story-to-pack: add the corpora and the catalogue v2/v3
Fourteen corpora split and classified: aesop, bierce, chekhov, holmes, keefe, lawson, lorimer, maupassant, nobody, plaintales, poe, torchy, wallingford and winesburg, each with its splitter and the hand-written groups and pages; catalogue v2 and v3; and the shared splitters gutenberg_chunks.py, se_split.py and se_build.py. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com> Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_019rwKTmug58sEsJ72AuWsEi
This commit is contained in:
JesseMarkowitz
co-authored by
Claude Opus 5.5
Claude Opus 5.5
parent
e5617b86ba
commit
3a4758172d
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[
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{
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"chunk": 0,
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"story": 0,
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"summary": "A worn-out peasant comes home through the farmyard and asks after his wife's dying father; she says the priest expects him to die before morning.",
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"predicament": "A worn-out couple learn the old relative they keep will not last the night, just as the busy season presses."
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},
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{
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"chunk": 1,
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"story": 0,
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"summary": "At the old man's bedside the son-in-law complains that the death comes in good working weather, and the couple reckon how many hours the funeral invitations will cost.",
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"predicament": "A couple at a dying relative's bedside think mainly of the working days his death and burial will cost them."
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},
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{
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"chunk": 2,
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"story": 0,
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"summary": "The wife suggests he start inviting mourners now and say the old man is already dead; he agrees, tells her to bake dumplings for the guests, and eats his bread without wasting a crumb.",
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"predicament": "To save a day's work, a couple decide to announce a relative's death before it has actually happened."
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},
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{
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"chunk": 3,
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"story": 0,
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"summary": "She tells a passing neighbour the funeral is fixed for Saturday, bakes forty-eight dumplings, and finds her father still rattling whenever she looks in; her husband comes home asking if it is over.",
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"predicament": "Having told the neighbours a relative is dead, a woman keeps checking and finds him stubbornly still alive."
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},
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{
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"chunk": 4,
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"story": 0,
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"summary": "The couple sleep beside the dying man; at dawn he is still alive, and the wife reassures her husband that the authorities will let them bury him on schedule, as they did for a neighbour.",
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"predicament": "A couple who announced a death too early reassure each other that the authorities will bend the rules for them."
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},
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{
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"chunk": 5,
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"story": 0,
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"summary": "The old man lingers; the couple get the mayor and the health officer to agree to backdate the death, but the next morning he still breathes as the black-clad mourners arrive.",
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"predicament": "A couple who talked obliging officials into bending the rules face arriving mourners with the dying relative still breathing."
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},
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{
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"chunk": 6,
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"story": 0,
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"summary": "The couple burst into tears, make excuses to every guest and hold back those who want to leave by offering the dumplings, which cheer the crowd up.",
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"predicament": "A couple who summoned mourners too early must explain the embarrassing mistake and keep the guests from leaving offended."
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},
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{
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"chunk": 7,
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"story": 0,
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"summary": "The old man dies in the middle of the feast; the couple are relieved, and the wife's only grief is that she must bake four dozen more dumplings for the real funeral.",
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"predicament": "A couple whose relative finally dies at the worst moment regret only the extra food and expense it costs them."
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}
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]
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[
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{
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"chunk": 8,
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"story": 1,
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"summary": "After dinner a hunting man begins a story about his lonely country property, kept by a severe retired policeman who lived there with his fourteen-year-old nephew.",
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"predicament": "A landowner recalls the strict old servant he trusted to guard his property, and the servant's unpromising young nephew."
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},
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{
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"chunk": 9,
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"story": 1,
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"summary": "He describes the sly, ugly nephew and the old woman who came to cook, and his yearly ride out to the lodge on a gloomy October day.",
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"predicament": "A landowner arrives for his yearly stay at a remote property, where an old servant and a disliked boy wait."
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},
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{
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"chunk": 10,
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"story": 1,
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"summary": "The same faithful greetings as every year, though the old cook has grown bent and frail; the keeper is plainly troubled but refuses to say why before dinner.",
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"predicament": "A loyal old servant is plainly troubled by something and cannot bring himself to tell his employer about it."
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},
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{
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"chunk": 11,
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"story": 1,
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"summary": "The keeper confesses that after months of hunting a poacher he followed his own nephew and caught him poaching on his master's land.",
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"predicament": "A loyal servant must confess to his employer that his own young relative has been stealing from him."
