{"id":"01KG8AM9VEN310CQKHJ89SPNND","cid":"bafkreibkpnzkuuir7l3t2hw54z6ewurzg2ipfpmrj4e72pfyrje2utnajq","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":4544,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:26.981Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 21","source_file":"01KG89J1FFTGRE9J93Z3K29NGY","start_line":4477,"text":"reason, and quite penniless in the world, and with death hanging over\r\nhim at any moment from his hungry master, sends up a cry like a very\r\nlaureate celebrating the glorious victory of New Orleans.\r\n\r\nHark! there it goes again! My friends, that must be a Shanghai; no\r\ndomestic-born cock could crow in such prodigious exulting strains.\r\nPlainly, my friends, a Shanghai of the Emperor of China’s breed.\r\n\r\nBut my friends the hair-trunks, fairly alarmed at last by such\r\nclamorously-victorious tones, were now scampering off, with their tails\r\nflirting in the air, and capering with their legs in clumsy enough sort\r\nof style, sufficiently evincing that they had not freely flourished them\r\nfor the six months last past.\r\n\r\nHark! there again! Whose cock is that? Who in this region can afford to\r\nbuy such an extraordinary Shanghai? Bless me--it makes my blood bound--I\r\nfeel wild. What? jumping on this rotten old log here, to flap my elbows\r\nand crow too? And just now in the doleful dumps. And all this from the\r\nsimple crow of a cock. Marvellous cock! But soft--this fellow now crows\r\nmost lustily; but it’s only morning; let’s see how he’ll crow about\r\nnoon, and toward nightfall. Come to think of it, cocks crow mostly in\r\nthe beginning of the day. Their pluck ain’t lasting, after all. Yes,\r\nyes; even cocks have to succumb to the universal spell of tribulation:\r\njubilant in the beginning, but down in the mouth at the end.\r\n\r\n                      ... ‘Of fine mornings,\r\n          We fine lusty cocks begin our crows in gladness;\r\n          But when eve does come we don’t crow quite so much,\r\n          For then cometh despondency and madness.’\r\n\r\nThe poet had this very Shanghai in his mind when he wrote that. But\r\nstop. There he rings out again, ten times richer, fuller, longer, more\r\nobstreperously exulting than before! Why, this is equal to hearing the\r\ngreat bell of St. Paul’s rung at a coronation! In fact, that bell ought\r\nto be taken down, and this Shanghai put in its place. Such a crow would\r\njollify all London, from Mile-End (which is no end) to Primrose Hill\r\n(where there ain’t any primroses), and scatter the fog.\r\n\r\nWell, I have an appetite for my breakfast this morning, if I have not\r\nhad it for a week before. I meant to have only tea and toast; but I’ll\r\nhave coffee and eggs--no, brown stout and a beefsteak, I want something\r\nhearty. Ah, here comes the down-train: white cars, flashing through the\r\ntrees like a vein of silver. How cheerfully the steam-pipe chirps! Gay\r\nare the passengers. There waves a handkerchief--going down to the city\r\nto eat oysters, and see their friends, and drop in at the circus. Look\r\nat the mist yonder; what soft curls and undulations round the hills, and\r\nthe sun weaving his rays among them. See the azure smoke of the village,\r\nlike the azure tester over a bridal-bed. How bright the country looks\r\nthere where the river overflowed the meadows. The old grass has to knock\r\nunder to the new. Well, I feel the better for this walk. Home now, and\r\nwalk into that steak, and crack that bottle of brown stout; and by the\r\ntime that’s drunk--a quart of stout--by that time, I shall feel about as\r\nstout as Samson. Come to think of it, that dun may call, though. I’ll\r\njust visit the woods and cut a club. I’ll club him, by Jove, if he duns\r\nme this day.\r\n\r\nHark! there goes Shanghai again. Shanghai says, ‘Bravo!’ Shanghai says,\r\n‘Club him!’\r\n\r\nOh, brave cock!\r\n\r\nI felt in rare spirits the whole morning. The dun called about eleven. I\r\nhad the boy Jake send the dun up. I was reading _Tristram Shandy_, and\r\ncould not go down under the circumstances. The lean rascal (a lean\r\nfarmer, too--think of that!) entered, and found me seated in an\r\narmchair, with my feet on the table, and the second bottle of brown\r\nstout handy, and the book under eye.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 21"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJVQAZF49HK19VVYQ1DXW","peer_type":"segment","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1FFTGRE9J93Z3K29NGY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AM954MDYGCS6X237J1HAV","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AM9VPND71RQEYZ8389G8R","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:32.622Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:39.357Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}