{"id":"01KG6G88XQVZWAZDKPS5BGD6G4","cid":"bafkreiakmzrcvhxumixzpidguplgvvyt7bfintvgtgf7zca3qqsmcykzii","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":10596,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T03:48:16.153Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 9","source_file":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","start_line":10534,"text":"I sat stock-still for a time, thoroughly to master, if possible, my\r\nfirst discomposure. Then rising, I looked pretty steadily at the table;\r\nwent up to it pretty steadily; took hold of it pretty steadily; but let\r\nit go pretty quickly; then paced up and down, stopping every moment or\r\ntwo, with ear pricked to listen. Meantime, within me, the contest\r\nbetween panic and philosophy remained not wholly decided.\r\n\r\nTick! tick! tick!\r\n\r\nWith appalling distinctness the ticking now rose on the night.\r\n\r\nMy pulse fluttered--my heart beat. I hardly know what might not have\r\nfollowed, had not Democritus just then come to the rescue. For shame,\r\nsaid I to myself, what is the use of so fine an example of philosophy,\r\nif it cannot be followed? Straightway I resolved to imitate it, even to\r\nthe old sage’s occupation and attitude.\r\n\r\nResuming my chair and paper, with back presented to the table, I\r\nremained thus for a time, as if buried in study, when, the ticking still\r\ncontinuing, I drawled out, in as indifferent and dryly jocose a way as I\r\ncould: ‘Come, come, Tick, my boy, fun enough for to-night.’\r\n\r\nTick! tick! tick!\r\n\r\nThere seemed a sort of jeering defiance in the ticking now. It seemed to\r\nexult over the poor affected part I was playing. But much as the taunt\r\nstung me, it only stung me into persistence. I resolved not to abate one\r\nwhit in my mode of address.\r\n\r\n‘Come, come, you make more and more noise, Tick, my boy; too much of a\r\njoke--time to have done.’\r\n\r\nNo sooner said than the ticking ceased. Never was responsive obedience\r\nmore exact. For the life of me, I could not help turning round upon the\r\ntable, as one would upon some reasonable being, when--could I believe my\r\nsenses? I saw something moving, or wriggling, or squirming upon the slab\r\nof the table. It shone like a glow-worm. Unconsciously, I grasped the\r\npoker that stood at hand. But bethinking me how absurd to attack a\r\nglow-worm with a poker, I put it down. How long I sat spellbound and\r\nstaring there, with my body presented one way and my face another, I\r\ncannot say; but at length I rose, and, buttoning my coat up and down,\r\nmade a sudden intrepid forced march full upon the table. And there, near\r\nthe centre of the slab, as I live, I saw an irregular little hole, or,\r\nrather, short nibbled sort of crack, from which (like a butterfly\r\nescaping its chrysalis) the sparkling object, whatever it might be, was\r\nstruggling. Its motion was the motion of life. I stood becharmed. Are\r\nthere, indeed, spirits, thought I; and is this one? No; I must be\r\ndreaming. I turned my glance off to the red fire on the hearth, then\r\nback to the pale lustre on the table. What I saw was no optical\r\nillusion, but a real marvel. The tremor was increasing, when, once\r\nagain, Democritus befriended me. Supernatural coruscation as it\r\nappeared, I strove to look at the strange object in a purely scientific\r\nway. Thus viewed, it appeared some new sort of small shining beetle or\r\nbug, and, I thought, not without something of a hum to it, too.\r\n\r\nI 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","title":"Chunk 9"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6G6QRNZQYVPR075E3256EH","peer_type":"article","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG2T49K0H5GDRB0G4YDTPG8H","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6G88XK0T7FDRD3ESFS531Y","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6G88XQAMHFJGXKACDKSQ57","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T03:48:21.047Z","ts":"2026-01-30T03:48:31.720Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}