{"id":"01KG6YH31ZFPF22CJFNRNTX0JS","cid":"bafkreiejuoor5xqbonfyhv6kviomkzrn4e65kgcfzolrkvwtclmpbhc3py","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":4606,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:45.581Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 5","source_file":"01KG6YDD8GKW0DRD5H2MY1NRZ7","start_line":4542,"text":"\"My friend,\" said I, \"what a charming morning! How sweet the country\r\nlooks! Pray, did you hear that extraordinary cock-crow this morning?\r\nTake a glass of my stout!\"\r\n\r\n\"_Yours?_ First pay your debts before you offer folks _your_ stout!\"\r\n\r\n\"You think, then, that, properly speaking, I have no _stout_,\" said I,\r\ndeliberately rising. \"I'll undeceive you. I'll show you stout of a\r\nsuperior brand to Barclay and Perkins.\"\r\n\r\nWithout more ado, I seized that insolent dun by the slack of his\r\ncoat--(and, being a lean, shad-bellied wretch, there was plenty of\r\nslack to it)--I seized him that way, tied him with a sailor-knot,\r\nand, thrusting his bill between his teeth, introduced him to the open\r\ncountry lying round about my place of abode.\r\n\r\n\"Jake,\" said I, \"you'll find a sack of bluenosed potatoes lying under\r\nthe shed. Drag it here, and pelt this pauper away; he's been begging\r\npence of me, and I know he can work, but he's lazy. Pelt him away,\r\nJake!\"\r\n\r\nBless my stars, what a crow! Shanghai sent up such a perfect pæan\r\nand _laudamus_--such a trumpet blast of triumph, that my soul fairly\r\nsnorted in me. Duns!--I could have fought an army of them! Plainly,\r\nShanghai was of the opinion that duns only came into the world to be\r\nkicked, hanged, bruised, battered, choked, walloped, hammered, drowned,\r\nclubbed!\r\n\r\nReturning indoors, when the exultation of my victory over the dun had a\r\nlittle subsided, I fell to musing over the mysterious Shanghai. I had\r\nno idea I would hear him so nigh my house. I wondered from what rich\r\ngentleman's yard he crowed. Nor had he cut short his crows so easily as\r\nI had supposed he would. This Shanghai crowed till midday, at least.\r\nWould he keep a-crowing all day? I resolved to learn. Again I ascended\r\nthe hill. The whole country was now bathed in a rejoicing sunlight.\r\nThe warm verdure was bursting all round me. Teams were a-field. Birds,\r\nnewly arrived from the South, were blithely singing in the air. Even\r\nthe crows cawed with a certain unction, and seemed a shade or two less\r\nblack than usual.\r\n\r\nHark! there goes the cock! How shall I describe the crow of the\r\nShanghai at noontide! His sunrise crow was a whisper to it. It was\r\nthe loudest, longest and most strangely musical crow that ever amazed\r\nmortal man. I had heard plenty of cock-crows before, and many fine\r\nones;--but this one! so smooth, and flutelike in its very clamor--so\r\nself-possessed in its very rapture of exultation--so vast, mounting,\r\nswelling, soaring, as if spurted out from a golden throat, thrown far\r\nback. Nor did it sound like the foolish, vain-glorious crow of some\r\nyoung sophomorean cock, who knew not the world, and was beginning life\r\nin audacious gay spirits, because in wretched ignorance of what might\r\nbe to come. It was the crow of a cock who crowed not without advice;\r\nthe crow of a cock who knew a thing or two; the crow of a cock who had\r\nfought the world and got the better of it and was resolved to crow,\r\nthough the earth should heave and the heavens should fall. It was a\r\nwise crow; an invincible crow; a philosophic crow; a crow of all crows.\r\n\r\nI returned home once more full of reinvigorated spirits, with a\r\ndauntless sort of feeling. I thought over my debts and other troubles,\r\nand over the unlucky risings of the poor oppressed peoples abroad, and\r\nover the railroad and steamboat accidents, and over even the loss of\r\nmy dear friend, with a calm, good-natured rapture of defiance, which\r\nastounded myself. I felt as though I could meet Death, and invite\r\nhim to dinner, and toast the Catacombs with him, in pure overflow of\r\nself-reliance and a sense of universal security.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 5"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6YGBGP65WA6068YJZCVSW9","peer_type":"segment","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6YDD8GKW0DRD5H2MY1NRZ7","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG6YCG626JN4FCG8QK17CQCF","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6YH31ZWRFAGVDVHF022Z7G","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6YH31Z1VXY5YNCGYFZ2C6Y","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:50.015Z","ts":"2026-01-30T07:57:55.174Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}