{"id":"01KG6G893VSDQHK2CM7CHGGM2X","cid":"bafkreibrdepo2ym43xeqvru6yllitpq37sd6gdxnqve2u7rjx2xpd7sjji","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":5300,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T03:48:16.150Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 15","source_file":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","start_line":5202,"text":"‘Is there any hope of your wife’s recovery?’ said I, modestly seeking to\r\nturn the conversation.\r\n\r\n‘Not the least.’\r\n\r\n‘The children?’\r\n\r\n‘Very little.’\r\n\r\n‘It must be a doleful life, then, for all concerned. This lonely\r\nsolitude--this shanty--hard work--hard times.’\r\n\r\n‘Haven’t I Trumpet? He’s the cheerer. He crows through all; crows at the\r\ndarkest: Glory to God in the highest! Continually he crows it.’\r\n\r\n‘Just the import I first ascribed to his crow, Merrymusk, when first I\r\nheard it from my hill. I thought some rich nabob owned some costly\r\nShanghai; little weening any such poor man as you owned this lusty cock\r\nof a domestic breed.’\r\n\r\n‘_Poor_ man like _me_? Why call _me_ poor? Don’t the cock _I_ own\r\nglorify this otherwise inglorious, lean, lantern-jawed land? Didn’t _my_\r\ncock encourage _you_? And _I_ give you all this glorification away\r\ngratis. I am a great philanthropist. I am a rich man--a very rich man,\r\nand a very happy one. Crow, Trumpet.’\r\n\r\nThe roof jarred.\r\n\r\nI returned home in a deep mood. I was not wholly at rest concerning the\r\nsoundness of Merrymusk’s views of things, though full of admiration for\r\nhim. I was thinking on the matter before my door, when I heard the cock\r\ncrow again. Enough. Merrymusk is right.\r\n\r\nOh, noble cock! oh, noble man!\r\n\r\nI did not see Merrymusk for some weeks after this; but hearing the\r\nglorious and rejoicing crow, I supposed that all went as usual with him.\r\nMy own frame of mind remained a rejoicing one. The cock still inspired\r\nme. I saw another mortgage piled on my plantation; but only bought\r\nanother dozen of stout, and a dozen-dozen of Philadelphia porter. Some\r\nof my relatives died; I wore no mourning, but for three days drank stout\r\nin preference to porter, stout being of the darker colour. I heard the\r\ncock crow the instant I received the unwelcome tidings.\r\n\r\n‘Your health in this stout, oh, noble cock!’\r\n\r\nI thought I would call on Merrymusk again, not having seen or heard of\r\nhim for some time now. Approaching the place, there were no signs of\r\nmotion about the shanty. I felt a strange misgiving. But the cock crew\r\nfrom within doors, and the boding vanished. I knocked at the door. A\r\nfeeble voice bade me enter. The curtain was no longer drawn; the whole\r\nhouse was a hospital now. Merrymusk lay on a heap of old clothes; wife\r\nand children were all in their beds. The cock was perched on an old\r\nhogshead hoop, swung from the ridge-pole in the middle of the shanty.\r\n\r\n‘You are sick, Merrymusk,’ said I, mournfully.\r\n\r\n‘No, I am well,’ he feebly answered. ‘Crow, Trumpet.’\r\n\r\nI shrunk. The strong soul in the feeble body appalled me.\r\n\r\nBut the cock crew.\r\n\r\nThe roof jarred.\r\n\r\n‘How is Mrs. Merrymusk?’\r\n\r\n‘Well.’\r\n\r\n‘And the children?’\r\n\r\n‘Well. All well.’\r\n\r\nThe last two words he shouted forth in a kind of wild ecstasy of triumph\r\nover ill. It was too much. His head fell back. A white napkin seemed\r\ndropped upon his face. Merrymusk was dead.\r\n\r\nAn awful fear seized me.\r\n\r\nBut the cock crew.\r\n\r\nThe cock shook his plumage as if each feather were a banner. The cock\r\nhung from the shanty roof as erewhile the trophied flags from the dome\r\nof St. Paul’s. The cock terrified me with exceeding wonder.\r\n\r\nI drew nigh the bedsides of the woman and children. They marked my look\r\nof strange affright; they knew what had happened.\r\n\r\n‘My good man is just dead,’ breathed the woman lowly. ‘Tell me true?’\r\n\r\n‘Dead,’ said I.\r\n\r\nThe cock crew.\r\n\r\nShe fell back, without a sigh, and through long-loving sympathy was\r\ndead.\r\n\r\nThe cock crew.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 15"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6G6Q5SW6GV0037JNSFXSK6","peer_type":"article","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG2T49K0H5GDRB0G4YDTPG8H","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6G893V97W47NSV8SS14AT8","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6G893VVFBBES7YVQ6Q2AQ1","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T03:48:21.243Z","ts":"2026-01-30T03:48:27.507Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}