{"id":"01KG8AKT62Q46V313E8H2ECKTC","cid":"bafkreicta4n6nn3c44vlwgjyn44xrs24vij3d6moosm7lsuururnkhvk6e","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":7197,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:14.842Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","start_line":7122,"text":"these three days, with nothing to eat;—that I know myself.”\r\n\r\n“She desarves it,” said an old hag, who was just placing on her crooked\r\nshoulders her bag of pickings, and who was turning to totter off, “that\r\nBetsy Jennings desarves it—was she ever married? tell me that.”\r\n\r\nLeaving Launcelott’s-Hey, I turned into a more frequented street; and\r\nsoon meeting a policeman, told him of the condition of the woman and\r\nthe girls.\r\n\r\n“It’s none of my business, Jack,” said he. “I don’t belong to that\r\nstreet.”\r\n\r\n“Who does then?”\r\n\r\n“I don’t know. But what business is it of yours? Are you not a Yankee?”\r\n\r\n“Yes,” said I, “but come, I will help you remove that woman, if you say\r\nso.”\r\n\r\n“There, now, Jack, go on board your ship and stick to it; and leave\r\nthese matters to the town.”\r\n\r\nI accosted two more policemen, but with no better success; they would\r\nnot even go with me to the place. The truth was, it was out of the way,\r\nin a silent, secluded spot; and the misery of the three outcasts,\r\nhiding away in the ground, did not obtrude upon any one.\r\n\r\nReturning to them, I again stamped to attract their attention; but this\r\ntime, none of the three looked up, or even stirred. While I yet stood\r\nirresolute, a voice called to me from a high, iron-shuttered window in\r\na loft over the way; and asked what I was about. I beckoned to the man,\r\na sort of porter, to come down, which he did; when I pointed down into\r\nthe vault.\r\n\r\n“Well,” said he, “what of it?”\r\n\r\n“Can’t we get them out?” said I, “haven’t you some place in your\r\nwarehouse where you can put them? have you nothing for them to eat?”\r\n\r\n“You’re crazy, boy,” said he; “do you suppose, that Parkins and Wood\r\nwant their warehouse turned into a hospital?”\r\n\r\nI then went to my boarding-house, and told Handsome Mary of what I had\r\nseen; asking her if she could not do something to get the woman and\r\ngirls removed; or if she could not do that, let me have some food for\r\nthem. But though a kind person in the main, Mary replied that she gave\r\naway enough to beggars in her own street (which was true enough)\r\nwithout looking after the whole neighborhood.\r\n\r\nGoing into the kitchen, I accosted the cook, a little shriveled-up old\r\nWelshwoman, with a saucy tongue, whom the sailors called _Brandy-Nan;_\r\nand begged her to give me some cold victuals, if she had nothing\r\nbetter, to take to the vault. But she broke out in a storm of swearing\r\nat the miserable occupants of the vault, and refused. I then stepped\r\ninto the room where our dinner was being spread; and waiting till the\r\ngirl had gone out, I snatched some bread and cheese from a stand, and\r\nthrusting it into the bosom of my frock, left the house. Hurrying to\r\nthe lane, I dropped the food down into the vault. One of the girls\r\ncaught at it convulsively, but fell back, apparently fainting; the\r\nsister pushed the other’s arm aside, and took the bread in her hand;\r\nbut with a weak uncertain grasp like an infant’s. She placed it to her\r\nmouth; but letting it fall again, murmuring faintly something like\r\n“water.” The woman did not stir; her head was bowed over, just as I had\r\nfirst seen her.\r\n\r\nSeeing how it was, I ran down toward the docks to a mean little sailor\r\ntavern, and begged for a pitcher; but the cross old man who kept it\r\nrefused, unless I would pay for it. But I had no money. So as my\r\nboarding-house was some way off, and it would be lost time to run to\r\nthe ship for my big iron pot; under the impulse of the moment, I\r\nhurried to one of the Boodle Hydrants, which I remembered having seen\r\nrunning near the scene of a still smoldering fire in an old rag house;\r\nand taking off a new tarpaulin hat, which had been loaned me that day,\r\nfilled it with water.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJRKNBP7BQ7AC8F90RW5Q","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKT622WC760GNSG3NBACP","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AKT62ZVCX1Q5QRNAKFEMX","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:16.578Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:31.092Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}