{"id":"01KG8AKTGPAWQQP8ARXRD0GQ45","cid":"bafkreigzcedidm63pl6cb5ysamwssqj2smk27f6zu267inyzrg5asauyly","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":2090,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:14.838Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","start_line":2040,"text":"since he brushed right by them. However, they lay in their bunks\r\nsmoking, and kept talking on some time in this strain, and advising me\r\nas soon as ever I got home to pin my ears back, so as not to hold the\r\nwind, and sail straight away into the interior of the country, and\r\nnever stop until deep in the bush, far off from the least running\r\nbrook, never mind how shallow, and out of sight of even the smallest\r\npuddle of rainwater.\r\n\r\nThis kind of talking brought the tears into my eyes, for it was so true\r\nand real, and the sailors who spoke it seemed so false-hearted and\r\ninsincere; but for all that, in spite of the sickness at my heart, it\r\nmade me mad, and stung me to the quick, that they should speak of me as\r\na poor trembling coward, who could never be brought to endure the\r\nhardships of a sailor’s life; for I felt myself trembling, and knew\r\nthat I was but a coward then, well enough, without their telling me of\r\nit. And they did not say I was cowardly, because they perceived it in\r\nme, but because they merely supposed I must be, judging, no doubt, from\r\ntheir own secret thoughts about themselves; for I felt sure that the\r\nsuicide frightened them very badly. And at last, being provoked to\r\ndesperation by their taunts, I told them so to their faces; but I might\r\nbetter have kept silent; for they now all united to abuse me. They\r\nasked me what business I, a boy like me, had to go to sea, and take the\r\nbread out of the mouth of honest sailors, and fill a good seaman’s\r\nplace; and asked me whether I ever dreamed of becoming a captain, since\r\nI was a gentleman with white hands; and if I ever _should_ be, they\r\nwould like nothing better than to ship aboard my vessel and stir up a\r\nmutiny. And one of them, whose name was Jackson, of whom I shall have a\r\ngood deal more to say by-and-by, said, I had better steer clear of him\r\never after, for if ever I crossed his path, or got into his way, he\r\nwould be the death of me, and if ever I stumbled about in the rigging\r\nnear _him,_ he would make nothing of pitching me overboard; and that he\r\nswore too, with an oath. At first, all this nearly stunned me, it was\r\nso unforeseen; and then I could not believe that they meant what they\r\nsaid, or that they could be so cruel and black-hearted. But how could I\r\nhelp seeing, that the men who could thus talk to a poor, friendless\r\nboy, on the very first night of his voyage to sea, must be capable of\r\nalmost any enormity. I loathed, detested, and hated them with all that\r\nwas left of my bursting heart and soul, and I thought myself the most\r\nforlorn and miserable wretch that ever breathed. May I never be a man,\r\nthought I, if to be a boy is to be such a wretch. And I wailed and\r\nwept, and my heart cracked within me, but all the time I defied them\r\nthrough my teeth, and dared them to do their worst.\r\n\r\nAt last they ceased talking and fell fast asleep, leaving me awake,\r\nseated on a chest with my face bent over my knees between my hands. And\r\nthere I sat, till at length the dull beating against the ship’s bows,\r\nand the silence around soothed me down, and I fell asleep as I sat.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJQ10H8AX91TYTME9FFWW","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKTGPXCQFV6WG2YA61G4S","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:16.918Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:25.679Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}