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},
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{
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"chunk": 12,
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"story": 1,
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"summary": "The keeper says he beat the boy and could not turn out the last of his blood; the master approves, and the keeper thrashes the nephew before him as an example.",
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"predicament": "A servant torn between his employer and his only young relative punishes the boy in front of the employer to prove his loyalty."
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},
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{
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"chunk": 13,
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"story": 1,
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"summary": "The boy mutters an apology and vanishes; at midnight the master wakes to find the straw-packed house deliberately set on fire, escapes through the window and fires his gun to wake the keeper.",
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"predicament": "A boy shamed in front of the household takes his revenge, and a guest wakes to find the house deliberately set alight."
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},
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{
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"chunk": 14,
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"story": 1,
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"summary": "The keeper jumps clear; they realise the nephew set the fire and that the old cook has burned to death, and then the nephew bolts out of the stable.",
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"predicament": "A man realises the young relative he punished has burned the house in revenge, killing an innocent old woman."
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},
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{
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"chunk": 15,
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"story": 1,
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"summary": "In blind rage the keeper snatches up the gun and shoots the fleeing boy dead; he is acquitted at trial and leaves the country for good.",
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"predicament": "A man who killed his own young relative in a moment's rage must live with it after the law lets him go."
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}
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]
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[
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{
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"chunk": 16,
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"story": 2,
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"summary": "Left alone in the farm kitchen while the others work the fields, a servant girl finishes the dishes, feels oppressed by the heat and smells without knowing why, and steps out for air.",
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"predicament": "A servant left alone with the chores feels a restlessness she cannot name and slips outside for a moment's air."
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},
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{
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"chunk": 17,
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"story": 2,
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"summary": "She watches the farmyard and the blossoming orchard, feels an animal urge to run and stretch, gathers the eggs and goes out to sit in the grass.",
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"predicament": "A young servant stirred by spring feels the pull to abandon her work and simply lie in the sun."
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},
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{
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"chunk": 18,
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"story": 2,
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"summary": "She lies down on straw in a ditch and dozes, and wakes to a farmhand who has long been courting her grabbing at her breast.",
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"predicament": "A young servant dozing alone is grabbed by a fellow worker who has been pressing his attentions on her for months."
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},
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{
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"chunk": 19,
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"story": 2,
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"summary": "She slaps him; he apologises and they sit and talk of their master, their villages and families, and she grows sad thinking of her distant mother.",
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"predicament": "A young servant who fended off a coworker's advance sits talking with him, homesick for the family she left behind."
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},
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{
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"chunk": 20,
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"story": 2,
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"summary": "He kisses her again and she bloodies his nose; he admires her for it, and when she asks whether he really wants to marry her he says of course he does.",
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"predicament": "A young woman asks a persistent suitor whether he truly means marriage, and he says yes to get what he wants."
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},
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{
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"chunk": 21,
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"story": 2,
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"summary": "They become lovers until he tires of her and avoids her; finding herself pregnant, she goes to him in the stable at night, and when he laughs at his promise she half strangles him.",
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"predicament": "A young woman left pregnant confronts the lover who promised marriage and now laughs his promise off."
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},
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{
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"chunk": 22,
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"story": 2,
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"summary": "Overpowered, he swears to marry her at once, but a few days later she learns he has left the district for good, and she is left in misery fearing people will find out.",
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"predicament": "A young woman who forced a promise from her lover learns he has quietly left, leaving her alone with the secret."
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},
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{
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"chunk": 23,
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"story": 2,
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"summary": "For months she checks her figure in a broken mirror, stops going to confession and fancies every fellow servant, and a sharp-eyed boy most of all, has found her out.",
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"predicament": "A young woman hiding a pregnancy lives in dread that every watching face in the household has already guessed."
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},
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{
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"chunk": 24,
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"story": 2,
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"summary": "A letter comes that she cannot read; hoping it is from her lover, she has it read aloud and learns her mother is gravely ill; her master kindly lets her go home.",
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"predicament": "An anxious young woman hoping for word from her lover gets a letter instead saying her mother is dying."
