{"id":"01KG6G84WX34CKE5AAT74TJD2E","cid":"bafkreicjalpts7ntznfv3vtxjj2osogyf6jzgowuk2powdmzq22fknrmxq","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":6734,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T03:48:16.153Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","start_line":6643,"text":"repeat, to have this proud thing to tell--in far future days, when poor\r\nold I shall have been long dead and gone, boy--to your children, and\r\nyour children’s children; in that case, sir, you are free to land\r\nforthwith.’\r\n\r\n‘Oh, uncle! I did not mean----’\r\n\r\n‘No words, sir! Yorpy, take this oar, and help pull him ashore.’\r\n\r\n‘But, my dear uncle; I declare to you that----’\r\n\r\n‘Not a syllable, sir: you have cast open scorn upon the Great\r\nHydraulic-Hydrostatic Apparatus. Yorpy, put him ashore, Yorpy. It’s\r\nshallow here again. Jump out, Yorpy, and wade with him ashore.’\r\n\r\n‘Now, my dear, good, kind uncle, do but pardon me this one time, and I\r\nwill say just nothing about the apparatus.’\r\n\r\n‘Say nothing about it! when it is my express end and aim it shall be\r\nfamous! Put him ashore, Yorpy.’\r\n\r\n‘Nay, uncle, I _will_ not give up my oar. I have an oar in this matter,\r\nand I mean to keep it. You shall not cheat me out of my share of your\r\nglory.’\r\n\r\n‘Ah, now there--that’s sensible. You may stay, youngster. Pull again\r\nnow.’\r\n\r\nWe were all silent for a time, steadily plying our way. At last I\r\nventured to break water once more.\r\n\r\n‘I am glad, dear uncle, you have revealed to me at last the nature and\r\nend of your great experiment. It is the effectual draining of swamps; an\r\nattempt, dear uncle, in which, if you do but succeed (as I know you\r\nwill), you will earn the glory denied to a Roman emperor. He tried to\r\ndrain the Pontine marsh, but failed.’\r\n\r\n‘The world has shot ahead the length of its own diameter since then,’\r\nquoth my uncle, proudly. ‘If that Roman emperor were here, _I_’d show\r\nhim what can be done in the present enlightened age.’\r\n\r\nSeeing my good uncle so far mollified now as to be quite\r\nself-complacent, I ventured another remark.\r\n\r\n‘This is a rather severe, hot pull, dear uncle.’\r\n\r\n‘Glory is not to be gained, youngster, without pulling hard for\r\nit--against the stream, too, as we do now. The natural tendency of man,\r\nin the mass, is to go down with the universal current into oblivion.’\r\n\r\n‘But why pull so far, dear uncle, upon the present occasion? Why pull\r\nten miles for it? You do but propose, as I understand it, to put to the\r\nactual test this admirable invention of yours. And could it not be\r\ntested almost anywhere?’\r\n\r\n‘Simple boy,’ quoth my uncle, ‘would you have some malignant spy steal\r\nfrom me the fruits of ten long years of high-hearted, persevering\r\nendeavour? Solitary in my scheme, I go to a solitary place to test it.\r\nIf I fail--for all things are possible--no one out of the family will\r\nknow it. If I succeed, secure in the secrecy of my invention, I can\r\nboldly demand any price for its publication.’\r\n\r\n‘Pardon me, dear uncle; you are wiser than I.’\r\n\r\n‘One would think years and gray hairs should bring wisdom, boy.’\r\n\r\n‘Yorpy there, dear uncle; think you his grizzled locks thatch a brain\r\nimproved by long life?’\r\n\r\n‘Am I Yorpy, boy? Keep to your oar!’\r\n\r\nThus padlocked again, I said no further word till the skiff grounded on\r\nthe shallows, some twenty yards from the deep-wooded isle.\r\n\r\n‘Hush!’ whispered my uncle, intensely; ‘not a word now!’ and he sat\r\nperfectly still, slowly sweeping with his glance the whole country\r\naround, even to both banks of the here wide-expanded stream.\r\n\r\n‘Wait till that horseman yonder passes!’ he whispered again, pointing to\r\na speck moving along a lofty, river-side road, which perilously wound on\r\nmidway up a long line of broken bluffs and cliffs. ‘There--he’s out of\r\nsight now, behind the copse. Quick! Yorpy! Carefully, though! Jump\r\noverboard, and shoulder the box, and--Hold!’\r\n\r\nWe were all mute and motionless again.\r\n\r\n‘Ain’t that a boy, sitting like Zaccheus in yonder tree of the orchard\r\non the other bank? Look, youngster--young eyes are better than\r\nold--don’t you see him?’\r\n\r\n‘Dear uncle, I see the orchard, but I can’t see any boy.’\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6G6Q62R4C7A5SAZF9TP92K","peer_type":"article","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG2T49K0H5GDRB0G4YDTPG8H","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6G84WX2AJE9Y9DMFN0MS6Z","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6G84WXAA9GNFHV4K5FFWVP","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T03:48:16.925Z","ts":"2026-01-30T03:48:28.505Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}