{"id":"01KG8AK7Y9PF30SWCPKGNHBCRG","cid":"bafkreid6xmjrdloa3zsq6fjgtecd6zbzqph54rxst3serfut6jkyunljke","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":687,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:57.722Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J1JMR8XVKPA0G8ADAPC4","start_line":622,"text":"\"But that must be in the summer only, old boy. How about winter, when\r\nthe cold Cossacks come clattering and jingling? How about winter, old\r\nboy?\"\r\n\r\n\"Den dis poor old darkie shakes werry bad, I tell you, sar. Oh sar, oh!\r\ndon't speak ob der winter,\" he added, with a reminiscent shiver,\r\nshuffling off into the thickest of the crowd, like a half-frozen black\r\nsheep nudging itself a cozy berth in the heart of the white flock.\r\n\r\nThus far not very many pennies had been given him, and, used at last to\r\nhis strange looks, the less polite passengers of those in that part of\r\nthe boat began to get their fill of him as a curious object; when\r\nsuddenly the negro more than revived their first interest by an\r\nexpedient which, whether by chance or design, was a singular temptation\r\nat once to _diversion_ and charity, though, even more than his crippled\r\nlimbs, it put him on a canine footing. In short, as in appearance he\r\nseemed a dog, so now, in a merry way, like a dog he began to be treated.\r\nStill shuffling among the crowd, now and then he would pause, throwing\r\nback his head and, opening his mouth like an elephant for tossed apples\r\nat a menagerie; when, making a space before him, people would have a\r\nbout at a strange sort of pitch-penny game, the cripple's mouth being at\r\nonce target and purse, and he hailing each expertly-caught copper with a\r\ncracked bravura from his tambourine. To be the subject of alms-giving is\r\ntrying, and to feel in duty bound to appear cheerfully grateful under\r\nthe trial, must be still more so; but whatever his secret emotions, he\r\nswallowed them, while still retaining each copper this side the\r\noesophagus. And nearly always he grinned, and only once or twice did\r\nhe wince, which was when certain coins, tossed by more playful almoners,\r\ncame inconveniently nigh to his teeth, an accident whose unwelcomeness\r\nwas not unedged by the circumstance that the pennies thus thrown proved\r\nbuttons.\r\n\r\nWhile this game of charity was yet at its height, a limping,\r\ngimlet-eyed, sour-faced person--it may be some discharged custom-house\r\nofficer, who, suddenly stripped of convenient means of support, had\r\nconcluded to be avenged on government and humanity by making himself\r\nmiserable for life, either by hating or suspecting everything and\r\neverybody--this shallow unfortunate, after sundry sorry observations of\r\nthe negro, began to croak out something about his deformity being a\r\nsham, got up for financial purposes, which immediately threw a damp upon\r\nthe frolic benignities of the pitch-penny players.\r\n\r\nBut that these suspicions came from one who himself on a wooden leg went\r\nhalt, this did not appear to strike anybody present. That cripples,\r\nabove all men should be companionable, or, at least, refrain from\r\npicking a fellow-limper to pieces, in short, should have a little\r\nsympathy in common misfortune, seemed not to occur to the company.\r\n\r\nMeantime, the negro's countenance, before marked with even more than\r\npatient good-nature, drooped into a heavy-hearted expression, full of\r\nthe most painful distress. So far abased beneath its proper physical\r\nlevel, that Newfoundland-dog face turned in passively hopeless appeal,\r\nas if instinct told it that the right or the wrong might not have\r\novermuch to do with whatever wayward mood superior intelligences might\r\nyield to.\r\n\r\nBut instinct, though knowing, is yet a teacher set below reason, which\r\nitself says, in the grave words of Lysander in the comedy, after Puck\r\nhas made a sage of him with his spell:--\r\n\r\n\"The will of man is by his reason swayed.\"\r\n\r\nSo that, suddenly change as people may, in their dispositions, it is not\r\nalways waywardness, but improved judgment, which, as in Lysander's case,\r\nor the present, operates with them.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJJRSNK48TP0DBRXSP9PH","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JMR8XVKPA0G8ADAPC4","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AK7Y940CMM8NP0JY7S9JM","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AK7Y9WXDN417JDMQBAD7G","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:57.897Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:05.866Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}