\n\r\nBut this memory was too much for the old lady, and she broke entirely\r\ndown. Tom was snuffling, now, himself—and more in pity of himself than\r\nanybody else. He could hear Mary crying, and putting in a kindly word\r\nfor him from time to time. He began to have a nobler opinion of himself\r\nthan ever before. Still, he was sufficiently touched by his aunt’s grief\r\nto long to rush out from under the bed and overwhelm her with joy—and\r\nthe theatrical gorgeousness of the thing appealed strongly to his\r\nnature, too, but he resisted and lay still.\r\n\r\nHe went on listening, and gathered by odds and ends that it was\r\nconjectured at first that the boys had got drowned while taking a swim;\r\nthen the small raft had been missed; next, certain boys said the missing\r\nlads had promised that the village should “hear something” soon; the\r\nwise-heads had “put this and that together” and decided that the lads\r\nhad gone off on that raft and would turn up at the next town below,\r\npresently; but toward noon the raft had been found, lodged against the\r\nMissouri shore some five or six miles below the village—and then hope\r\nperished; they must be drowned, else hunger would have driven them home\r\nby nightfall if not sooner. It was believed that the search for the\r\nbodies had been a fruitless effort merely because the drowning must\r\nhave occurred in mid-channel, since the boys, being good swimmers, would\r\notherwise have escaped to shore. This was Wednesday night. If the bodies\r\ncontinued missing until Sunday, all hope would be given over, and the\r\nfunerals would be preached on that morning. Tom shuddered.\r\n\r\nMrs. Harper gave a sobbing goodnight and turned to go. Then with a\r\nmutual impulse the two bereaved women flung themselves into each other’s\r\narms and had a good, consoling cry, and then parted. Aunt Polly was\r\ntender far beyond her wont, in her goodnight to Sid and Mary. Sid\r\nsnuffled a bit and Mary went off crying with all her heart.\r\n\r\nAunt Polly knelt down and prayed for Tom so touchingly, so appealingly,\r\nand with such measureless love in her words and her old trembling voice,\r\nthat he was weltering in tears again, long before she was through.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG16PT6YJQXFJFCC3WT4ZMCP","peer_label":"CHAPTER XV","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":"01KG16SH2JQKB72817Y5CRJSKK","peer_label":"Chunk 1","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG16SH0KDZ8HWPK4EW4TS9YD","peer_label":"Chunk 3","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-28T02:26:48.664Z","ts":"2026-01-28T02:26:49.857Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}