{"id":"01KG6G88XQAMHFJGXKACDKSQ57","cid":"bafkreihizgj47ox7e5qcsz3qep4vz4tnboz2kdxpsm6pbvaykecal54r3u","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":10686,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T03:48:16.153Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 10","source_file":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","start_line":10589,"text":"I still watched it, and with still increasing self-possession. Sparkling\r\nand wriggling, it still continued its throes. In another moment it was\r\njust on the point of escaping its prison. A thought struck me. Running\r\nfor a tumbler, I clapped it over the insect just in time to secure it.\r\n\r\nAfter watching it a while longer under the tumbler, I left all as it\r\nwas, and, tolerably composed, retired.\r\n\r\nNow, for the soul of me, I could not, at that time, comprehend the\r\nphenomenon. A live bug come out of a dead table? A fire-fly bug come out\r\nof a piece of ancient lumber, for one knows not how many years stored\r\naway in an old garret? Was ever such a thing heard of, or even dreamed\r\nof? How got the bug there? Never mind. I bethought me of Democritus, and\r\nresolved to keep cool. At all events, the mystery of the ticking was\r\nexplained. It was simply the sound of the gnawing and filing, and\r\ntapping of the bug, in eating its way out. It was satisfactory to think,\r\nthat there was an end forever to the ticking. I resolved not to let the\r\noccasion pass without reaping some credit from it.\r\n\r\n‘Wife,’ said I, next morning, ‘you will not be troubled with any more\r\nticking in our table. I have put a stop to all that.’\r\n\r\n‘Indeed, husband,’ said she, with some incredulity.\r\n\r\n‘Yes, wife,’ returned I, perhaps a little vaingloriously, ‘I have put a\r\nquietus upon that ticking. Depend upon it, the ticking will trouble you\r\nno more.’\r\n\r\nIn vain she besought me to explain myself. I would not gratify her;\r\nbeing willing to balance any previous trepidation I might have betrayed,\r\nby leaving room now for the imputation of some heroic feat whereby I had\r\nsilenced the ticking. It was a sort of innocent deceit by implication,\r\nquite harmless, and, I thought, of utility.\r\n\r\nBut when I went to breakfast, I saw my wife kneeling at the table again,\r\nand my girls looking ten times more frightened than ever.\r\n\r\n‘Why did you tell me that boastful tale,’ said my wife, indignantly.\r\n‘You might have known how easily it would be found out. See this crack,\r\ntoo; and here is the ticking again, plainer than ever.’\r\n\r\n‘Impossible,’ I explained; but upon applying my ear, sure enough, tick!\r\ntick! tick! The ticking was there.\r\n\r\nRecovering myself the best way I might, I demanded the bug.\r\n\r\n‘Bug?’ screamed Julia. ‘Good heavens, papa!’\r\n\r\n‘I hope, sir, you have been bringing no bugs into this house,’ said my\r\nwife, severely.\r\n\r\n‘The bug, the bug!’ I cried; ‘the bug under the tumbler.’\r\n\r\n‘Bugs in tumblers!’ cried the girls; ‘not _our_ tumblers, papa? You have\r\nnot been putting bugs into our tumblers? Oh, what does--what _does_ it\r\nall mean?’\r\n\r\n‘Do you see this hole, this crack here?’ said I, putting my finger on\r\nthe spot.\r\n\r\n‘That I do,’ said my wife, with high displeasure. ‘And how did it come\r\nthere? What have you been doing to the table?’\r\n\r\n‘Do you see this crack?’ repeated I, intensely.\r\n\r\n‘Yes, yes,’ said Julia; ‘that was what frightened me so; it looks so\r\nlike witch-work.’\r\n\r\n‘Spirits! spirits!’ cried Anna.\r\n\r\n‘Silence!’ said my wife. ‘Go on, sir, and tell us what you know of the\r\ncrack.’\r\n\r\n‘Wife and daughters,’ said I, solemnly, ‘out of that crack, or hole,\r\nwhile I was sitting all alone here last night, a wonderful----’\r\n\r\nHere, involuntarily, I paused, fascinated by the expectant attitudes and\r\nbursting eyes of Julia and Anna.\r\n\r\n‘What, what?’ cried Julia.\r\n\r\n‘A bug, Julia.’\r\n\r\n‘Bug?’ cried my wife. ‘A bug come out of this table? And what did you do\r\nwith it?’\r\n\r\n‘Clapped it under a tumbler.’\r\n\r\n‘Biddy! Biddy!’ cried my wife, going to the door. ‘Did you see a tumbler\r\nhere on this table when you swept the room?’\r\n\r\n‘Sure I did, marm, and ’bomnable bug under it.’\r\n\r\n‘And what did you do with it?’ demanded I.\r\n\r\n‘Put the bug in the fire, sir, and rinsed out the tumbler ever so many\r\ntimes, marm.’\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 10"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6G6QRNZQYVPR075E3256EH","peer_type":"article","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG2T49K0H5GDRB0G4YDTPG8H","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6G88XQVZWAZDKPS5BGD6G4","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6G89JNJ973WFKVVN9WCCCG","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T03:48:21.047Z","ts":"2026-01-30T03:48:31.812Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}