{"id":"01KG6YGAW39D2BV4XP86FC7EAE","cid":"bafkreiaa4setdavuj3eaqzd6bikeg2y22urrdbx7z746qm2ueodkaavjiq","type":"segment","properties":{"description":"# COCK-A-DOODLE-DOO\n## Overview\nThis is a segment of text extracted from the story \"The Apple-Tree Table\" by Herman Melville. It is part of the larger [The Apple-Tree Table and Other Sketches](arke:01KG6YFXZ62W4FVZVEZTBSQNZY) document. The segment spans lines 840-899 of the source file, [the_apple_tree_table_and_other_sketches.txt](arke:01KG6YDD8GKW0DRD5H2MY1NRZ7).\n\n## Context\nThe segment is part of a collection of works by Herman Melville, stored in the [Melville](arke:01KG6YCG626JN4FCG8QK17CQCF) collection. It follows the segment labeled [PARADISE OF BACHELORS AND THE TARTARUS OF MAIDS](arke:01KG6YGAW387788QZ627RJBJFW) and precedes the segment labeled [THE FIDDLER](arke:01KG6YGAW8NKM3KY3M6C63834V).\n\n## Contents\nThis segment describes the narrator's family's reaction to a mysterious ticking sound emanating from an old table. The narrator's daughters, Julia and Anna, believe the table is haunted by spirits. The narrator's wife is skeptical and seeks a rational explanation, suspecting bugs. The narrator initially dismisses the idea of spirits but becomes increasingly curious about the phenomenon. They decide to sit up with the table overnight to observe the source of the ticking.\n","description_generated_at":"2026-01-30T07:58:10.339Z","description_model":"gemini-2.5-flash-lite","description_title":"COCK-A-DOODLE-DOO","end_line":899,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:25.113Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"COCK-A-DOODLE-DOO","source_file":"01KG6YDD8GKW0DRD5H2MY1NRZ7","start_line":840,"text":"\"Not at all, my daughter. It is a very common thing for bugs to come\r\nout of wood. You yourself must have seen them coming out of the ends of\r\nthe billets on the hearth.\"\r\n\r\n\"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, gayly. \"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-parlor, I put the key in my pocket.\r\n\r\nIn the morning, nothing was to be seen, but the ticking was heard.\r\nThe trepidation of my daughters returned. They wanted to call in the\r\nneighbors. 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. Towards 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\r\nheaving up, or bulging of the wood, in the place where I had placed\r\nthe tumbler. To put an end to the suspense, my wife proposed taking\r\na knife and cutting into the wood there; but I had a less impatient\r\nplan; namely, that she and I should sit up with the table that night,\r\nas, from present symptoms, the bug would probably make its appearance\r\nbefore morning. For myself, I was curious to see the first advent of\r\nthe thing--the first dazzle of the chick as it chipped the shell.\r\n\r\nThe idea struck my wife not unfavorably. 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\r\nthe form 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\r\nall confidence that it could be, and would yet be, somehow explained,\r\nand that to her entire satisfaction. Without knowing it herself, my\r","title":"COCK-A-DOODLE-DOO"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6YFXZ62W4FVZVEZTBSQNZY","peer_type":"document","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6YDD8GKW0DRD5H2MY1NRZ7","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG6YCG626JN4FCG8QK17CQCF","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6YGAW387788QZ627RJBJFW","peer_type":"segment","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6YGAW8NKM3KY3M6C63834V","peer_type":"segment","predicate":"next"}],"ver":3,"created_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:25.251Z","ts":"2026-01-30T07:58:10.508Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF5C36SQEVDHC9CBNZZJH9K"}}