{"id":"01KG6G89JNP7M3WVYGTJ7YCJV6","cid":"bafkreibkxs2hdkybdvwbllnscfhxn5rpv5pc4udlp4q5bobzakq6ln3rnu","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":10847,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T03:48:16.153Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 12","source_file":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","start_line":10773,"text":"‘Ah, but that wood is almost fresh from the woodland. But the table is\r\nat least a hundred years old.’\r\n\r\n‘What of that?’ said I, gaily. ‘Have not live toads been found in the\r\nhearts of dead rocks, as old as creation?’\r\n\r\n‘Say what you will, papa, I feel it is spirits,’ said Julia. ‘Do, do\r\nnow, my dear papa, have that haunted table removed from the house.’\r\n\r\n‘Nonsense,’ said I.\r\n\r\nBy another curious coincidence, the more they felt frightened, the more\r\nI felt brave.\r\n\r\nEvening came.\r\n\r\n‘This ticking,’ said my wife; ‘do you think that another bug will come\r\nof this continued ticking?’\r\n\r\nCuriously enough, that had not occurred to me before. I had not thought\r\nof there being twins of bugs. But now, who knew; there might be even\r\ntriplets.\r\n\r\nI resolved to take precautions, and, if there was to be a second bug,\r\ninfallibly secure it. During the evening, the ticking was again heard.\r\nAbout ten o’clock I clapped a tumbler over the spot, as near as I could\r\njudge of it by my ear. Then we all retired, and locking the door of the\r\ncedar-parlour, I put the key in my pocket.\r\n\r\nIn the morning, nothing was to be seen, but the ticking was heard. The\r\ntrepidation of my daughters returned. They wanted to call in the\r\nneighbours. But to this my wife was vigorously opposed. We should be the\r\nlaughing-stock of the whole town. So it was agreed that nothing should\r\nbe disclosed. Biddy received strict charges; and, to make sure, was not\r\nallowed that week to go to confession, lest she should tell the priest.\r\n\r\nI stayed home all that day; every hour or two bending over the table,\r\nboth eye and ear. Toward night, I thought the ticking grew more\r\ndistinct, and seemed divided from my ear by a thinner and thinner\r\npartition of the wood. I thought, too, that I perceived a faint heaving\r\nup, or bulging of the wood, in the place where I had placed the tumbler.\r\nTo put an end to the suspense, my wife proposed taking a knife and\r\ncutting into the wood there; but I had a less impatient plan; namely,\r\nthat she and I should sit up with the table that night, as, from present\r\nsymptoms, the bug would probably make its appearance before morning. For\r\nmyself, I was curious to see the first advent of the thing--the first\r\ndazzle of the chick as it chipped the shell.\r\n\r\nThe idea struck my wife not unfavourably. She insisted that both Julia\r\nand Anna should be of the party, in order that the evidence of their\r\nsenses should disabuse their minds of all nursery nonsense. For that\r\nspirits should tick, and that spirits should take unto themselves the\r\nform of bugs, was, to my wife, the most foolish of all foolish\r\nimaginations. True, she could not account for the thing; but she had all\r\nconfidence that it could be, and would yet be, somehow explained, and\r\nthat to her entire satisfaction. Without knowing it herself, my wife was\r\na female Democritus. For my part, my present feelings were of a mixed\r\nsort. In a strange and not unpleasing way, I gently oscillated between\r\nDemocritus and Cotton Mather. But to my wife and daughters I assumed to\r\nbe pure Democritus--a jeerer at all tea-table spirits whatever.\r\n\r\nSo, laying in a good supply of candles and crackers, all four of us sat\r\nup with the table, and at the same time sat round it. For a while my\r\nwife and I carried on an animated conversation. But my daughters were\r\nsilent. Then my wife and I would have had a rubber of whist, but my\r\ndaughters could not be prevailed upon to join. So we played whist with\r\ntwo dummies literally; my wife won the rubber and, fatigued with\r\nvictory, put away the cards.\r\n\r\nHalf-past eleven o’clock. No sign of the bug. The candles began to burn\r\ndim. My wife was just in the act of snuffing them, when a sudden,\r\nviolent, hollow, resounding, rumbling, thumping was heard.\r\n\r\nJulia and Anna sprang to their feet.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 12"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6G6QRNZQYVPR075E3256EH","peer_type":"article","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG2T49K0H5GDRB0G4YDTPG8H","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6G89JNJ973WFKVVN9WCCCG","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6G89JQYNDEBM53D4AVEVWV","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T03:48:21.717Z","ts":"2026-01-30T03:48:31.790Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}