{"id":"01KG8AKRP54ANN5ETA3GVTJG7V","cid":"bafkreih2mcmun3n2f3og6dp4tkym4pepdcvxlx6zvqqzuxdlbxdt44v3uy","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":328,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:14.838Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 4","source_file":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","start_line":263,"text":"backs; and many a time I gazed at the word _“London”_ on the\r\ntitle-page. And there was a copy of D’Alembert in French, and I\r\nwondered what a great man I would be, if by foreign travel I should\r\never be able to read straight along without stopping, out of that book,\r\nwhich now was a riddle to every one in the house but my father, whom I\r\nso much liked to hear talk French, as he sometimes did to a servant we\r\nhad.\r\n\r\nThat servant, too, I used to gaze at with wonder; for in answer to my\r\nincredulous cross-questions, he had over and over again assured me,\r\nthat he had really been born in Paris. But this I never entirely\r\nbelieved; for it seemed so hard to comprehend, how a man who had been\r\nborn in a foreign country, could be dwelling with me in our house in\r\nAmerica.\r\n\r\nAs years passed on, this continual dwelling upon foreign associations,\r\nbred in me a vague prophetic thought, that I was fated, one day or\r\nother, to be a great voyager; and that just as my father used to\r\nentertain strange gentlemen over their wine after dinner, I would\r\nhereafter be telling my own adventures to an eager auditory. And I have\r\nno doubt that this presentiment had something to do with bringing about\r\nmy subsequent rovings.\r\n\r\nBut that which perhaps more than any thing else, converted my vague\r\ndreamings and longings into a definite purpose of seeking my fortune on\r\nthe sea, was an old-fashioned glass ship, about eighteen inches long,\r\nand of French manufacture, which my father, some thirty years before,\r\nhad brought home from Hamburg as a present to a great-uncle of mine:\r\nSenator Wellingborough, who had died a member of Congress in the days\r\nof the old Constitution, and after whom I had the honor of being named.\r\nUpon the decease of the Senator, the ship was returned to the donor.\r\n\r\nIt was kept in a square glass case, which was regularly dusted by one\r\nof my sisters every morning, and stood on a little claw-footed Dutch\r\ntea-table in one corner of the sitting-room. This ship, after being the\r\nadmiration of my father’s visitors in the capital, became the wonder\r\nand delight of all the people of the village where we now resided, many\r\nof whom used to call upon my mother, for no other purpose than to see\r\nthe ship. And well did it repay the long and curious examinations which\r\nthey were accustomed to give it.\r\n\r\nIn the first place, every bit of it was glass, and that was a great\r\nwonder of itself; because the masts, yards, and ropes were made to\r\nresemble exactly the corresponding parts of a real vessel that could go\r\nto sea. She carried two tiers of black guns all along her two decks;\r\nand often I used to try to peep in at the portholes, to see what else\r\nwas inside; but the holes were so small, and it looked so very dark\r\nindoors, that I could discover little or nothing; though, when I was\r\nvery little, I made no doubt, that if I could but once pry open the\r\nhull, and break the glass all to pieces, I would infallibly light upon\r\nsomething wonderful, perhaps some gold guineas, of which I have always\r\nbeen in want, ever since I could remember. And often I used to feel a\r\nsort of insane desire to be the death of the glass ship, case, and all,\r\nin order to come at the plunder; and one day, throwing out some hint of\r\nthe kind to my sisters, they ran to my mother in a great clamor; and\r\nafter that, the ship was placed on the mantel-piece for a time, beyond\r\nmy reach, and until I should recover my reason.\r\n\r\nI do not know how to account for this temporary madness of mine, unless\r\nit was, that I had been reading in a story-book about Captain Kidd’s\r\nship, that lay somewhere at the bottom of the Hudson near the\r\nHighlands, full of gold as it could be; and that a company of men were\r\ntrying to dive down and get the treasure out of the hold, which no one\r\nhad ever thought of doing before, though there she had lain for almost\r\na hundred years.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 4"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJNGCKYBSPHFM2K2S5VD3","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKRNTGZAPN7MF14JS0QNE","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AKRNTCGEDCZCRHW5YXQ6X","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:15.045Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:23.366Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}