{"id":"01KG8AN1K58Y91G2R1Y3E4HPHC","cid":"bafkreibbth7ptsuglpne4awjudltbydb5kmdtubkg2tnlg3bxade3bueb4","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":3167,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:52.918Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 3","source_file":"01KG89J1JSYKSGCE149MH9HF6A","start_line":3110,"text":"gushing tears from his reader's eyes; even as _thy_ note so strangely\r\nmade thine own manly eyes so arid; so glazed, and so arid,\r\nPierre--foolish Pierre!\r\n\r\nOh! mock not the poniarded heart. The stabbed man knows the steel; prate\r\nnot to him that it is only a tickling feather. Feels he not the interior\r\ngash? What does this blood on my vesture? and what does this pang in my\r\nsoul?\r\n\r\nAnd here again, not unreasonably, might invocations go up to those Three\r\nWeird Ones, that tend Life's loom. Again we might ask them, What threads\r\nwere those, oh, ye Weird Ones, that ye wove in the years foregone; that\r\nnow to Pierre, they so unerringly conduct electric presentiments, that\r\nhis woe is woe, his father no more a saint, and Isabel a sister indeed?\r\n\r\nAh, fathers and mothers! all the world round, be heedful,--give heed!\r\nThy little one may not now comprehend the meaning of those words and\r\nthose signs, by which, in its innocent presence, thou thinkest to\r\ndisguise the sinister thing ye would hint. Not now he knows; not very\r\nmuch even of the externals he consciously remarks; but if, in\r\nafter-life, Fate puts the chemic key of the cipher into his hands; then\r\nhow swiftly and how wonderfully, he reads all the obscurest and most\r\nobliterate inscriptions he finds in his memory; yea, and rummages\r\nhimself all over, for still hidden writings to read. Oh, darkest lessons\r\nof Life have thus been read; all faith in Virtue been murdered, and\r\nyouth gives itself up to an infidel scorn.\r\n\r\nBut not thus, altogether, was it now with Pierre; yet so like, in some\r\npoints, that the above true warning may not misplacedly stand.\r\n\r\nHis father had died of a fever; and, as is not uncommon in such\r\nmaladies, toward his end, he at intervals lowly wandered in his mind. At\r\nsuch times, by unobserved, but subtle arts, the devoted family\r\nattendants, had restrained his wife from being present at his side. But\r\nlittle Pierre, whose fond, filial love drew him ever to that bed; they\r\nheeded not innocent little Pierre, when his father was delirious; and\r\nso, one evening, when the shadows intermingled with the curtains; and\r\nall the chamber was hushed; and Pierre but dimly saw his father's face;\r\nand the fire on the hearth lay in a broken temple of wonderful coals;\r\nthen a strange, plaintive, infinitely pitiable, low voice, stole forth\r\nfrom the testered bed; and Pierre heard,--\"My daughter! my daughter!\"\r\n\r\n\"He wanders again,\" said the nurse.\r\n\r\n\"Dear, dear father!\" sobbed the child--\"thou hast not a daughter, but\r\nhere is thy own little Pierre.\"\r\n\r\nBut again the unregardful voice in the bed was heard; and now in a\r\nsudden, pealing wail,--\"My daughter!--God! God!--my daughter!\"\r\n\r\nThe child snatched the dying man's hand; it faintly grew to his grasp;\r\nbut on the other side of the bed, the other hand now also emptily lifted\r\nitself and emptily caught, as if at some other childish fingers. Then\r\nboth hands dropped on the sheet; and in the twinkling shadows of the\r\nevening little Pierre seemed to see, that while the hand which he held\r\nwore a faint, feverish flush, the other empty one was ashy white as a\r\nleper's.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 3"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AKSA026PMDP94GJN079TS","peer_type":"subsection","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JSYKSGCE149MH9HF6A","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AN1K5EFSNKRFEJ82ASGQH","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AN1K5G38MCC1B16E96S01","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:56.933Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:49:09.528Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}