{"id":"01KG6YH8FGQP6HYXCGSK4FQQPA","cid":"bafkreielym3ru4c3ybn3kih7h7bc63spotwapqo42pi5cyws57kfyoo4ni","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":5761,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:55.413Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG6YDDF6PTWG4P7JTS5THSTD","start_line":5682,"text":"conductor than a wall—it would leave the wall and run into him. Swoop!\r\n_That_ must have fallen very nigh. That must have been globular\r\nlightning.”\r\n\r\n“Very probably. Tell me at once, which is, in your opinion, the safest\r\npart of this house?\r\n\r\n“This room, and this one spot in it where I stand. Come hither.”\r\n\r\n“The reasons first.”\r\n\r\n“Hark!—after the flash the gust—the sashes shiver—the house, the\r\nhouse!—Come hither to me!”\r\n\r\n“The reasons, if you please.”\r\n\r\n“Come hither to me!”\r\n\r\n“Thank you again, I think I will try my old stand—the hearth. And now,\r\nMr. Lightning-rod-man, in the pauses of the thunder, be so good as to\r\ntell me your reasons for esteeming this one room of the house the\r\nsafest, and your own one stand-point there the safest spot in it.”\r\n\r\nThere was now a little cessation of the storm for a while. The\r\nLightning-rod man seemed relieved, and replied:—\r\n\r\n“Your house is a one-storied house, with an attic and a cellar; this\r\nroom is between. Hence its comparative safety. Because lightning\r\nsometimes passes from the clouds to the earth, and sometimes from the\r\nearth to the clouds. Do you comprehend?—and I choose the middle of the\r\nroom, because if the lightning should strike the house at all, it would\r\ncome down the chimney or walls; so, obviously, the further you are from\r\nthem, the better. Come hither to me, now.”\r\n\r\n“Presently. Something you just said, instead of alarming me, has\r\nstrangely inspired confidence.”\r\n\r\n“What have I said?”\r\n\r\n“You said that sometimes lightning flashes from the earth to the\r\nclouds.”\r\n\r\n“Aye, the returning-stroke, as it is called; when the earth, being\r\novercharged with the fluid, flashes its surplus upward.”\r\n\r\n“The returning-stroke; that is, from earth to sky. Better and better.\r\nBut come here on the hearth and dry yourself.”\r\n\r\n“I am better here, and better wet.”\r\n\r\n“How?”\r\n\r\n“It is the safest thing you can do—Hark, again!—to get yourself\r\nthoroughly drenched in a thunder-storm. Wet clothes are better\r\nconductors than the body; and so, if the lightning strike, it might\r\npass down the wet clothes without touching the body. The storm deepens\r\nagain. Have you a rug in the house? Rugs are non-conductors. Get one,\r\nthat I may stand on it here, and you, too. The skies blacken—it is dusk\r\nat noon. Hark!—the rug, the rug!”\r\n\r\nI gave him one; while the hooded mountains seemed closing and tumbling\r\ninto the cottage.\r\n\r\n“And now, since our being dumb will not help us,” said I, resuming my\r\nplace, “let me hear your precautions in traveling during\r\nthunder-storms.”\r\n\r\n“Wait till this one is passed.”\r\n\r\n“Nay, proceed with the precautions. You stand in the safest possible\r\nplace according to your own account. Go on.”\r\n\r\n“Briefly, then. I avoid pine-trees, high houses, lonely barns, upland\r\npastures, running water, flocks of cattle and sheep, a crowd of men. If\r\nI travel on foot—as to-day—I do not walk fast; if in my buggy, I touch\r\nnot its back or sides; if on horseback, I dismount and lead the horse.\r\nBut of all things, I avoid tall men.”\r\n\r\n“Do I dream? Man avoid man? and in danger-time, too.”\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6YGB83HAC2343Y4JRA591H","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6YDDF6PTWG4P7JTS5THSTD","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG6YCG626JN4FCG8QK17CQCF","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6YH8FG6338BKQ6EQ2AT167","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:55.568Z","ts":"2026-01-30T07:58:06.195Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}