{"id":"01KG2TSH48GAWNCFEZ4N5HPK6Q","cid":"bafkreifl4akok6m7fuhsjfrhtytrsrc65yqr7pjpjzhlh7ohr4gqclvgpa","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":3331,"extracted_at":"2026-01-28T17:35:34.193Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 3","source_file":"01KG2T4RHC4E1XKJ12BJRXE8E8","start_line":3261,"text":"“That _is_ it! Where ’bouts is it, Huck?”\r\n\r\n“I bleeve it’s down at ’tother end. Sounds so, anyway. Pap used to sleep\r\nthere, sometimes, ’long with the hogs, but laws bless you, he just lifts\r\nthings when _he_ snores. Besides, I reckon he ain’t ever coming back to\r\nthis town any more.”\r\n\r\nThe spirit of adventure rose in the boys’ souls once more.\r\n\r\n“Hucky, do you das’t to go if I lead?”\r\n\r\n“I don’t like to, much. Tom, s’pose it’s Injun Joe!”\r\n\r\nTom quailed. But presently the temptation rose up strong again and the\r\nboys agreed to try, with the understanding that they would take to their\r\nheels if the snoring stopped. So they went tiptoeing stealthily down,\r\nthe one behind the other. When they had got to within five steps of the\r\nsnorer, Tom stepped on a stick, and it broke with a sharp snap. The man\r\nmoaned, writhed a little, and his face came into the moonlight. It was\r\nMuff Potter. The boys’ hearts had stood still, and their hopes too,\r\nwhen the man moved, but their fears passed away now. They tip-toed out,\r\nthrough the broken weather-boarding, and stopped at a little distance\r\nto exchange a parting word. That long, lugubrious howl rose on the night\r\nair again! They turned and saw the strange dog standing within a few\r\nfeet of where Potter was lying, and _facing_ Potter, with his nose\r\npointing heavenward.\r\n\r\n“Oh, geeminy, it’s _him_!” exclaimed both boys, in a breath.\r\n\r\n“Say, Tom—they say a stray dog come howling around Johnny Miller’s\r\nhouse, ’bout midnight, as much as two weeks ago; and a whippoorwill come\r\nin and lit on the banisters and sung, the very same evening; and there\r\nain’t anybody dead there yet.”\r\n\r\n“Well, I know that. And suppose there ain’t. Didn’t Gracie Miller fall\r\nin the kitchen fire and burn herself terrible the very next Saturday?”\r\n\r\n“Yes, but she ain’t _dead_. And what’s more, she’s getting better, too.”\r\n\r\n“All right, you wait and see. She’s a goner, just as dead sure as Muff\r\nPotter’s a goner. That’s what the niggers say, and they know all about\r\nthese kind of things, Huck.”\r\n\r\nThen they separated, cogitating. When Tom crept in at his bedroom window\r\nthe night was almost spent. He undressed with excessive caution, and\r\nfell asleep congratulating himself that nobody knew of his escapade. He\r\nwas not aware that the gently-snoring Sid was awake, and had been so for\r\nan hour.\r\n\r\nWhen Tom awoke, Sid was dressed and gone. There was a late look in the\r\nlight, a late sense in the atmosphere. He was startled. Why had he not\r\nbeen called—persecuted till he was up, as usual? The thought filled\r\nhim with bodings. Within five minutes he was dressed and down-stairs,\r\nfeeling sore and drowsy. The family were still at table, but they had\r\nfinished breakfast. There was no voice of rebuke; but there were averted\r\neyes; there was a silence and an air of solemnity that struck a chill\r\nto the culprit’s heart. He sat down and tried to seem gay, but it\r\nwas up-hill work; it roused no smile, no response, and he lapsed into\r\nsilence and let his heart sink down to the depths.\r\n\r\nAfter breakfast his aunt took him aside, and Tom almost brightened in\r\nthe hope that he was going to be flogged; but it was not so. His aunt\r\nwept over him and asked him how he could go and break her old heart so;\r\nand finally told him to go on, and ruin himself and bring her gray hairs\r\nwith sorrow to the grave, for it was no use for her to try any more.\r\nThis was worse than a thousand whippings, and Tom’s heart was sorer now\r\nthan his body. He cried, he pleaded for forgiveness, promised to reform\r\nover and over again, and then received his dismissal, feeling that\r\nhe had won but an imperfect forgiveness and established but a feeble\r\nconfidence.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 3"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG2TRBGFH676ZTRND3V1WZN1","peer_label":"CHAPTER X","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG2T4RHC4E1XKJ12BJRXE8E8","peer_label":"tom_sawyer.txt","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG2T49K0H5GDRB0G4YDTPG8H","peer_label":"Test Collection","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG2TSH3AF37QTB95EZ1TM4WA","peer_label":"Chunk 2","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG2TSH2M6XAFW6TTQK086MXA","peer_label":"Chunk 4","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-28T17:35:34.802Z","ts":"2026-01-28T17:35:35.730Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}