{"id":"01KG8AK6KQRTWQB91RWKHRBQEM","cid":"bafkreih5k27bjao5wjyphfo7lbwugrnhs7muimwl5q7iubwaq2nxwvezvq","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":468,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:56.335Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 6","source_file":"01KG89J1C1N72JCD0ZBGTBX0EX","start_line":374,"text":"\r\n\"You have been taking too much of that punch, I fear. That sad habit\r\ngrows on you. Ah, that I should ever see you thus staggering at night\r\ninto your chamber.\"\r\n\r\n\"Wife,\" hoarsely whispered I, \"there is--is something tick-ticking in\r\nthe cedar-parlor.\"\r\n\r\n\"Poor old man--quite out of his mind--I knew it would be so. Come to\r\nbed; come and sleep it off.\"\r\n\r\n\"Wife, wife!\"\r\n\r\n\"Do, do come to bed. I forgive you. I won't remind you of it to-morrow.\r\nBut you must give up the punch-drinking, my dear. It quite gets the\r\nbetter of you.\"\r\n\r\n\"Don't exasperate me,\" I cried now, truly beside myself; \"I will quit\r\nthe house!\"\r\n\r\n\"No, no! not in that state. Come to bed, my dear. I won't say another\r\nword.\"\r\n\r\nThe next morning, upon waking, my wife said nothing about the\r\npast night's affair, and, feeling no little embarrassment myself,\r\nespecially at having been thrown into such a panic, I also was silent.\r\nConsequently, my wife must still have ascribed my singular conduct to\r\na mind disordered, not by ghosts, but by punch. For my own part, as I\r\nlay in bed watching the sun in the panes, I began to think that much\r\nmidnight reading of Cotton Mather was not good for man; that it had a\r\nmorbid influence upon the nerves, and gave rise to hallucinations. I\r\nresolved to put Cotton Mather permanently aside. That done, I had no\r\nfear of any return of the ticking. Indeed, I began to think that what\r\nseemed the ticking in the room, was nothing but a sort of buzzing in my\r\near.\r\n\r\nAs is her wont, my wife having preceded me in rising, I made a\r\ndeliberate and agreeable toilet. Aware that most disorders of the mind\r\nhave their origin in the state of the body, I made vigorous use of\r\nthe flesh-brush, and bathed my head with New England rum, a specific\r\nonce recommended to me as good for buzzing in the ear. Wrapped in my\r\ndressing gown, with cravat nicely adjusted, and fingernails neatly\r\ntrimmed, I complacently descended to the little cedar-parlor to\r\nbreakfast.\r\n\r\nWhat was my amazement to find my wife on her knees, rummaging about\r\nthe carpet nigh the little apple-tree table, on which the morning meal\r\nwas laid, while my daughters, Julia and Anna, were running about the\r\napartment distracted.\r\n\r\n\"Oh, papa, papa!\" cried Julia, hurrying up to me, \"I knew it would be\r\nso. The table, the table!\"\r\n\r\n\"Spirits! spirits!\" cried Anna, standing far away from it, with pointed\r\nfinger.\r\n\r\n\"Silence!\" cried my wife. \"How can I hear it, if you make such a\r\nnoise? Be still. Come here, husband; was this the ticking you spoke of?\r\nWhy don't you move? Was this it? Here, kneel down and listen to it.\r\nTick, tick, tick!--don't you hear it now?\"\r\n\r\n\"I do, I do,\" cried I, while my daughters besought us both to come away\r\nfrom the spot.\r\n\r\nTick, tick, tick!\r\n\r\nRight from under the snowy cloth, and the cheerful urn, and the smoking\r\nmilk-toast, the unaccountable ticking was heard.\r\n\r\n\"Ain't there a fire in the next room, Julia,\" said I, \"let us breakfast\r\nthere, my dear,\" turning to my wife--\"let us go--leave the table--tell\r\nBiddy to remove the things.\"\r\n\r\nAnd so saying I was moving towards the door in high self-possession,\r\nwhen my wife interrupted me.\r\n\r\n\"Before I quit this room, I will see into this ticking,\" she said with\r\nenergy.\r\n\r\n\"It is something that can be found out, depend upon it. I don't believe\r\nin spirits, especially at breakfast-time. Biddy! Biddy! Here, carry\r\nthese things back to the kitchen,\" handing the urn. Then, sweeping off\r\nthe cloth, the little table lay bare to the eye.\r\n\r\n\"It's the table, the table!\" cried Julia.\r\n\r\n\"Nonsense,\" said my wife, \"Who ever heard of a ticking table? It's on\r\nthe floor. Biddy! Julia! Anna! move everything out of the room--table\r\nand all. Where are the tack-hammers?\"\r\n\r\n\"Heavens, mamma--you are not going to take up the carpet?\" screamed\r\nJulia.\r\n\r\n\"Here's the hammers, marm,\" said Biddy, advancing tremblingly.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 6"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJJJM0754W6H0XDN0RWYE","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1C1N72JCD0ZBGTBX0EX","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AK6KVP8E6FSRR3D1AJ8D6","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AK6KVKGVKF1KE3N9WW1D0","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:56.535Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:03.870Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}