{"id":"01KG8AK7YK1M53NCSY90J4J601","cid":"bafkreib5jisth5vvuqkct7kytwayszydzbxvekon3e47loubntgrfbqaiu","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":891,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:57.722Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 5","source_file":"01KG89J1JMR8XVKPA0G8ADAPC4","start_line":814,"text":"suddenly catching this exasperating opponent by his shabby coat-collar,\r\nand shaking him till his timber-toe clattered on the deck like a\r\nnine-pin. \"You took me for a non-combatant did you?--thought, seedy\r\ncoward that you are, that you could abuse a Christian with impunity. You\r\nfind your mistake\"--with another hearty shake.\r\n\r\n\"Well said and better done, church militant!\" cried a voice.\r\n\r\n\"The white cravat against the world!\" cried another.\r\n\r\n\"Bravo, bravo!\" chorused many voices, with like enthusiasm taking sides\r\nwith the resolute champion.\r\n\r\n\"You fools!\" cried he with the wooden leg, writhing himself loose and\r\ninflamedly turning upon the throng; \"you flock of fools, under this\r\ncaptain of fools, in this ship of fools!\"\r\n\r\nWith which exclamations, followed by idle threats against his\r\nadmonisher, this condign victim to justice hobbled away, as disdaining\r\nto hold further argument with such a rabble. But his scorn was more than\r\nrepaid by the hisses that chased him, in which the brave Methodist,\r\nsatisfied with the rebuke already administered, was, to omit still\r\nbetter reasons, too magnanimous to join. All he said was, pointing\r\ntowards the departing recusant, \"There he shambles off on his one lone\r\nleg, emblematic of his one-sided view of humanity.\"\r\n\r\n\"But trust your painted decoy,\" retorted the other from a distance,\r\npointing back to the black cripple, \"and I have my revenge.\"\r\n\r\n\"But we aint agoing to trust him!\" shouted back a voice.\r\n\r\n\"So much the better,\" he jeered back. \"Look you,\" he added, coming to a\r\ndead halt where he was; \"look you, I have been called a Canada thistle.\r\nVery good. And a seedy one: still better. And the seedy Canada thistle\r\nhas been pretty well shaken among ye: best of all. Dare say some seed\r\nhas been shaken out; and won't it spring though? And when it does\r\nspring, do you cut down the young thistles, and won't they spring the\r\nmore? It's encouraging and coaxing 'em. Now, when with my thistles your\r\nfarms shall be well stocked, why then--you may abandon 'em!\"\r\n\r\n\"What does all that mean, now?\" asked the country merchant, staring.\r\n\r\n\"Nothing; the foiled wolf's parting howl,\" said the Methodist. \"Spleen,\r\nmuch spleen, which is the rickety child of his evil heart of unbelief:\r\nit has made him mad. I suspect him for one naturally reprobate. Oh,\r\nfriends,\" raising his arms as in the pulpit, \"oh beloved, how are we\r\nadmonished by the melancholy spectacle of this raver. Let us profit by\r\nthe lesson; and is it not this: that if, next to mistrusting Providence,\r\nthere be aught that man should pray against, it is against mistrusting\r\nhis fellow-man. I have been in mad-houses full of tragic mopers, and\r\nseen there the end of suspicion: the cynic, in the moody madness\r\nmuttering in the corner; for years a barren fixture there; head lopped\r\nover, gnawing his own lip, vulture of himself; while, by fits and\r\nstarts, from the corner opposite came the grimace of the idiot at him.\"\r\n\r\n\"What an example,\" whispered one.\r\n\r\n\"Might deter Timon,\" was the response.\r\n\r\n\"Oh, oh, good ge'mmen, have you no confidence in dis poor ole darkie?\"\r\nnow wailed the returning negro, who, during the late scene, had stumped\r\napart in alarm.\r\n\r\n\"Confidence in you?\" echoed he who had whispered, with abruptly changed\r\nair turning short round; \"that remains to be seen.\"\r\n\r\n\"I tell you what it is, Ebony,\" in similarly changed tones said he who\r\nhad responded to the whisperer, \"yonder churl,\" pointing toward the\r\nwooden leg in the distance, \"is, no doubt, a churlish fellow enough, and\r\nI would not wish to be like him; but that is no reason why you may not\r\nbe some sort of black Jeremy Diddler.\"\r\n\r\n\"No confidence in dis poor ole darkie, den?\"\r\n\r\n\"Before giving you our confidence,\" said a third, \"we will wait the\r\nreport of the kind gentleman who went in search of one of your friends\r\nwho was to speak for you.\"\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 5"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJJRSNK48TP0DBRXSP9PH","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JMR8XVKPA0G8ADAPC4","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AK7YK8NQ6C6Z011H1DHD5","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AK8MY0T48V1PAGRPP2HZK","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:57.907Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:05.424Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}