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},
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{
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"chunk": 25,
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"story": 2,
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"summary": "Her mother dies and she bears a sickly premature child, leaves it with neighbours, claiming to be married, and returns to the farm aching constantly for it.",
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"predicament": "A young unmarried mother leaves her baby with others so she can keep working, and aches for it constantly."
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},
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{
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"chunk": 26,
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"story": 2,
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"summary": "Teased about her supposed husband, she works like two, cuts waste and drives hard bargains until her master trusts her with the whole farm's business and calls her worth her weight in gold.",
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"predicament": "A servant with a hidden child to support makes herself indispensable to her employer, hoping he will pay her more."
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},
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{
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"chunk": 27,
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"story": 2,
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"summary": "Her wages never rise though the farm prospers through her; she finally goes to ask for more, loses her nerve, and asks for a week's leave instead; her master says he will have something to say when she returns.",
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"predicament": "A servant whose hard work has enriched her employer tries to ask for a raise and loses her nerve at the last moment."
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},
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{
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"chunk": 28,
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"story": 2,
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"summary": "Her baby does not know her at first, then warms to her; she pours out her troubles to it, and on returning in tears is called into her master's room, where they sit in awkward silence.",
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"predicament": "A mother who sees her child only rarely finds it does not know her, then must go back to her employer."
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},
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{
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"chunk": 29,
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"story": 2,
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"summary": "The twice-widowed farmer awkwardly proposes, saying a farm needs a mistress and a thrifty girl like her would make a man's fortune.",
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"predicament": "A servant hiding a child is suddenly offered marriage by her employer, who plainly sees her as a good bargain."
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},
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{
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"chunk": 30,
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"story": 2,
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"summary": "She collapses and says she cannot; he gives her until morning, sure she will accept a match that binds so profitable a worker to him.",
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"predicament": "A servant refuses her employer's proposal without being able to say why, and he assumes she will come round."
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},
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{
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"chunk": 31,
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"story": 2,
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"summary": "She lies awake in terror, imagines she is bewitched, and at last climbs the fence and runs off across the moonlit fields crying out.",
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"predicament": "A woman trapped between an unwelcome proposal and a secret she cannot tell runs away into the night."
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},
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{
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"chunk": 32,
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"story": 2,
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"summary": "At dawn she wades into a pond to drown herself, but leeches on her legs drive her out screaming; a passing peasant tends her and drives her back to the farm.",
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"predicament": "A woman in despair tries to end her life, is turned back by chance, and is returned to the place she fled."
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},
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{
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"chunk": 33,
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"story": 2,
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"summary": "When she recovers the farmer demands an answer; she admits there may be a lover, and he names every young man around until he hits on the farmhand who left.",
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"predicament": "An employer refused in marriage interrogates his servant about a secret lover, naming suspects until he nearly guesses right."
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},
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{
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"chunk": 34,
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"story": 2,
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"summary": "She swears she would refuse the former lover if he came back that day; the farmer, puzzled, reasons that no girl would refuse her master over a slip that left no trace, and she still says she cannot.",
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"predicament": "A woman pressed about her secret swears to a half-truth and keeps refusing, while her questioner grows more suspicious."
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},
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{
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"chunk": 35,
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"story": 2,
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"summary": "That night the farmer comes to her bed and forces himself on her; they live as man and wife and he announces he has put up the banns.",
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"predicament": "A servant who refused her employer is forced by him at night and finds herself being married with no way to resist."
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},
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{
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"chunk": 36,
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"story": 2,
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"summary": "Married, she feels like someone who has robbed her husband and will be found out; she visits her child twice a year; years later he grows moody and seems to bear her a grudge.",
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"predicament": "A wife who married while hiding a child feels she has cheated her husband, and dreads the day he finds out."
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},
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{
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"chunk": 37,
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"story": 2,
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"summary": "When she snaps at a neighbour's boy, her husband says she would not treat her own child so; convinced he knows, she flees to the church to pray.",
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"predicament": "A wife with a hidden past hears a pointed remark from her husband and fears he has found out at last."
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},
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{
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"chunk": 38,
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"story": 2,
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"summary": "The priest says her husband has already told him the trouble; back home she throws herself at her husband's feet, and he shouts that his grievance is that she has given him no children.",
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"predicament": "A wife braced to be exposed learns her husband's real grievance is something else entirely: she has given him no children."
