{"id":"01KG6YH31Z09YSAKG4Z44ZKW80","cid":"bafkreihljfzagdtikvaxcpvmhhizozudrsyjlkbvh2aactoudykr2p7ham","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":4694,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:45.581Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 7","source_file":"01KG6YDD8GKW0DRD5H2MY1NRZ7","start_line":4647,"text":"where are you? Crow once more, my Bantam! my princely, my imperial\r\nShanghai! my bird of the Emperor of China! Brother of the sun! Cousin\r\nof great Jove! where are you?--one crow more, and tell me your number!\r\n\r\nHark! like a full orchestra of the cocks of all nations, forth burst\r\nthe crow. But where from? There it is; but where? There was no telling,\r\nfurther than it came from out of the east.\r\n\r\nAfter breakfast I took my stick and sallied down the road. There were\r\nmany gentlemen's seats dotting the neighboring country, and I made\r\nno doubt that some of these opulent gentlemen had invested a hundred\r\ndollar bill in some royal Shanghai recently imported in the ship Trade\r\nWind, or the ship White Squall, or the ship Sovereign of the Seas; for\r\nit must needs have been a brave ship with a brave name which bore the\r\nfortunes of so brave a cock. I resolved to walk the entire country, and\r\nfind this noble foreigner out; but thought it would not be amiss to\r\ninquire on the way at the humblest homesteads, whether, peradventure,\r\nthey had heard of a lately-imported Shanghai belonging to any gentlemen\r\nsettlers from the city; for it was plain that no poor farmer, no poor\r\nman of any sort, could own such an Oriental trophy--such a Great Bell\r\nof St. Paul's swung in a cock's throat.\r\n\r\nI met an old man, plowing, in a field nigh the road-side fence.\r\n\r\n\"My friend, have you heard an extraordinary cock-crow of late?\"\r\n\r\n\"Well, well,\" he drawled, \"I don't know--the Widow Crowfoot has a\r\ncock--and Squire Squaretoes has a cock--and I have a cock, and they all\r\ncrow. But I don't know of any on 'em with 'straordinary crows.\"\r\n\r\n\"Good-morning to you,\" said I, shortly; \"it's plain that you have not\r\nheard the crow of the Emperor of China's chanticleer.\"\r\n\r\nPresently I met another old man mending a tumble-down old rail-fence.\r\nThe rails were rotten, and at every move of the old man's hand they\r\ncrumbled into yellow ochre. He had much better let the fence alone, or\r\nelse get him new rails. And here I must say, that one cause of the sad\r\nfact why idiocy more prevails among farmers than any other class of\r\npeople, is owing to their undertaking the mending of rotten rail-fences\r\nin warm, relaxing spring weather. The enterprise is a hopeless one. It\r\nis a laborious one; it is a bootless one. It is an enterprise to make\r\nthe heart break. Vast pains squandered upon a vanity. For how can one\r\nmake rotten rail-fences stand up on their rotten pins? By what magic\r\nput pitch into sticks which have lain freezing and baking through sixty\r\nconsecutive winters and summers? This it is, this wretched endeavor to\r\nmend rotten rail-fences with their own rotten rails, which drives many\r\nfarmers into the asylum.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 7"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6YGBGP65WA6068YJZCVSW9","peer_type":"segment","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6YDD8GKW0DRD5H2MY1NRZ7","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG6YCG626JN4FCG8QK17CQCF","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6YH31Z1VXY5YNCGYFZ2C6Y","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6YH32457RV62DH2EN2P10N","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:50.015Z","ts":"2026-01-30T07:57:55.319Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}