{"id":"01KG6GMS7TD42CQ9TW3N9WJ4S9","cid":"bafkreigkxsyvdo7fonmrd7iyqlqituqg2plihw5xpvypizcxbsdlezk6yi","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":10477,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T03:55:03.883Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 4","source_file":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","start_line":10389,"text":"these things back to the kitchen,’ handing the urn. Then, sweeping off\r\nthe cloth, the little table lay bare to the eye.\r\n\r\n‘It’s the table, the table!’ cried Julia.\r\n\r\n‘Nonsense,’ said my wife. ‘Who ever heard of a ticking table? It’s on\r\nthe floor. Biddy! Julia! Anna! move everything out of the room--table\r\nand all. Where are the tack-hammers?’\r\n\r\n‘Heavens, mamma--you are not going to take up the carpet?’ screamed\r\nJulia.\r\n\r\n‘Here’s the hammers, marm,’ said Biddy, advancing tremblingly.\r\n\r\n‘Hand them to me, then,’ cried my wife; for poor Biddy was, at long\r\ngun-distance, holding them out as if her mistress had the plague.\r\n\r\n‘Now, husband, do you take up that side of the carpet, and I will this.’\r\nDown on her knees she then dropped, while I followed suit.\r\n\r\nThe carpet being removed, and the ear applied to the naked floor, not\r\nthe slightest ticking could be heard.\r\n\r\n‘The table--after all, it is the table,’ cried my wife. ‘Biddy, bring it\r\nback.’\r\n\r\n‘Oh no, marm, not I, please, marm,’ sobbed Biddy.\r\n\r\n‘Foolish creature!--Husband, do you bring it.’\r\n\r\n‘My dear,’ said I, ‘we have plenty of other tables; why be so\r\nparticular?’\r\n\r\n‘Where is that table?’ cried my wife, contemptuously, regardless of my\r\ngentle remonstrance.\r\n\r\n‘In the wood-house, marm. I put it away as far as ever I could, marm,’\r\nsobbed Biddy.\r\n\r\n‘Shall I go to the wood-house for it, or will you?’ said my wife,\r\naddressing me in a frightful, businesslike manner.\r\n\r\nImmediately I darted out of the door, and found the little apple-tree\r\ntable, upside down, in one of my chip-bins. I hurriedly returned with\r\nit, and once more my wife examined it attentively. Tick, tick, tick!\r\nYes, it was the table.\r\n\r\n‘Please, marm,’ said Biddy, now entering the room, with hat and\r\nshawl--‘please, marm, will you pay me my wages?’\r\n\r\n‘Take your hat and shawl off directly,’ said my wife; ‘set this table\r\nagain.’\r\n\r\n‘Set it,’ roared I, in a passion, ‘set it, or I’ll go for the police.’\r\n\r\n‘Heavens! heavens!’ cried my daughters, in one breath. ‘What will become\r\nof us!--Spirits! spirits!’\r\n\r\n‘Will you set the table?’ cried I, advancing upon Biddy.\r\n\r\n‘I will, I will--yes, marm--yes, master--I will, I will. Spirits!--Holy\r\nVargin!’\r\n\r\n‘Now, husband,’ said my wife, ‘I am convinced that, whatever it is that\r\ncauses this ticking, neither the ticking nor the table can hurt us; for\r\nwe are all good Christians, I hope. I am determined to find out the\r\ncause of it, too, which time and patience will bring to light. I shall\r\nbreakfast on no other table but this, so long as we live in this house.\r\nSo, sit down, now that all things are ready again, and let us quietly\r\nbreakfast. My dears,’ turning to Julia and Anna, ‘go to your room, and\r\nreturn composed. Let me have no more of this childishness.’\r\n\r\nUpon occasion my wife was mistress in her house.\r\n\r\nDuring the meal, in vain was conversation started again and again; in\r\nvain my wife said something brisk to infuse into others an animation\r\nakin to her own. Julia and Anna, with heads bowed over their tea-cups,\r\nwere still listening for the tick. I confess, too, that their example\r\nwas catching. But, for the time, nothing was heard. Either the ticking\r\nhad died quite away, or else, slight as it was, the increasing uproar of\r\nthe street, with the general hum of day so contrasted with the repose of\r\nnight and early morning, smothered the sound. At the lurking inquietude\r\nof her companions, my wife was indignant; the more so, as she seemed to\r\nglory in her own exemption from panic. When breakfast was cleared away\r\nshe took my watch, and, placing it on the table, addressed the supposed\r\nspirits in it, with a jocosely defiant air:\r\n\r\n‘There, tick away, let us see who can tick loudest!’\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 4"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6GK9PN2JMTCPC5RDMM3S3Q","peer_type":"segment","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG2T49K0H5GDRB0G4YDTPG8H","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6GMS7XHYKXAXGCMARFZK3J","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6GMS7XS809CYHPPRTED071","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T03:55:10.970Z","ts":"2026-01-30T03:55:21.097Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}