{"id":"01KG8AKC4F254825F1645HB3CB","cid":"bafkreid7pwtbxf2d37slmk52oa4pu45viwzdonjhcdimz2bfsve2ztlgim","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":10665,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:57.726Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 4","source_file":"01KG89J1JMR8XVKPA0G8ADAPC4","start_line":10583,"text":"can you be surprised at my uneasiness in reading passages so charged\r\nwith the spirit of distrust?\"\r\n\r\n\"No, sir, I am not surprised,\" said the old man; then added: \"from what\r\nyou say, I see you are something of my way of thinking--you think that\r\nto distrust the creature, is a kind of distrusting of the Creator. Well,\r\nmy young friend, what is it? This is rather late for you to be about.\r\nWhat do you want of me?\"\r\n\r\nThese questions were put to a boy in the fragment of an old linen coat,\r\nbedraggled and yellow, who, coming in from the deck barefooted on the\r\nsoft carpet, had been unheard. All pointed and fluttering, the rags of\r\nthe little fellow's red-flannel shirt, mixed with those of his yellow\r\ncoat, flamed about him like the painted flames in the robes of a victim\r\nin _auto-da-fe_. His face, too, wore such a polish of seasoned grime,\r\nthat his sloe-eyes sparkled from out it like lustrous sparks in fresh\r\ncoal. He was a juvenile peddler, or _marchand_, as the polite French\r\nmight have called him, of travelers' conveniences; and, having no\r\nallotted sleeping-place, had, in his wanderings about the boat, spied,\r\nthrough glass doors, the two in the cabin; and, late though it was,\r\nthought it might never be too much so for turning a penny.\r\n\r\nAmong other things, he carried a curious affair--a miniature mahogany\r\ndoor, hinged to its frame, and suitably furnished in all respects but\r\none, which will shortly appear. This little door he now meaningly held\r\nbefore the old man, who, after staring at it a while, said: \"Go thy ways\r\nwith thy toys, child.\"\r\n\r\n\"Now, may I never get so old and wise as that comes to,\" laughed the boy\r\nthrough his grime; and, by so doing, disclosing leopard-like teeth, like\r\nthose of Murillo's wild beggar-boy's.\r\n\r\n\"The divils are laughing now, are they?\" here came the brogue from the\r\nberth. \"What do the divils find to laugh about in wisdom, begorrah? To\r\nbed with ye, ye divils, and no more of ye.\"\r\n\r\n\"You see, child, you have disturbed that person,\" said the old man; \"you\r\nmustn't laugh any more.\"\r\n\r\n\"Ah, now,\" said the cosmopolitan, \"don't, pray, say that; don't let him\r\nthink that poor Laughter is persecuted for a fool in this world.\"\r\n\r\n\"Well,\" said the old man to the boy, \"you must, at any rate, speak very\r\nlow.\"\r\n\r\n\"Yes, that wouldn't be amiss, perhaps,\" said the cosmopolitan; \"but, my\r\nfine fellow, you were about saying something to my aged friend here;\r\nwhat was it?\"\r\n\r\n\"Oh,\" with a lowered voice, coolly opening and shutting his little door,\r\n\"only this: when I kept a toy-stand at the fair in Cincinnati last\r\nmonth, I sold more than one old man a child's rattle.\"\r\n\r\n\"No doubt of it,\" said the old man. \"I myself often buy such things for\r\nmy little grandchildren.\"\r\n\r\n\"But these old men I talk of were old bachelors.\"\r\n\r\nThe old man stared at him a moment; then, whispering to the\r\ncosmopolitan: \"Strange boy, this; sort of simple, ain't he? Don't know\r\nmuch, hey?\"\r\n\r\n\"Not much,\" said the boy, \"or I wouldn't be so ragged.\"\r\n\r\n\"Why, child, what sharp ears you have!\" exclaimed the old man.\r\n\r\n\"If they were duller, I would hear less ill of myself,\" said the boy.\r\n\r\n\"You seem pretty wise, my lad,\" said the cosmopolitan; \"why don't you\r\nsell your wisdom, and buy a coat?\"\r\n\r\n\"Faith,\" said the boy, \"that's what I did to-day, and this is the coat\r\nthat the price of my wisdom bought. But won't you trade? See, now, it\r\nis not the door I want to sell; I only carry the door round for a\r\nspecimen, like. Look now, sir,\" standing the thing up on the table,\r\n\"supposing this little door is your state-room door; well,\" opening it,\r\n\"you go in for the night; you close your door behind you--thus. Now, is\r\nall safe?\"\r\n\r\n\"I suppose so, child,\" said the old man.\r\n\r\n\"Of course it is, my fine fellow,\" said the cosmopolitan.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 4"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJNPWTERPN2J92AFP8QXB","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JMR8XVKPA0G8ADAPC4","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKC4FYBNZ1K8QSF2NCJPT","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AKC4QKVB4EBPDJYD63JRF","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:02.191Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:15.627Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}