{"id":"01KG6YH4FSAH40J3CTT7YJQWXE","cid":"bafkreifqs2m7fhvobwr3w4z6vjd6i4ljrqcxbifbm3v2bzar47vxzidjla","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":6347,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:45.581Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG6YDD8GKW0DRD5H2MY1NRZ7","start_line":6260,"text":"inland summer sun was already oppressively warm. Presently I saw my\r\nuncle advancing beneath the trees, hat off, and wiping his brow; while\r\nfar behind struggled poor old Yorpy, with what seemed one of the gates\r\nof Gaza on his back.\r\n\r\n\"Come, hurrah, stump along, Yorpy!\" cried my uncle, impatiently turning\r\nround every now and then.\r\n\r\nUpon the black's staggering up to the skiff, I perceived that the\r\ngreat gate of Gaza was transformed into a huge, shabby, oblong box,\r\nhermetically sealed. The sphinx-like blankness of the box quadrupled\r\nthe mystery in my mind.\r\n\r\n\"Is _this_ the wonderful apparatus,\" said I in amazement. \"Why, it's\r\nnothing but a battered old dry-goods box, nailed up. And is _this_ the\r\nthing, uncle, that is to make you a million of dollars ere the year be\r\nout? What a forlorn-looking, lack-lustre, old ash-box it is.\"\r\n\r\n\"Put it into the skiff!\" roared my uncle to Yorpy, without heeding\r\nmy boyish disdain. \"Put it in, you grizzled-headed cherub--put it\r\nin carefully, carefully! If that box bursts, my everlasting fortune\r\ncollapses.\"\r\n\r\n\"Bursts?--collapses?\" cried I, in alarm. \"It ain't full of\r\ncombustibles? Quick, let me go to the further end of the boat!\"\r\n\r\n\"Sit still, you simpleton!\" cried my uncle again. \"Jump in, Yorpy,\r\nand hold on to the box like grim death while I shove off. Carefully!\r\ncarefully! you dunderheaded black! Mind t'other side of the box, I say!\r\nDo you mean to destroy the box?\"\r\n\r\n\"Duyvel take te pox!\" muttered old Yorpy, who was a sort of Dutch\r\nAfrican. \"De pox has been my cuss for de ten long 'ear.\"\r\n\r\n\"Now, then, we're off--take an oar, youngster; you, Yorpy, clinch\r\nthe box fast. Here we go now. Carefully! carefully! You, Yorpy, stop\r\nshaking the box! Easy! there's a big snag. Pull now. Hurrah! deep water\r\nat last! Now give way, youngster, and away to the island.\"\r\n\r\n\"The island!\" said I. \"There's no island hereabouts.\"\r\n\r\n\"There is ten miles above the bridge, though,\" said my uncle,\r\ndeterminately.\r\n\r\n\"Ten miles off! Pull that old dry-goods box ten miles up the river in\r\nthis blazing sun?\"\r\n\r\n\"All that I have to say,\" said my uncle, firmly, \"is that we are bound\r\nto Quash Island.\"\r\n\r\n\"Mercy, uncle! if I had known of this great long pull of ten mortal\r\nmiles in this fiery sun, you wouldn't have juggled _me_ into the skiff\r\nso easy. What's _in_ that box?--paving-stones? See how the skiff\r\nsettles down under it. I won't help pull a box of paving-stones ten\r\nmiles. What's the use of pulling 'em?\"\r\n\r\n\"Look you, simpleton,\" quoth my uncle, pausing upon his suspended oar.\r\n\"Stop rowing, will ye! Now then, if you don't want to share in the\r\nglory of my experiment; if you are wholly indifferent to halving its\r\nimmortal renown; I say, sir, if you care not to be present at the\r\nfirst trial of my Great Hydraulic-Hydrostatic Apparatus for draining\r\nswamps and marshes, and converting them, at the rate of one acre the\r\nhour, into fields more fertile than those of the Genesee; if you care\r\nnot, I repeat, to have this proud thing to tell--in far future days,\r\nwhen poor old I shall have been long dead and gone, boy--to your\r\nchildren and your children's children; in that case, sir, you are free\r\nto land forthwith.\"\r\n\r\n\"Oh, uncle! I did not mean--\"\r\n\r\n\"No words, sir! Yorpy, take his oar, and help pull him ashore.\"\r\n\r\n\"But, my dear uncle; I declare to you that--\"\r\n\r\n\"Not a syllable, sir; you have cast open scorn upon the Great\r\nHydraulic-Hydrostatic Apparatus. Yorpy, put him ashore, Yorpy. It's\r\nshallow here again. Jump out, Yorpy, and wade with him ashore.\"\r\n\r\n\"Now, my dear, good, kind uncle, do but pardon me this one time, and I\r\nwill say nothing about the apparatus.\"\r\n\r\n\"Say nothing about it! when it is my express end and aim it shall be\r\nfamous! Put him ashore, Yorpy.\"\r\n\r\n\"Nay, uncle, I _will_ not give up my oar. I have an oar in this matter,\r\nand I mean to keep it. You shall not cheat me out my share of your\r\nglory.\"\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6YGRYCW63WQY2ZX9JM5TRM","peer_type":"section","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6YDD8GKW0DRD5H2MY1NRZ7","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG6YCG626JN4FCG8QK17CQCF","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6YGYVXFV0YVHTDS7XX71QG","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:51.481Z","ts":"2026-01-30T07:57:56.349Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}