{"id":"01KG179CX2QNZNB8YC1SJHZK91","cid":"bafkreif7mgt6c27x2xovzhgwoao44uo7gk3mnt2hc3oa37dnvu6xikeu7q","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":5729,"extracted_at":"2026-01-28T02:35:28.248Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 4","source_file":"01KG0K71QZ8KK7RGEGSNTB5534","start_line":5678,"text":"save by her own transcendent loveliness. So soft was her step, it\r\nfailed to make even a sound, and but for the magical thrill imparted by\r\nher genial touch, as other unobtrusive beauties, she would have glided\r\naway unperceived—unsought. A strange sadness rested upon her features,\r\nlike icy tears upon the robe of December, as she pointed to the\r\ncontending elements without, and bade me contemplate the two beings\r\npresented.\r\n\r\nThis nightmare occupied some ten pages of manuscript and wound up with a\r\nsermon so destructive of all hope to non-Presbyterians that it took\r\nthe first prize. This composition was considered to be the very finest\r\neffort of the evening. The mayor of the village, in delivering the prize\r\nto the author of it, made a warm speech in which he said that it was by\r\nfar the most “eloquent” thing he had ever listened to, and that Daniel\r\nWebster himself might well be proud of it.\r\n\r\nIt may be remarked, in passing, that the number of compositions in which\r\nthe word “beauteous” was over-fondled, and human experience referred to\r\nas “life’s page,” was up to the usual average.\r\n\r\nNow the master, mellow almost to the verge of geniality, put his chair\r\naside, turned his back to the audience, and began to draw a map of\r\nAmerica on the blackboard, to exercise the geography class upon. But he\r\nmade a sad business of it with his unsteady hand, and a smothered titter\r\nrippled over the house. He knew what the matter was, and set himself to\r\nright it. He sponged out lines and remade them; but he only distorted\r\nthem more than ever, and the tittering was more pronounced. He threw his\r\nentire attention upon his work, now, as if determined not to be put down\r\nby the mirth. He felt that all eyes were fastened upon him; he imagined\r\nhe was succeeding, and yet the tittering continued; it even manifestly\r\nincreased. And well it might. There was a garret above, pierced with\r\na scuttle over his head; and down through this scuttle came a cat,\r\nsuspended around the haunches by a string; she had a rag tied about\r\nher head and jaws to keep her from mewing; as she slowly descended she\r\ncurved upward and clawed at the string, she swung downward and clawed\r\nat the intangible air. The tittering rose higher and higher—the cat was\r\nwithin six inches of the absorbed teacher’s head—down, down, a little\r\nlower, and she grabbed his wig with her desperate claws, clung to it,\r\nand was snatched up into the garret in an instant with her trophy still\r\nin her possession! And how the light did blaze abroad from the master’s\r\nbald pate—for the signpainter’s boy had _gilded_ it!\r\n\r\nThat broke up the meeting. The boys were avenged. Vacation had come.\r\n\r\n[*] NOTE:—The pretended “compositions” quoted in this chapter are taken\r\nwithout alteration from a volume entitled “Prose and Poetry, by a\r\nWestern Lady”—but they are exactly and precisely after the schoolgirl\r\npattern, and hence are much happier than any mere imitations could be.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 4"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG176GWM9E7EZGGTBJW7ZNT5","peer_label":"CHAPTER XXI","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":"01KG179CX833AQ93GAW20EGRMN","peer_label":"Chunk 3","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-28T02:35:28.711Z","ts":"2026-01-28T02:35:29.551Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}