{"id":"01KG8AKAMPFBDZ4F4QB4M7R9Y8","cid":"bafkreicdqohz5uhmc2wdk3te2zrtsajhasir7ktsclf37efm2754waiw6a","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":9172,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:57.726Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J1JMR8XVKPA0G8ADAPC4","start_line":9111,"text":"dashed off a check on his bank, and off-handedly presenting it, said:\r\n'There, friend China Aster, is your one thousand dollars; when you make\r\nit ten thousand, as you soon enough will (for experience, the only true\r\nknowledge, teaches me that, for every one, good luck is in store), then,\r\nChina Aster, why, then you can return me the money or not, just as you\r\nplease. But, in any event, give yourself no concern, for I shall never\r\ndemand payment.'\r\n\r\n\"Now, as kind heaven will so have it that to a hungry man bread is a\r\ngreat temptation, and, therefore, he is not too harshly to be blamed,\r\nif, when freely offered, he take it, even though it be uncertain whether\r\nhe shall ever be able to reciprocate; so, to a poor man, proffered money\r\nis equally enticing, and the worst that can be said of him, if he accept\r\nit, is just what can be said in the other case of the hungry man. In\r\nshort, the poor candle-maker's scrupulous morality succumbed to his\r\nunscrupulous necessity, as is now and then apt to be the case. He took\r\nthe check, and was about carefully putting it away for the present, when\r\nOrchis, switching about again with his gold-headed cane, said:\r\n'By-the-way, China Aster, it don't mean anything, but suppose you make a\r\nlittle memorandum of this; won't do any harm, you know.' So China Aster\r\ngave Orchis his note for one thousand dollars on demand. Orchis took it,\r\nand looked at it a moment, 'Pooh, I told you, friend China Aster, I\r\nwasn't going ever to make any _demand_.' Then tearing up the note, and\r\nswitching away again at the candle-boxes, said, carelessly; 'Put it at\r\nfour years.' So China Aster gave Orchis his note for one thousand\r\ndollars at four years. 'You see I'll never trouble you about this,' said\r\nOrchis, slipping it in his pocket-book, 'give yourself no further\r\nthought, friend China Aster, than how best to invest your money. And\r\ndon't forget my hint about spermaceti. Go into that, and I'll buy all my\r\nlight of you,' with which encouraging words, he, with wonted, rattling\r\nkindness, took leave.\r\n\r\n\"China Aster remained standing just where Orchis had left him; when,\r\nsuddenly, two elderly friends, having nothing better to do, dropped in\r\nfor a chat. The chat over, China Aster, in greasy cap and apron, ran\r\nafter Orchis, and said: 'Friend Orchis, heaven will reward you for your\r\ngood intentions, but here is your check, and now give me my note.'\r\n\r\n\"'Your honesty is a bore, China Aster,' said Orchis, not without\r\ndispleasure. 'I won't take the check from you.'\r\n\r\n\"'Then you must take it from the pavement, Orchis,' said China Aster;\r\nand, picking up a stone, he placed the check under it on the walk.\r\n\r\n\"'China Aster,' said Orchis, inquisitively eying him, after my leaving\r\nthe candlery just now, what asses dropped in there to advise with you,\r\nthat now you hurry after me, and act so like a fool? Shouldn't wonder if\r\nit was those two old asses that the boys nickname Old Plain Talk and Old\r\nPrudence.'\r\n\r\n\"'Yes, it was those two, Orchis, but don't call them names.'\r\n\r\n\"'A brace of spavined old croakers. Old Plain Talk had a shrew for a\r\nwife, and that's made him shrewish; and Old Prudence, when a boy, broke\r\ndown in an apple-stall, and that discouraged him for life. No better\r\nsport for a knowing spark like me than to hear Old Plain Talk wheeze out\r\nhis sour old saws, while Old Prudence stands by, leaning on his staff,\r\nwagging his frosty old pow, and chiming in at every clause.'\r\n\r\n\"'How can you speak so, friend Orchis, of those who were my father's\r\nfriends?'\"\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJNPWB4PV4EMCJY73T33E","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JMR8XVKPA0G8ADAPC4","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AK9ZYA0X5W7TNWYBWSX8Q","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AKAMPYBJNCN30SX0KCH91","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:00.662Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:14.172Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}