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},
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{
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"chunk": 39,
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"story": 2,
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"summary": "They try ashes in water, a shepherd's charmed loaf, a schoolmaster's secrets and a pilgrimage, all in vain, and she comes to believe she is being punished for her first sin.",
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"predicament": "A childless couple try every remedy anyone suggests, and the wife comes to believe she is being punished for an old sin."
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},
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{
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"chunk": 40,
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"story": 2,
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"summary": "He beats her nightly; at last she throws him off and cries that she has had a child by the farmhand who deserted her, and that he took her by force.",
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"predicament": "A wife beaten for being childless finally flings her long-kept secret in her husband's face: she already has a child."
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},
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{
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"chunk": 41,
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"story": 2,
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"summary": "He realises the barrenness is his own, then laughs and says they will fetch the child, since he had wanted to adopt one anyway, and is heartily glad.",
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"predicament": "A husband learns his wife hid a child from him and, against all her fears, welcomes it because it answers his own need."
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}
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]
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[
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{
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"chunk": 42,
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"story": 3,
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"summary": "A man reads a much-crossed letter from abroad at New Year and tells a friend how, twenty years before, his employer sent him off to inspect a wrecked ship instead of spending the holiday in the city.",
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"predicament": "A man receives his yearly letter from someone far away and is reminded of the chance meeting that began it."
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},
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{
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"chunk": 43,
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"story": 3,
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"summary": "With two hours to wait he wanders the old port town, then boards a small steamer for the island on a cold, foggy, dispiriting day.",
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"predicament": "A man sent alone on an errand over the holiday passes a gloomy day travelling among strangers."
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},
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{
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"chunk": 44,
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"story": 3,
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"summary": "Crossing a dead, flat sea, he questions the steamer's captain; his task is to judge for the insurers whether everything was done to refloat the stranded ship.",
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"predicament": "A man sent to judge a loss on behalf of those who must pay for it seeks the facts from someone who was there."
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},
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{
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"chunk": 45,
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"story": 3,
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"summary": "The captain points out the distant wreck and explains he can walk out to it dry-shod at low tide but must leave by a fixed hour or be caught by the returning sea.",
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"predicament": "A newcomer is told by a local exactly how long he can safely stay out before the danger returns."
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},
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{
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"chunk": 46,
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"story": 3,
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"summary": "After lunch he sets out across the vast drained sands, marvelling at the vanished sea, toward the wreck growing on the horizon like a stranded whale.",
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"predicament": "A man walks alone into a strange, empty place that is safe to cross for only a few hours."
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},
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{
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"chunk": 47,
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"story": 3,
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"summary": "He climbs into the shattered hull, full of sand, and sits taking notes, shivering at the loneliness and the scratching of crabs.",
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"predicament": "A man working alone in an abandoned place grows uneasy at every small sound around him."
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},
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{
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"chunk": 48,
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"story": 3,
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"summary": "Startled by voices, he finds an English traveller with three daughters; asked if he owns the ship, he says yes, lets them aboard, and is taken with the pretty eldest girl.",
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"predicament": "Surprised by strangers, a man passes himself off as the owner of the place and is charmed by a young visitor."
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},
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{
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"chunk": 49,
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"story": 3,
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"summary": "He tells the story of the wreck as though he had witnessed it; the family sketch the hold while he listens, enchanted, to the eldest girl talk, until she hears a sound.",
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"predicament": "A man showing strangers around embroiders a story he never witnessed, to hold the attention of a young woman."
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},
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{
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"chunk": 50,
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"story": 3,
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"summary": "The tide has surrounded the wreck; he stops the father from jumping into hidden channels, and they must wait aboard as night falls and the water deepens.",
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"predicament": "A man who lingered too long to impress a stranger realises he has trapped them all, with no way back."
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},
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{
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"chunk": 51,
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"story": 3,
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"summary": "Huddled against the stern in the freezing dark, he feels the girl trembling against him and is astonished to find himself happy to be in danger beside her.",
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"predicament": "In real danger beside a young stranger, a man finds he feels only a strange happiness at being close to her."
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},
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{
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"chunk": 52,
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"story": 3,
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"summary": "The youngest daughter sobs; he forces his cloak on the eldest; the wind rises and each wave shakes the rotten hull, and he longs to take her in his arms.",
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"predicament": "As the danger grows, a man presses his care on a young woman he barely knows and longs to hold her."
