{"id":"01KG6YH31ZDWB354S5G6YQNAKD","cid":"bafkreiczyea3zafnodgmgtdaaex7w35fweplqxgkovrdncgf5rdi5c2fua","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":4781,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:45.581Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG6YDD8GKW0DRD5H2MY1NRZ7","start_line":4701,"text":"his work and chase them back within bounds. He would chase them with\r\na piece of rail huge as Goliath's beam, but as light as cork. At the\r\nfirst flourish, it crumbled into powder.\r\n\r\n\"My friend,\" said I, addressing this woeful mortal, \"have you heard an\r\nextraordinary cock-crow of late?\"\r\n\r\nI might as well as have asked him if he had heard the death-tick. He\r\nstared at me with a long, bewildered, doleful, and unutterable stare,\r\nand without reply resumed his unhappy labors.\r\n\r\nWhat a fool, thought I, to have asked such an uncheerful and\r\nuncheerable creature about a cheerful cock!\r\n\r\nI walked on. I had now descended the high land where my house stood,\r\nand being in a low tract could not hear the crow of the Shanghai, which\r\ndoubtless overshot me there. Besides, the Shanghai might be at lunch of\r\ncorn and oats, or taking a nap, and so interrupted his jubilations for\r\na while.\r\n\r\nAt length, I encountered riding along the road, a portly\r\ngentleman--nay, a _pursy_ one--of great wealth, who had recently\r\npurchased him some noble acres, and built him a noble mansion, with a\r\ngoodly fowl-house attached, the fame whereof spread through all the\r\ncountry. Thought I, Here now is the owner of the Shanghai.\r\n\r\n\"Sir,\" said I, \"excuse me, but I am a countryman of yours, and would\r\nask, if so be you own any Shanghais?\"\r\n\r\n\"Oh, yes; I have ten Shanghais.\"\r\n\r\n\"Ten!\" exclaimed I, in wonder; \"and do they all crow?\"\r\n\r\n\"Most lustily; every soul of them; I wouldn't own a cock that wouldn't\r\ncrow.\"\r\n\r\n\"Will you turn back, and show me those Shanghais?\"\r\n\r\n\"With pleasure: I am proud of them. They cost me, in the lump, six\r\nhundred dollars.\"\r\n\r\nAs I walked by the side of his horse, I was thinking to myself whether\r\npossibly I had not mistaken the harmoniously combined crowings of ten\r\nShanghais in a squad, for the supernatural crow of a single Shanghai by\r\nhimself.\r\n\r\n\"Sir,\" said I, \"is there one of your Shanghais which far exceeds all\r\nthe others in the lustiness, musicalness, and inspiring effects of his\r\ncrow?\"\r\n\r\n\"They crow pretty much alike, I believe,\" he courteously replied. \"I\r\nreally don't know that I could tell their crow apart.\"\r\n\r\nI began to think that after all my noble chanticleer might not be in\r\nthe possession of this wealthy gentleman. However, we went into his\r\nfowl-yard, and saw his Shanghais. Let me say that hitherto I had never\r\nclapped eye on this species of imported fowl. I had heard what enormous\r\nprices were paid for them, and also that they were of an enormous\r\nsize, and had somehow fancied they must be of a beauty and brilliancy\r\nproportioned both to size and price. What was my surprise, then, to\r\nsee ten carrot-colored monsters, without the smallest pretension to\r\neffulgence of plumage. Immediately, I determined that my royal cock was\r\nneither among these, nor could possibly be a Shanghai at all; if these\r\ngigantic gallows-bird fowl were fair specimens of the true Shanghai.\r\n\r\nI walked all day, dining and resting at a farmhouse, inspecting various\r\nfowl-yards, interrogating various owners of fowls, hearkening to\r\nvarious crows, but discovered not the mysterious chanticleer. Indeed,\r\nI had wandered so far and deviously, that I could not hear his crow. I\r\nbegan to suspect that this cock was a mere visitor in the country, who\r\nhad taken his departure by the eleven o'clock train for the South, and\r\nwas now crowing and jubilating somewhere on the verdant banks of Long\r\nIsland Sound.\r\n\r\nBut next morning, again I heard the inspiring blast, again felt\r\nmy blood bound in me, again felt superior to all the ills of life,\r\nagain felt like turning my dun out of doors. But displeased with the\r\nreception given him at his last visit, the dun stayed away, doubtless\r\nbeing in a huff. Silly fellow that he was to take a harmless joke in\r\nearnest.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6YGBGKG15EQNWSZXFWPM05","peer_type":"segment","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6YDD8GKW0DRD5H2MY1NRZ7","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG6YCG626JN4FCG8QK17CQCF","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6YH3246H3B490GQW5791Y9","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:50.015Z","ts":"2026-01-30T07:57:55.360Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}