{"id":"01KG8AM8F04XN35EAJJ90H1EBZ","cid":"bafkreiadfiwm5aswgzb5slejnniza4pikz7ycrc4bt2uymz5f2rxdqda7q","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":10166,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:26.985Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 3","source_file":"01KG89J1FFTGRE9J93Z3K29NGY","start_line":10112,"text":"the scuttle. And ah! what a change. As from the gloom of the grave and\r\nthe companionship of worms, men shall at last rapturously rise into the\r\nliving greenness and glory-immortal, so, from my cobwebbed old garret, I\r\nthrust forth my head into the balmy air, and found myself hailed by the\r\nverdant tops of great trees, growing in the little garden below--trees,\r\nwhose leaves soared high above my topmost slate.\r\n\r\nRefreshed by this outlook, I turned inward to behold the garret, now\r\nunwontedly lit up. Such humped masses of obsolete furniture. An old\r\nescritoire, from whose pigeon-holes sprang mice, and from whose secret\r\ndrawers came subterranean squeakings, as from chipmunks’ holes in the\r\nwoods; and broken-down old chairs, with strange carvings, which seemed\r\nfit to seat a conclave of conjurors. And a rusty, iron-bound chest,\r\nlidless, and packed full of mildewed old documents; one of which, with a\r\nfaded red ink-blot at the end, looked as if it might have been the\r\noriginal bond that Doctor Faust gave to Mephistopheles. And, finally, in\r\nthe least lighted corner of all, where was a profuse litter of\r\nindescribable old rubbish--among which was a broken telescope, and a\r\ncelestial globe staved in--stood the little old table, one hoofed foot,\r\nlike that of the Evil One, dimly revealed through the cobwebs. What a\r\nthick dust, half paste, had settled upon the old vials and flasks; how\r\ntheir once liquid contents had caked, and how strangely looked the\r\nmouldy old book in the middle--Cotton Mather’s _Magnalia_.\r\n\r\nTable and book I removed below, and had the dislocations of the one and\r\nthe tatters of the other repaired. I resolved to surround this sad\r\nlittle hermit of a table, so long banished from genial neighbourhood,\r\nwith all the kindly influences of warm urns, warm fires, and warm\r\nhearts, little dreaming what all this warm nursing would hatch.\r\n\r\nI was pleased by the discovery that the table was not of the ordinary\r\nmahogany, but of apple-tree wood, which age had darkened nearly to\r\nwalnut. It struck me as being an appropriate piece of furniture for our\r\ncedar-parlour--so called, from its being, after the old fashion,\r\nwainscoted with that wood. The table’s round slab, or orb, was so\r\ncontrived as to be readily changed from a horizontal to a perpendicular\r\nposition; so that, when not in use, it could be snugly placed in a\r\ncorner. For myself, wife, and two daughters, I thought it would make a\r\nnice little breakfast and tea-table. It was just the thing for a\r\nwhist-table, too. And I also pleased myself with the idea that it would\r\nmake a famous reading-table.\r\n\r\nIn these fancies, my wife, for one, took little interest. She\r\ndisrelished the idea of so unfashionable and indigent-looking a stranger\r\nas the table intruding into the polished society of more prosperous\r\nfurniture. But when, after seeking its fortune at the cabinet-maker’s,\r\nthe table came home, varnished over, bright as a guinea, no one exceeded\r\nmy wife in a gracious reception of it. It was advanced to an honourable\r\nposition in the cedar-parlour.\r\n\r\nBut, as for my daughter Julia, she never got over her strange emotions\r\nupon first accidentally encountering the table. Unfortunately, it was\r\njust as I was in the act of bringing it down from the garret. Holding it\r\nby the slab, I was carrying it before me, one cobwebbed hoof thrust out,\r\nwhich weird object at a turn of the stairs suddenly touched my girl, as\r","title":"Chunk 3"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJWBY79C0S3A47JYVRQW7","peer_type":"segment","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1FFTGRE9J93Z3K29NGY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AM8ERDXE311RADGT6QJNV","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:31.200Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:44.262Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}