{"id":"01KG8AMXWR5MPNG2WP9PAKQSFY","cid":"bafkreidqzgfklir6hsmqvf2rlhrsj6fqckvgavq5lmwxhs35euzvm3byxm","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":543,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:52.918Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J1JSYKSGCE149MH9HF6A","start_line":484,"text":"IV.\r\n\r\nIn general terms we have been thus decided in asserting the great\r\ngenealogical and real-estate dignity of some families in America,\r\nbecause in so doing we poetically establish the richly aristocratic\r\ncondition of Master Pierre Glendinning, for whom we have before claimed\r\nsome special family distinction. And to the observant reader the sequel\r\nwill not fail to show, how important is this circumstance, considered\r\nwith reference to the singularly developed character and most singular\r\nlife-career of our hero. Nor will any man dream that the last chapter\r\nwas merely intended for a foolish bravado, and not with a solid purpose\r\nin view.\r\n\r\nNow Pierre stands on this noble pedestal; we shall see if he keeps that\r\nfine footing; we shall see if Fate hath not just a little bit of a small\r\nword or two to say in this world. But it is not laid down here that the\r\nGlendinnings dated back beyond Pharaoh, or the deeds of Saddle-Meadows\r\nto the Three Magi in the Gospels. Nevertheless, those deeds, as before\r\nhinted, did indeed date back to three kings--Indian kings--only so much\r\nthe finer for that.\r\n\r\nBut if Pierre did not date back to the Pharaohs, and if the English\r\nfarmer Hampdens were somewhat the seniors of even the oldest\r\nGlendinning; and if some American manors boasted a few additional years\r\nand square miles over his, yet think you that it is at all possible,\r\nthat a youth of nineteen should--merely by way of trial of the\r\nthing--strew his ancestral kitchen hearth-stone with wheat in the stalk,\r\nand there standing in the chimney thresh out that grain with a flail,\r\nwhose aerial evolutions had free play among all that masonry; were it\r\nnot impossible for such a flailer so to thresh wheat in his own\r\nancestral kitchen chimney without feeling just a little twinge or two of\r\nwhat one might call family pride? I should say not.\r\n\r\nOr how think you it would be with this youthful Pierre, if every day\r\ndescending to breakfast, he caught sight of an old tattered British\r\nbanner or two, hanging over an arched window in his hall; and those\r\nbanners captured by his grandfather, the general, in fair fight? Or how\r\nthink you it would be if every time he heard the band of the military\r\ncompany of the village, he should distinctly recognize the peculiar tap\r\nof a British kettle-drum also captured by his grandfather in fair fight,\r\nand afterwards suitably inscribed on the brass and bestowed upon the\r\nSaddle-Meadows Artillery Corps? Or how think you it would be, if\r\nsometimes of a mild meditative Fourth of July morning in the country, he\r\ncarried out with him into the garden by way of ceremonial cane, a long,\r\nmajestic, silver-tipped staff, a Major-General's baton, once wielded on\r\nthe plume-nodding and musket-flashing review by the same grandfather\r\nseveral times here-in-before mentioned? I should say that considering\r\nPierre was quite young and very unphilosophical as yet, and withal\r\nrather high-blooded; and sometimes read the History of the Revolutionary\r\nWar, and possessed a mother who very frequently made remote social\r\nallusions to the epaulettes of the Major-General his grandfather;--I\r\nshould say that upon all of these occasions, the way it must have been\r\nwith him, was a very proud, elated sort of way. And if this seem but too\r\nfond and foolish in Pierre; and if you tell me that this sort of thing\r\nin him showed him no sterling Democrat, and that a truly noble man\r\nshould never brag of any arm but his own; then I beg you to consider\r\nagain that this Pierre was but a youngster as yet. And believe me you\r\nwill pronounce Pierre a thoroughgoing Democrat in time; perhaps a little\r\ntoo Radical altogether to your fancy.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AKK0KMK3N0M6TS3T54NMH","peer_type":"section","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JSYKSGCE149MH9HF6A","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMXWR17EKFC91J95FFRJ4","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:53.144Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:49:01.293Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}