{"id":"01KG8AKTS8YHTWR21T5VQB29WF","cid":"bafkreibqfclnhrad3eifvndf4jkitggxabwklsfwka6gfid6ar2wrqa3wa","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":8304,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:15.153Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J1H7Y803CZ7X80F0QFHZ","start_line":8228,"text":"that they would load themselves down with one potato too many.\r\n\r\nGasping as I was with my own hamper, I could not, for the life of me,\r\nhelp laughing at Long Ghost. There he went:—his long neck thrust\r\nforward, his arms twisted behind him to form a shelf for his basket to\r\nrest on; and his stilts of legs every once in a while giving way under\r\nhim, as if his knee-joints slipped either way.\r\n\r\n“There! I carry no more!” he exclaimed all at once, flinging his\r\npotatoes into the boat, where the Yankee was just then stowing them\r\naway.\r\n\r\n“Oh, then,” said Zeke, quite briskly, “I guess you and Paul had better\r\ntry the ‘barrel-machine’—come along, I’ll fix ye out in no time”; and,\r\nso saying, he waded ashore, and hurried back to the house, bidding us\r\nfollow.\r\n\r\nWondering what upon earth the “barrel-machine” could be, and rather\r\nsuspicious of it, we limped after. On arriving at the house, we found\r\nhim getting ready a sort of sedan-chair. It was nothing more than an\r\nold barrel suspended by a rope from the middle of a stout oar. Quite an\r\ningenious contrivance of the Yankee’s; and his proposed arrangement\r\nwith regard to mine and the doctor’s shoulders was equally so.\r\n\r\n“There now!” said he, when everything was ready, “there’s no\r\nback-breaking about this; you can stand right up under it, you see:\r\njist try it once”; and he politely rested the blade of the oar on my\r\ncomrade’s right shoulder, and the other end on mine, leaving the barrel\r\nbetween us.\r\n\r\n“Jist the thing!” he added, standing off admiringly, while we remained\r\nin this interesting attitude.\r\n\r\nThere was no help for us; with broken hearts and backs we trudged back\r\nto the field; the doctor all the while saying masses.\r\n\r\nUpon starting with the loaded barrel, for a few paces we got along\r\npretty well, and were constrained to think the idea not a bad one. But\r\nwe did not long think so. In less than five minutes we came to a dead\r\nhalt, the springing and buckling of the clumsy oar being almost\r\nunendurable.\r\n\r\n“Let’s shift ends,” cried the doctor, who did not relish the blade of\r\nthe stick, which was cutting into the blade of his shoulder.\r\n\r\nAt last, by stages short and frequent, we managed to shamble down the\r\nbeach, where we again dumped our cargo, in something of a pet.\r\n\r\n“Why not make the natives help?” asked Long Ghost, rubbing his\r\nshoulder.\r\n\r\n“Natives be dumned!” said the Yankee, “twenty on ’em ain’t worth one\r\nwhite man. They never was meant to work any, them chaps; and they knows\r\nit, too, for dumned little work any on ’em ever does.”\r\n\r\nBut, notwithstanding this abuse, Zeke was at last obliged to press a\r\nfew of the bipeds into service. “Aramai!” (come here) he shouted to\r\nseveral, who, reclining on a bank, had hitherto been critical observers\r\nof our proceedings; and, among other things, had been particularly\r\namused by the performance with the sedan-chair.\r\n\r\nAfter making these fellows load their baskets together, the Yankee\r\nfilled his own, and then drove them before him down to the beach.\r\nProbably he had seen the herds of panniered mules driven in this way by\r\nmounted Indians along the great Callao to Lima. The boat at last\r\nloaded, the Yankee, taking with him a couple of natives, at once\r\nhoisted sail, and stood across the channel for Papeetee.\r\n\r\nThe next morning at breakfast, old Tonoi ran in, and told us that the\r\nvoyagers were returning. We hurried down to the beach, and saw the boat\r\ngliding toward us, with a dozing islander at the helm, and Zeke\r\nstanding up in the bows, jingling a small bag of silver, the proceeds\r\nof his cargo.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJM0XRA1R2C73ZGK5G37S","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1H7Y803CZ7X80F0QFHZ","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKTS6JMR88GWP015699YY","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:17.192Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:30.842Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}