{"id":"01KG6YH3QET4WBZX6N4S2AMQ48","cid":"bafkreicum3o7wumkkzwhgyyuvro3ni4g2dgh2hcvzvkklaai2qppojgg2a","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":5024,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:45.581Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 5","source_file":"01KG6YDD8GKW0DRD5H2MY1NRZ7","start_line":4948,"text":"times a day tantalizing the wretched shanty with the sight of all the\r\nbeauty, rank, fashion, health, trunks, silver and gold, dry-goods and\r\ngroceries, brides and grooms, happy wives and husbands, flying by the\r\nlonely door--no time to stop--flash! here they are--and there they go!\r\nout of sight at both ends--as if that part of the world were only made\r\nto fly over, and not to settle upon. And this was about all the shanty\r\nsaw of what people call life.\r\n\r\nThough puzzled somewhat, yet I knew the general direction where the\r\nshanty lay, and on I trudged. As I advanced, I was surprised to hear\r\nthe mysterious cock crow with more and more distinctness. Is it\r\npossible, thought I, that any gentleman owning a Shanghai can dwell in\r\nsuch a lonesome, dreary region? Louder and louder, nigher and nigher,\r\nsounded the glorious and defiant clarion. Though somehow I may be out\r\nof the track to my wood-sawyer's, I said to myself, yet, thank heaven,\r\nI seem to be on the way toward that extraordinary cock. I was delighted\r\nwith this auspicious accident. On I journeyed; while at intervals the\r\ncrow sounded most invitingly, and jocundly, and superbly; and the\r\nlast crow was ever nigher than the former one. At last, emerging from\r\na thicket of elders, straight before me I saw the most resplendent\r\ncreature that ever blessed the sight of man.\r\n\r\nA cock, more like a golden eagle than a cock. A cock, more like a\r\nfield marshal than a cock. A cock, more like Lord Nelson with all his\r\nglittering arms on, standing on the Vanguard's quarter-deck going into\r\nbattle, than a cock. A cock, more like the Emperor Charlemagne in his\r\nrobes at Aix la Chapelle, than a cock.\r\n\r\nSuch a cock!\r\n\r\nHe was of a haughty size, stood haughtily on his haughty legs. His\r\ncolors were red, gold, and white. The red was on his crest along,\r\nwhich was a mighty and symmetric crest, like unto Hector's helmet, as\r\ndelineated on antique shields. His plumage was snowy, traced with gold.\r\nHe walked in front of the shanty, like a peer of the realm; his crest\r\nlifted, his chest heaved out, his embroidered trappings flashing in the\r\nlight. His pace was wonderful. He looked like some Oriental king in\r\nsome magnificent Italian opera.\r\n\r\nMerrymusk advanced from the door.\r\n\r\n\"Pray is not that the Signor Beneventano?\"\r\n\r\n\"Sir!\"\r\n\r\n\"That's the cock,\" said I, a little embarrassed. The truth was, my\r\nenthusiasm had betrayed me into a rather silly inadvertence. I had made\r\na somewhat learned sort of allusion in the presence of an unlearned\r\nman. Consequently, upon discovering it by his honest stare, I felt\r\nfoolish; but carried it off by declaring that _this was the cock_.\r\n\r\nNow, during the preceding autumn I had been to the city, and had\r\nchanced to be present at a performance of the Italian Opera. In that\r\nopera figured in some royal character a certain Signor Beneventano--a\r\nman of a tall, imposing person, clad in rich raiment, like to plumage,\r\nand with a most remarkable, majestic, scornful stride. The Signor\r\nBeneventano seemed on the point of tumbling over backward with\r\nexceeding haughtiness. And, for all the world, the proud pace of the\r\ncock seemed the very stage-pace of the Signor Beneventano.\r\n\r\nHark! suddenly the cock paused, lifted his head still higher, ruffled\r\nhis plumes, seemed inspired, and sent forth a lusty crow. October\r\nMountain echoed it; other mountains sent it back; still others\r\nrebounded it; it overran the country round. Now I plainly perceived how\r\nit was I had chanced to hear the gladdening sound on my distant hill.\r\n\r\n\"Good heavens! do you own the cock? Is that cock yours?\"\r\n\r\n\"Is it my cock!\" said Merrymusk, looking slyly gleeful out of the\r\ncorner of his long, solemn face.\r\n\r\n\"Where did you get it?\"\r\n\r\n\"It chipped the shell here. I raised it.\"\r\n\r\n\"You?\"\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 5"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6YGBGKG15EQNWSZXFWPM05","peer_type":"segment","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6YDD8GKW0DRD5H2MY1NRZ7","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG6YCG626JN4FCG8QK17CQCF","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6YH3QE4EAWX81GZPASK45M","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6YH3QE95F7J4ERBS1JJXRH","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:50.702Z","ts":"2026-01-30T07:57:55.601Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}