{"id":"01KG8AKCKRH1X9BENMAVJV6J9J","cid":"bafkreie3tdsmrgd3hjso6d7qstkdzhtmdxzmobm243hwronltypqhmg7g4","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":5113,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:57.722Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 4","source_file":"01KG89J1JMR8XVKPA0G8ADAPC4","start_line":5023,"text":"supper too hearty. Hearty food, taken late, gives bad dreams.\"\r\n\r\n\"What, in wonder's name--ugh, ugh!--is he talking about?\" asked the old\r\nmiser, looking up to the herb-doctor.\r\n\r\n\"Heaven be praised for that!\" cried the Missourian.\r\n\r\n\"Out of his mind, ain't he?\" again appealed the old miser.\r\n\r\n\"Pray, sir,\" said the herb-doctor to the Missourian, \"for what were you\r\ngiving thanks just now?\"\r\n\r\n\"For this: that, with some minds, truth is, in effect, not so cruel a\r\nthing after all, seeing that, like a loaded pistol found by poor devils\r\nof savages, it raises more wonder than terror--its peculiar virtue being\r\nunguessed, unless, indeed, by indiscreet handling, it should happen to\r\ngo off of itself.\"\r\n\r\n\"I pretend not to divine your meaning there,\" said the herb-doctor,\r\nafter a pause, during which he eyed the Missourian with a kind of\r\npinched expression, mixed of pain and curiosity, as if he grieved at his\r\nstate of mind, and, at the same time, wondered what had brought him to\r\nit, \"but this much I know,\" he added, \"that the general cast of your\r\nthoughts is, to say the least, unfortunate. There is strength in them,\r\nbut a strength, whose source, being physical, must wither. You will yet\r\nrecant.\"\r\n\r\n\"Recant?\"\r\n\r\n\"Yes, when, as with this old man, your evil days of decay come on, when\r\na hoary captive in your chamber, then will you, something like the\r\ndungeoned Italian we read of, gladly seek the breast of that confidence\r\nbegot in the tender time of your youth, blessed beyond telling if it\r\nreturn to you in age.\"\r\n\r\n\"Go back to nurse again, eh? Second childhood, indeed. You are soft.\"\r\n\r\n\"Mercy, mercy!\" cried the old miser, \"what is all this!--ugh, ugh! Do\r\ntalk sense, my good friends. Ain't you,\" to the Missourian, \"going to\r\nbuy some of that medicine?\"\r\n\r\n\"Pray, my venerable friend,\" said the herb-doctor, now trying to\r\nstraighten himself, \"don't lean _quite_ so hard; my arm grows numb;\r\nabate a little, just a very little.\"\r\n\r\n\"Go,\" said the Missourian, \"go lay down in your grave, old man, if you\r\ncan't stand of yourself. It's a hard world for a leaner.\"\r\n\r\n\"As to his grave,\" said the herb-doctor, \"that is far enough off, so he\r\nbut faithfully take my medicine.\"\r\n\r\n\"Ugh, ugh, ugh!--He says true. No, I ain't--ugh! a going to die\r\nyet--ugh, ugh, ugh! Many years to live yet, ugh, ugh, ugh!\"\r\n\r\n\"I approve your confidence,\" said the herb-doctor; \"but your coughing\r\ndistresses me, besides being injurious to you. Pray, let me conduct you\r\nto your berth. You are best there. Our friend here will wait till my\r\nreturn, I know.\"\r\n\r\nWith which he led the old miser away, and then, coming back, the talk\r\nwith the Missourian was resumed.\r\n\r\n\"Sir,\" said the herb-doctor, with some dignity and more feeling, \"now\r\nthat our infirm friend is withdrawn, allow me, to the full, to express\r\nmy concern at the words you allowed to escape you in his hearing. Some\r\nof those words, if I err not, besides being calculated to beget\r\ndeplorable distrust in the patient, seemed fitted to convey unpleasant\r\nimputations against me, his physician.\"\r\n\r\n\"Suppose they did?\" with a menacing air.\r\n\r\n\"Why, then--then, indeed,\" respectfully retreating, \"I fall back upon my\r\nprevious theory of your general facetiousness. I have the fortune to be\r\nin company with a humorist--a wag.\"\r\n\r\n\"Fall back you had better, and wag it is,\" cried the Missourian,\r\nfollowing him up, and wagging his raccoon tail almost into the\r\nherb-doctor's face, \"look you!\"\r\n\r\n\"At what?\"\r\n\r\n\"At this coon. Can you, the fox, catch him?\"\r\n\r\n\"If you mean,\" returned the other, not unselfpossessed, \"whether I\r\nflatter myself that I can in any way dupe you, or impose upon you, or\r\npass myself off upon you for what I am not, I, as an honest man, answer\r\nthat I have neither the inclination nor the power to do aught of the\r\nkind.\"\r\n\r\n\"Honest man? Seems to me you talk more like a craven.\"\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 4"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJM4MS3PS24HNRJ04GFSB","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JMR8XVKPA0G8ADAPC4","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKCKRKZZQ5FAF2V9QSZ7X","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AKCKR5HZ8RS365725AAN7","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:02.680Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:09.844Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}