{"id":"01KG17A22K8AN14Q08KXWCP8F4","cid":"bafkreigzwpelrswmjqmfsq4qcmhxfvp3hct2rdcmemzoizhzmddeziapeq","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":7666,"extracted_at":"2026-01-28T02:35:49.962Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 4","source_file":"01KG0K71QZ8KK7RGEGSNTB5534","start_line":7583,"text":"noise. Why didn’t you come and wake me?”\r\n\r\n“We judged it warn’t worth while. Those fellows warn’t likely to come\r\nagain—they hadn’t any tools left to work with, and what was the use of\r\nwaking you up and scaring you to death? My three negro men stood guard\r\nat your house all the rest of the night. They’ve just come back.”\r\n\r\nMore visitors came, and the story had to be told and retold for a couple\r\nof hours more.\r\n\r\nThere was no Sabbath-school during day-school vacation, but everybody\r\nwas early at church. The stirring event was well canvassed. News came\r\nthat not a sign of the two villains had been yet discovered. When the\r\nsermon was finished, Judge Thatcher’s wife dropped alongside of Mrs.\r\nHarper as she moved down the aisle with the crowd and said:\r\n\r\n“Is my Becky going to sleep all day? I just expected she would be tired\r\nto death.”\r\n\r\n“Your Becky?”\r\n\r\n“Yes,” with a startled look—“didn’t she stay with you last night?”\r\n\r\n“Why, no.”\r\n\r\nMrs. Thatcher turned pale, and sank into a pew, just as Aunt Polly,\r\ntalking briskly with a friend, passed by. Aunt Polly said:\r\n\r\n“Goodmorning, Mrs. Thatcher. Goodmorning, Mrs. Harper. I’ve got a boy\r\nthat’s turned up missing. I reckon my Tom stayed at your house last\r\nnight—one of you. And now he’s afraid to come to church. I’ve got to\r\nsettle with him.”\r\n\r\nMrs. Thatcher shook her head feebly and turned paler than ever.\r\n\r\n“He didn’t stay with us,” said Mrs. Harper, beginning to look uneasy. A\r\nmarked anxiety came into Aunt Polly’s face.\r\n\r\n“Joe Harper, have you seen my Tom this morning?”\r\n\r\n“No’m.”\r\n\r\n“When did you see him last?”\r\n\r\nJoe tried to remember, but was not sure he could say. The people had\r\nstopped moving out of church. Whispers passed along, and a boding\r\nuneasiness took possession of every countenance. Children were anxiously\r\nquestioned, and young teachers. They all said they had not noticed\r\nwhether Tom and Becky were on board the ferryboat on the homeward trip;\r\nit was dark; no one thought of inquiring if any one was missing. One\r\nyoung man finally blurted out his fear that they were still in the cave!\r\nMrs. Thatcher swooned away. Aunt Polly fell to crying and wringing her\r\nhands.\r\n\r\nThe alarm swept from lip to lip, from group to group, from street to\r\nstreet, and within five minutes the bells were wildly clanging and\r\nthe whole town was up! The Cardiff Hill episode sank into instant\r\ninsignificance, the burglars were forgotten, horses were saddled, skiffs\r\nwere manned, the ferryboat ordered out, and before the horror was half\r\nan hour old, two hundred men were pouring down highroad and river toward\r\nthe cave.\r\n\r\nAll the long afternoon the village seemed empty and dead. Many women\r\nvisited Aunt Polly and Mrs. Thatcher and tried to comfort them. They\r\ncried with them, too, and that was still better than words. All the\r\ntedious night the town waited for news; but when the morning dawned at\r\nlast, all the word that came was, “Send more candles—and send food.”\r\n Mrs. Thatcher was almost crazed; and Aunt Polly, also. Judge Thatcher\r\nsent messages of hope and encouragement from the cave, but they conveyed\r\nno real cheer.\r\n\r\nThe old Welshman came home toward daylight, spattered with\r\ncandle-grease, smeared with clay, and almost worn out. He found Huck\r\nstill in the bed that had been provided for him, and delirious with\r\nfever. The physicians were all at the cave, so the Widow Douglas came\r\nand took charge of the patient. She said she would do her best by him,\r\nbecause, whether he was good, bad, or indifferent, he was the Lord’s,\r\nand nothing that was the Lord’s was a thing to be neglected. The\r\nWelshman said Huck had good spots in him, and the widow said:\r\n\r\n“You can depend on it. That’s the Lord’s mark. He don’t leave it off.\r\nHe never does. Puts it somewhere on every creature that comes from his\r\nhands.”\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 4"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG176GQB7F00KKAYXGY02KYQ","peer_label":"CHAPTER XXX","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":"01KG17A22PF4WY2JFYY1M9JQQ9","peer_label":"Chunk 3","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG17A22PHT8RWGCKX4Z1BQH2","peer_label":"Chunk 5","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-28T02:35:50.403Z","ts":"2026-01-28T02:35:51.070Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}