{"id":"01KG179CX833AQ93GAW20EGRMN","cid":"bafkreibr7fvepl5zpxcohawnvcbjxxdb5i3oy7ou7swmogmqgzlrlsfhq4","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":5685,"extracted_at":"2026-01-28T02:35:28.248Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 3","source_file":"01KG0K71QZ8KK7RGEGSNTB5534","start_line":5607,"text":"youthful mind look forward to some anticipated scene of festivity!\r\nImagination is busy sketching rose-tinted pictures of joy. In fancy, the\r\nvoluptuous votary of fashion sees herself amid the festive throng, ‘the\r\nobserved of all observers.’ Her graceful form, arrayed in snowy robes,\r\nis whirling through the mazes of the joyous dance; her eye is brightest,\r\nher step is lightest in the gay assembly.\r\n\r\n“In such delicious fancies time quickly glides by, and the welcome hour\r\narrives for her entrance into the Elysian world, of which she has\r\nhad such bright dreams. How fairy-like does everything appear to her\r\nenchanted vision! Each new scene is more charming than the last. But\r\nafter a while she finds that beneath this goodly exterior, all is\r\nvanity, the flattery which once charmed her soul, now grates harshly\r\nupon her ear; the ballroom has lost its charms; and with wasted health\r\nand imbittered heart, she turns away with the conviction that earthly\r\npleasures cannot satisfy the longings of the soul!”\r\n\r\nAnd so forth and so on. There was a buzz of gratification from time to\r\ntime during the reading, accompanied by whispered ejaculations of “How\r\nsweet!” “How eloquent!” “So true!” etc., and after the thing had closed\r\nwith a peculiarly afflicting sermon the applause was enthusiastic.\r\n\r\nThen arose a slim, melancholy girl, whose face had the “interesting”\r\n paleness that comes of pills and indigestion, and read a “poem.” Two\r\nstanzas of it will do:\r\n\r\n“A MISSOURI MAIDEN’S FAREWELL TO ALABAMA\r\n\r\n“Alabama, goodbye! I love thee well!\r\n    But yet for a while do I leave thee now!\r\nSad, yes, sad thoughts of thee my heart doth swell,\r\n    And burning recollections throng my brow!\r\nFor I have wandered through thy flowery woods;\r\n    Have roamed and read near Tallapoosa’s stream;\r\nHave listened to Tallassee’s warring floods,\r\n    And wooed on Coosa’s side Aurora’s beam.\r\n\r\n“Yet shame I not to bear an o’erfull heart,\r\n    Nor blush to turn behind my tearful eyes;\r\n’Tis from no stranger land I now must part,\r\n    ’Tis to no strangers left I yield these sighs.\r\nWelcome and home were mine within this State,\r\n    Whose vales I leave—whose spires fade fast from me\r\nAnd cold must be mine eyes, and heart, and tête,\r\n    When, dear Alabama! they turn cold on thee!”\r\n\r\nThere were very few there who knew what “_tête_” meant, but the poem\r\nwas very satisfactory, nevertheless.\r\n\r\nNext appeared a dark-complexioned, black-eyed, black-haired young lady,\r\nwho paused an impressive moment, assumed a tragic expression, and began\r\nto read in a measured, solemn tone:\r\n\r\n                              A VISION\r\n\r\nDark and tempestuous was night. Around the throne on high not a single\r\nstar quivered; but the deep intonations of the heavy thunder constantly\r\nvibrated upon the ear; whilst the terrific lightning revelled in angry\r\nmood through the cloudy chambers of heaven, seeming to scorn the power\r\nexerted over its terror by the illustrious Franklin! Even the boisterous\r\nwinds unanimously came forth from their mystic homes, and blustered\r\nabout as if to enhance by their aid the wildness of the scene.\r\n\r\nAt such a time, so dark, so dreary, for human sympathy my very spirit\r\nsighed; but instead thereof,\r\n\r\n     ‘My dearest friend, my counsellor, my comforter and guide—\r\n     My joy in grief, my second bliss in joy,’ came to my side.\r\n\r\nShe moved like one of those bright beings pictured in the sunny walks\r\nof fancy’s Eden by the romantic and young, a queen of beauty unadorned\r\nsave 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","title":"Chunk 3"},"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":"01KG179D0P1SPNNVFYPYRPSBXM","peer_label":"Chunk 2","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG179CX2QNZNB8YC1SJHZK91","peer_label":"Chunk 4","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-28T02:35:28.754Z","ts":"2026-01-28T02:35:29.749Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}