{"id":"01KG8AKSV4NAW4PM51EZJYQKMM","cid":"bafkreidbejlxbbr3avx2u5oatffkciukt5effxscj6rxn36y63gwb2bfai","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":1738,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:14.838Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 4","source_file":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","start_line":1686,"text":"only made me still more incredulous. For what business had a man from\r\nGreenland to be in my company? Why was he not at home among the\r\nicebergs, and how could he stand a warm summer’s sun, and not be melted\r\naway? Besides, instead of icicles, there were ear-rings hanging from\r\nhis ears; and he did not wear bear-skins, and keep his hands in a huge\r\nmuff; things, which I could not help connecting with Greenland and all\r\nGreenlanders.\r\n\r\nBut I was telling about my being sea-sick and wanting to retire for the\r\nnight. This Greenlander seeing I was ill, volunteered to turn doctor\r\nand cure me; so going down into the forecastle, he came back with a\r\nbrown jug, like a molasses jug, and a little tin cannikin, and as soon\r\nas the brown jug got near my nose, I needed no telling what was in it,\r\nfor it smelt like a still-house, and sure enough proved to be full of\r\nJamaica spirits.\r\n\r\n“Now, Buttons,” said he, “one little dose of this will be better for\r\nyou than a whole night’s sleep; there, take that now, and then eat\r\nseven or eight biscuits, and you’ll feel as strong as the mainmast.”\r\n\r\nBut I felt very little like doing as I was bid, for I had some scruples\r\nabout drinking spirits; and to tell the plain truth, for I am not\r\nashamed of it, I was a member of a society in the village where my\r\nmother lived, called the Juvenile Total Abstinence Association, of\r\nwhich my friend, Tom Legare, was president, secretary, and treasurer,\r\nand kept the funds in a little purse that his cousin knit for him.\r\nThere was three and sixpence on hand, I believe, the last time he\r\nbrought in his accounts, on a May day, when we had a meeting in a grove\r\non the river-bank. Tom was a very honest treasurer, and never spent the\r\nSociety’s money for peanuts; and besides all, was a fine, generous boy,\r\nwhom I much loved. But I must not talk about Tom now.\r\n\r\nWhen the Greenlander came to me with his jug of medicine, I thanked him\r\nas well as I could; for just then I was leaning with my mouth over the\r\nside, feeling ready to die; but I managed to tell him I was under a\r\nsolemn obligation never to drink spirits upon any consideration\r\nwhatever; though, as I had a sort of presentiment that the spirits\r\nwould now, for once in my life, do me good, I began to feel sorry, that\r\nwhen I signed the pledge of abstinence, I had not taken care to insert\r\na little clause, allowing me to drink spirits in case of sea-sickness.\r\nAnd I would advise temperance people to attend to this matter in\r\nfuture; and then if they come to go to sea, there will be no need of\r\nbreaking their pledges, which I am truly sorry to say was the case with\r\nme. And a hard thing it was, too, thus to break a vow before unbroken;\r\nespecially as the Jamaica tasted any thing but agreeable, and indeed\r\nburnt my mouth so, that I did not relish my meals for some time after.\r\nEven when I had become quite well and strong again, I wondered how the\r\nsailors could really like such stuff; but many of them had a jug of it,\r\nbesides the Greenlander, which they brought along to sea with them, _to\r\ntaper off with,_ as they called it. But this tapering off did not last\r\nvery long, for the Jamaica was all gone on the second day, and the jugs\r\nwere tossed overboard. I wonder where they are now?\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 4"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJNGWY1VPN4C4Z8PCB5TN","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKSV4AY7BJN8AVN60D21K","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AKSV4JGT4G0RY7Z8T57E3","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:16.228Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:24.762Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}