{"id":"01KG6FVEM4P7RCYH4EHEYXNW49","cid":"bafkreig3fv7ye6snw56dp74ic7wo633vizw4myosyve57m4jxkdcfnv4oe","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":4350,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T03:41:20.747Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 18","source_file":"01KG6FT59BXAZ3C5HRJ6SW8F58","start_line":4305,"text":"don't do that kind of stuff if you're a lawyer. All you do is make a lot of dough and play\ngolf and play bridge and buy cars and drink Martinis and look like a hot-shot. And\nbesides. Even if you did go around saving guys' lives and all, how would you know if you\ndid it because you really wanted to save guys' lives, or because you did it because what\nyou really wanted to do was be a terrific lawyer, with everybody slapping you on the\n\n\nback and congratulating you in court when the goddam trial was over, the reporters and\neverybody, the way it is in the dirty movies? How would you know you weren't being a\nphony? The trouble is, you wouldn't.\"\nI'm not too sure old Phoebe knew what the hell I was talking about. I mean she's\nonly a little child and all. But she was listening, at least. If somebody at least listens, it's\nnot too bad.\n\"Daddy's going to kill you. He's going to kill you,\" she said.\nI wasn't listening, though. I was thinking about something else--something crazy.\n\"You know what I'd like to be?\" I said. \"You know what I'd like to be? I mean if I had my\ngoddam choice?\"\n\"What? Stop swearing.\"\n\"You know that song 'If a body catch a body comin' through the rye'? I'd like--\"\n\"It's 'If a body meet a body coming through the rye'!\" old Phoebe said. \"It's a\npoem. By Robert Burns.\"\n\"I know it's a poem by Robert Burns.\"\nShe was right, though. It is \"If a body meet a body coming through the rye.\" I\ndidn't know it then, though.\n\"I thought it was 'If a body catch a body,'\" I said. \"Anyway, I keep picturing all\nthese little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little\nkids, and nobody's around--nobody big, I mean--except me. And I'm standing on the edge\nof some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over\nthe cliff--I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come\nout from somewhere and catch them. That's all I'd do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the\nrye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be. I know it's\ncrazy.\"\nOld Phoebe didn't say anything for a long time. Then, when she said something,\nall she said was, \"Daddy's going to kill you.\"\n\"I don't give a damn if he does,\" I said. I got up from the bed then, because what I\nwanted to do, I wanted to phone up this guy that was my English teacher at Elkton Hills,\nMr. Antolini. He lived in New York now. He quit Elkton Hills. He took this job teaching\nEnglish at N.Y.U. \"I have to make a phone call,\" I told Phoebe. \"I'll be right back. Don't\ngo to sleep.\" I didn't want her to go to sleep while I was in the living room. I knew she\nwouldn't but I said it anyway, just to make sure.\nWhile I was walking toward the door, old Phoebe said, \"Holden!\" and I turned\naround.\nShe was sitting way up in bed. She looked so pretty. \"I'm taking belching lessons\nfrom this girl, Phyllis Margulies,\" she said. \"Listen.\"\nI listened, and I heard something, but it wasn't much. \"Good,\" I said. Then I went\nout in the living room and called up this teacher I had, Mr. Antolini.","title":"Chunk 18"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6FV1MS094QPPD7BPA0982X","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6FT59BXAZ3C5HRJ6SW8F58","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KFF1K6A8V452X8SQKY55DD16","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6FVEM2XNQR6K2577PPPPZZ","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T03:41:20.900Z","ts":"2026-01-30T03:41:31.916Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}