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},
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{
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"chunk": 53,
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"story": 3,
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"summary": "At midnight the father solemnly wishes him a happy New Year and the family sings their anthem into the dark; he asks the girl to sing alone, and her voice moves him.",
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"predicament": "Facing likely death together, a group of strangers keep up their courage with ceremony and song."
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},
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{
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"chunk": 54,
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"story": 3,
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"summary": "The wreck lurches and the girl falls on him; he kisses her, thinking it the end; a rescue boat sent by the innkeeper finds them, and he is sorry to be saved.",
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"predicament": "A man who snatched a kiss in what he thought were his last moments is rescued and finds he regrets the rescue."
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},
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{
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"chunk": 55,
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"story": 3,
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"summary": "The family leave the next day; he wanted to propose but did not; she married abroad and writes every New Year, never mentioning her husband, and he mourns the girl she was.",
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"predicament": "A man who let a brief chance at love slip past keeps it alive for years in yearly letters, regretting his hesitation."
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}
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]
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[
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{
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"chunk": 56,
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"story": 4,
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"summary": "A village carpenter who wins laughs by mocking the priest and working through Mass is the priest's secret rival of ten years, and may be elected mayor.",
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"predicament": "A man whose standing rests on openly mocking the local authority is locked in a long, quiet rivalry with it."
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},
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{
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"chunk": 57,
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"story": 4,
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||||
"summary": "The priest wins money to replace the church pews; the village teases the carpenter, the job goes to an outsider, and word spreads that his opinions are the only bar to his getting it.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A man learns a well-paid job he could do is going to an outsider, because of the opinions he has flaunted."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 58,
|
||||
"story": 4,
|
||||
"summary": "Greed drives the carpenter into the church at dusk, where he feels in his enemy's house; he stammers that he has come about the work while the priest pretends not to understand.",
|
||||
"predicament": "Greed drives a man to go cap in hand to his old rival, who pretends not to know what he has come for."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 59,
|
||||
"story": 4,
|
||||
"summary": "The priest feigns outrage that the parish's one unbeliever should ask, then names his price: the carpenter must take communion publicly at high Mass on Sunday.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A rival offers a man the work he wants on one condition: a public act that renounces everything he has boasted of."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 60,
|
||||
"story": 4,
|
||||
"summary": "The carpenter agrees, asks to put it off, and balks at the confessional box; the priest, now friendly, insists on two confessions first but lets him make them in the parlour.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A man who has agreed to humble himself for gain haggles over every detail of how publicly he must do it."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 61,
|
||||
"story": 4,
|
||||
"summary": "He shakes on the bargain, dreads it all the next day like a tooth-pulling, and at the parsonage is made to kneel, ashamed, not even knowing the opening prayer.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A man who traded his principles for a job must now kneel before his old rival and go through with it."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 62,
|
||||
"story": 4,
|
||||
"summary": "Questioned commandment by commandment, he says he loves God as much as he can, though maybe not more than his children or a hundred francs, and never swears except when angry.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A man forced to account for himself insists he is blameless while admitting, clause by clause, to every small failing."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 63,
|
||||
"story": 4,
|
||||
"summary": "He works on Sundays, calls himself an honest man while admitting he pads bills for rich customers, and denies lying while admitting he tells tales when it pays.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A man who calls himself honest admits, without seeing the contradiction, that he pads bills and bends the truth for gain."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 64,
|
||||
"story": 4,
|
||||
"summary": "He swears he has never deceived his wife, then admits visiting brothels in town, but always paying; he is absolved, does the work, and takes communion every month.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A man who swallowed his pride for profit gets what he wanted and keeps up the show of conversion ever after."
