{"id":"01KG8AM9VPND71RQEYZ8389G8R","cid":"bafkreihkc2xwuowsisacis27rhdmp7eakcpoz2qcatkspvppx5vc5uqmbu","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":4606,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:26.981Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 22","source_file":"01KG89J1FFTGRE9J93Z3K29NGY","start_line":4538,"text":"I 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\n‘Sit down,’ said I; ‘I’ll finish this chapter, and then attend to you.\r\nFine morning. Ha! ha!--this is a fine joke about my Uncle Toby and the\r\nWidow Wadman! Ha! ha! ha! let me read this to you.’\r\n\r\n‘I have no time; I’ve got my noon _chores_ to do.’\r\n\r\n‘To the deuce with your _chores_!’ said I. ‘Don’t drop your old tobacco\r\nabout here, or I’ll turn you out.’\r\n\r\n‘Sir!’\r\n\r\n‘Let me read you this about the Widow Wadman. Said the Widow Wadman----’\r\n\r\n‘There’s my bill, sir.’\r\n\r\n‘Very good. Just twist it up, will you; it’s about my smoking-time; and\r\nhand a coal, will you, from the hearth yonder!’\r\n\r\n‘My bill, sir!’ said the rascal, turning pale with rage and amazement at\r\nmy unwonted air (formerly I had always dodged him with a pale face), but\r\ntoo prudent as yet to betray the extremity of his astonishment. ‘My\r\nbill, sir!’--and he stiffly poked it at me.\r\n\r\n‘My friend,’ said I, ‘what a charming morning! How sweet the country\r\nlooks! Pray, did you hear that extraordinary cock-crow this morning?\r\nTake a glass of my stout!’\r\n\r\n‘_Yours?_ First pay your debts before you offer folks your stout!’\r\n\r\n‘You think, then, that, properly speaking, I have no _stout_,’ said I,\r\ndeliberately rising. ‘I’ll undeceive you. I’ll show you stout of a\r\nsuperior brand to Barclay and Perkins.’\r\n\r\nWithout more ado, I seized that insolent dun by the slack of his\r\ncoat--(and, being a lean, shad-bellied wretch, there was plenty of slack\r\nto it)--I seized him that way, tied him with a sailor-knot, and\r\nthrusting his bill between his teeth, introduced him to the open country\r\nlying round about my place of abode.\r\n\r\n‘Jake,’ said I, ‘you’ll find a sack of blue-nosed potatoes lying under\r\nthe shed. Drag it here, and pelt this pauper away; he’s been begging\r\npence of me, and I know he can work, but he’s lazy. Pelt him away,\r\nJake!’\r\n\r\nBless my stars, what a crow! Shanghai sent up such a perfect pæan and\r\n_laudamus_--such a trumpet-blast of triumph, that my soul fairly snorted\r\nin me. Duns!--I could have fought an army of them! Plainly, Shanghai was\r\nof the opinion that duns only came into the world to be kicked, hanged,\r\nbruised, battered, choked, walloped, hammered, drowned, clubbed!\r\n\r\nReturning indoors, when the exultation of my victory over the dun had a\r\nlittle subsided, I fell to musing over the mysterious Shanghai. I had no\r\nidea I would hear him so nigh my house. I wondered from what rich\r\ngentleman’s yard he crowed. Nor had he cut short his crows so easily as\r\nI had supposed he would. This Shanghai crowed till midday, at least.\r\nWould he keep a-crowing all day? I resolved to learn. Again I ascended\r\nthe hill. The whole country was now bathed in a rejoicing sunlight. The\r\nwarm verdure was bursting all round me. Teams were afield. Birds, newly\r\narrived from the south, were blithely singing in the air. Even the crows\r\ncawed with a certain unction, and seemed a shade or two less black than\r\nusual.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 22"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJVQAZF49HK19VVYQ1DXW","peer_type":"segment","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1FFTGRE9J93Z3K29NGY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AM9VEN310CQKHJ89SPNND","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AM9VE89PEJK43242ZF5SP","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:32.630Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:39.299Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}