{"id":"01KG16VBXKFHWQZ3MX9NC9C725","cid":"bafkreieh33bqinf4z75vcvjiiedbfrwugbgkzbzh3pc2qy32s6prtjvh3e","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":7795,"extracted_at":"2026-01-28T02:27:48.521Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG0K71QZ8KK7RGEGSNTB5534","start_line":7726,"text":"CHAPTER XXXI\r\n\r\n\r\nNow to return to Tom and Becky’s share in the picnic. They tripped along\r\nthe murky aisles with the rest of the company, visiting the familiar\r\nwonders of the cave—wonders dubbed with rather over-descriptive names,\r\nsuch as “The Drawing-Room,” “The Cathedral,” “Aladdin’s Palace,” and\r\nso on. Presently the hide-and-seek frolicking began, and Tom and Becky\r\nengaged in it with zeal until the exertion began to grow a trifle\r\nwearisome; then they wandered down a sinuous avenue holding their\r\ncandles aloft and reading the tangled webwork of names, dates,\r\npostoffice addresses, and mottoes with which the rocky walls had been\r\nfrescoed (in candle-smoke). Still drifting along and talking, they\r\nscarcely noticed that they were now in a part of the cave whose walls\r\nwere not frescoed. They smoked their own names under an overhanging\r\nshelf and moved on. Presently they came to a place where a little stream\r\nof water, trickling over a ledge and carrying a limestone sediment with\r\nit, had, in the slow-dragging ages, formed a laced and ruffled Niagara\r\nin gleaming and imperishable stone. Tom squeezed his small body behind\r\nit in order to illuminate it for Becky’s gratification. He found that\r\nit curtained a sort of steep natural stairway which was enclosed between\r\nnarrow walls, and at once the ambition to be a discoverer seized him.\r\n\r\nBecky responded to his call, and they made a smoke-mark for future\r\nguidance, and started upon their quest. They wound this way and that,\r\nfar down into the secret depths of the cave, made another mark, and\r\nbranched off in search of novelties to tell the upper world about. In\r\none place they found a spacious cavern, from whose ceiling depended a\r\nmultitude of shining stalactites of the length and circumference of\r\na man’s leg; they walked all about it, wondering and admiring, and\r\npresently left it by one of the numerous passages that opened into\r\nit. This shortly brought them to a bewitching spring, whose basin was\r\nincrusted with a frostwork of glittering crystals; it was in the midst\r\nof a cavern whose walls were supported by many fantastic pillars which\r\nhad been formed by the joining of great stalactites and stalagmites\r\ntogether, the result of the ceaseless water-drip of centuries. Under the\r\nroof vast knots of bats had packed themselves together, thousands in a\r\nbunch; the lights disturbed the creatures and they came flocking down by\r\nhundreds, squeaking and darting furiously at the candles. Tom knew their\r\nways and the danger of this sort of conduct. He seized Becky’s hand and\r\nhurried her into the first corridor that offered; and none too soon, for\r\na bat struck Becky’s light out with its wing while she was passing out\r\nof the cavern. The bats chased the children a good distance; but the\r\nfugitives plunged into every new passage that offered, and at last got\r\nrid of the perilous things. Tom found a subterranean lake, shortly,\r\nwhich stretched its dim length away until its shape was lost in the\r\nshadows. He wanted to explore its borders, but concluded that it would\r\nbe best to sit down and rest awhile, first. Now, for the first time, the\r\ndeep stillness of the place laid a clammy hand upon the spirits of the\r\nchildren. Becky said:\r\n\r\n“Why, I didn’t notice, but it seems ever so long since I heard any of\r\nthe others.”\r\n\r\n“Come to think, Becky, we are away down below them—and I don’t know how\r\nfar away north, or south, or east, or whichever it is. We couldn’t hear\r\nthem here.”\r\n\r\nBecky grew apprehensive.\r\n\r\n“I wonder how long we’ve been down here, Tom? We better start back.”\r\n\r\n“Yes, I reckon we better. P’raps we better.”\r\n\r\n“Can you find the way, Tom? It’s all a mixed-up crookedness to me.”\r\n\r\n“I reckon I could find it—but then the bats. If they put our candles\r\nout it will be an awful fix. Let’s try some other way, so as not to go\r\nthrough there.”\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG16PT72Y4T7RCTFDAYP8F7H","peer_label":"CHAPTER XXXI","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":"01KG16VBXM60WPD466AE1K8JCT","peer_label":"Chunk 2","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-28T02:27:48.952Z","ts":"2026-01-28T02:27:49.892Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}