|
||||
}
|
||||
]
|
||||
@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
|
||||
[
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 65,
|
||||
"story": 5,
|
||||
"summary": "A dissolute soldier, broke and cut off by his father, takes leave to visit his pious sister and her mild husband, the only relatives he has never borrowed from, and privately judges the husband a fool.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A spendthrift in need of money visits the one set of relatives he has never borrowed from, and despises them on sight."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 66,
|
||||
"story": 5,
|
||||
"summary": "The soldier despises everything beyond cafes and women; his sister greets him coldly and, alone with him, lectures him on the drinking and debts she has heard about.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A spendthrift who came to borrow is met instead with a lecture on the debts and drinking his relatives have heard about."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 67,
|
||||
"story": 5,
|
||||
"summary": "Left to himself, he finds the town dead and regrets coming; the dinner is a meagre, greasy stew in a damp room, and his sister fusses that her husband is not made for society.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A pleasure-loving guest endures the dull, pious household of the relatives he needs money from, and counts the hours."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 68,
|
||||
"story": 5,
|
||||
"summary": "Faced with an evening of sermons and no coffee or liqueur, he invents an errand at the police station, escapes, and settles in the best cafe in town.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A guest who cannot stand another evening of his relatives' sermons invents an excuse and slips out to find some fun."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 69,
|
||||
"story": 5,
|
||||
"summary": "Bored by the quiet cafe, he drinks brandy until he wants a spree, gets an address for the town's girls from the waiter, and sets off unsure of the directions.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A half-drunk visitor looking for low amusement in a strange town gets directions and is not sure he has them right."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 70,
|
||||
"story": 5,
|
||||
"summary": "He walks into a well-lit house, is shown upstairs by a startled maid, and sits down among four ladies in evening dress who greet him with cool surprise.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A visitor who has walked into the wrong house mistakes a respectable gathering for a disreputable one and makes himself at home."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 71,
|
||||
"story": 5,
|
||||
"summary": "His brother-in-law walks in and the soldier, gleeful at catching him and already counting on a loan or blackmail, waltzes him round the room; it is the house of a senior judge, and the brother-in-law cries that he is mad.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A man who thinks he has caught a respectable relative in a scandal learns he is the one who has disgraced himself."
|
||||
}
|
||||
]
|
||||
@@ -0,0 +1,62 @@
|
||||
[
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 72,
|
||||
"story": 6,
|
||||
"summary": "A pretty woman from a family of clerks, married to a minor clerk, suffers constantly over her shabby flat and dreams of rich rooms, footmen and admiring men.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A pretty woman of modest means feels she was born for luxury and is tormented by the plainness of her life."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 73,
|
||||
"story": 6,
|
||||
"summary": "She dreams of fine dinners while her husband relishes his soup, and avoids her rich school friend out of envy; when he proudly brings home an invitation to an official ball, she throws it down.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A woman who avoids a richer friend out of envy is handed a coveted invitation and flings it aside in resentment."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 74,
|
||||
"story": 6,
|
||||
"summary": "She weeps that she has no gown, then calculates the largest sum she can ask without a refusal; her husband quietly gives up the savings he meant for a hunting gun.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A woman afraid of looking poor at a grand occasion asks her spouse for money he had saved for his own small pleasure."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 75,
|
||||
"story": 6,
|
||||
"summary": "With the gown ready she frets that she has no jewels and would rather not go than look poor; her husband suggests her rich friend, who lets her choose, and she falls for a diamond necklace.",
|
||||
"predicament": "Unwilling to look poor among the rich, a woman borrows a costly ornament from a wealthier friend to wear."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 76,
|
||||
"story": 6,
|
||||
"summary": "She is the success of the ball, courted by everyone; at four in the morning, ashamed of her shabby wraps beside the other women's furs, she hurries out before her husband can find a cab.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A woman who shone at a grand occasion in borrowed finery hurries away so no one sees her shabby everyday coat."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 77,
|
||||
"story": 6,
|
||||
"summary": "Home in a shabby cab, she finds the necklace gone; they search everywhere, neither took the cab's number, and her husband walks the route until dawn in vain.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A woman who borrowed a friend's valuable finds it gone after a night out, and must decide what to tell the owner."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 78,
|
||||
"story": 6,
|
||||
"summary": "After a week's search they write to the friend that the clasp is being mended, then hunt the jewellers for a match and find one for thirty-six thousand francs, half of it borrowed.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A couple who lost a borrowed valuable stall the owner with a lie and resolve to replace it at any cost."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 79,
|
||||
"story": 6,
|
||||
"summary": "He mortgages the rest of his life to usurers; the friend takes the replacement coolly without opening it; they dismiss the maid, move to a garret, and she learns the drudgery of the poor.",
|
||||
"predicament": "Rather than confess a loss to a friend, a couple ruin themselves secretly replacing it and sink into hard poverty."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 80,
|
||||
"story": 6,
|
||||
"summary": "After ten years of night work and haggling they have paid everything, and she has grown coarse and old; meeting her still-lovely friend in the park, she decides to tell her the whole story.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A woman worn out by years of paying for a hidden loss meets the friend who never knew, and decides to tell her."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 81,
|
||||
"story": 6,
|
||||
"summary": "She proudly explains that she replaced the lost necklace and it took ten years to pay; her friend, moved, tells her the original was paste worth five hundred francs at most.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A woman proudly confesses the ruinous sacrifice she made to hide a loss, and learns the thing was never worth it."
|
||||
}
|
||||
]
|
||||
@@ -0,0 +1,56 @@
|
||||
[
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 82,
|
||||
"story": 7,
|
||||
"summary": "A young nobleman tells friends how his pompous royalist father read at dinner that his mother's brother, a spendthrift freethinker living with women in a cheap flat, was dying.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A proud family learns that a disgraced relative they never mention is dying, and must decide what that means for their name."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 83,
|
||||
"story": 7,
|
||||
"summary": "The father stays home so as not to compromise his political position; the mother summons a priest, and they agree that the uncle dying without the sacraments would be a public disaster for the family and their party.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A respectable family worry less about a dying relative than about the scandal his unrepentant death would bring on them."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 84,
|
||||
"story": 7,
|
||||
"summary": "Mother, son and priest drive to the uncle's building; the son, sent ahead, gets past a suspicious porter and up to a fifth-floor door barred by a huge, dirty servant.",
|
||||
"predicament": "Sent ahead on an awkward family errand, a young man must talk his way past suspicious strangers guarding a door."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 85,
|
||||
"story": 7,
|
||||
"summary": "In the kitchen the servant says the uncle will not want a priest and that his lady friends are with him; the mother blushes scarlet, and the amused son offers to go in first.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A respectable woman come to reclaim a dying relative learns he is attended by the very company she disowns."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 86,
|
||||
"story": 7,
|
||||
"summary": "The priest hides behind the door while the son goes in and finds his uncle handsome and dignified in an armchair, guarded by two bold young women waiting for their omelette.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A young man meets for the first time the disgraced relative his family shunned, and finds him surprisingly dignified."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 87,
|
||||
"story": 7,
|
||||
"summary": "The uncle says it is the parents' fault they never met; the son gently explains why his mother cannot come in, and the uncle seems to soften until the priest steps out too soon and the uncle roars at him.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A go-between gently tries to reconcile a dying outcast with his family until their meddling ally barges in too soon."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 88,
|
||||
"story": 7,
|
||||
"summary": "The uncle drives the priest out as a robber of souls; the two women take their places at his side; the family retreat to the kitchen to argue over another approach, until a new uproar breaks out.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A dying man refuses the rites his family wants forced on him, and they regroup to find another way in."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 89,
|
||||
"story": 7,
|
||||
"summary": "The Protestant porter has brought his own minister to try his luck; the uncle is beside himself, the son throws both men out, and the servant runs in crying that the uncle is dying.",
|
||||
"predicament": "Rival parties compete to claim a dying man for their side, and his fury at all of them hastens his end."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 90,
|
||||
"story": 7,
|
||||
"summary": "The uncle collapses; the mother majestically orders the women out, the priest gives the last rites to what is probably a corpse, and the family give him a grand funeral praising his return to the faith.",
|
||||
"predicament": "Once a defiant relative is dead and cannot object, his family claim him publicly as one of their own."
|
||||
}
|
||||
]
|
||||
@@ -0,0 +1,86 @@
|
||||
[
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 91,
|
||||
"story": 8,
|
||||
"summary": "Summoned by telegram, the narrator arrives at the gasworks where a crowd of hundreds watches a new balloon being inflated for a night flight.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A guest arrives to join a daring venture that is being launched before a large, curious crowd."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 92,
|
||||
"story": 8,
|
||||
"summary": "He explains the balloon's new varnish and valve, all made in the pilot's own shops; self-appointed experts in the crowd predict it will come down before the city walls, and paper patches on small holes alarm the onlookers.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A builder launching an untried invention hears confident onlookers predict it will fail before it clears the town."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 93,
|
||||
"story": 8,
|
||||
"summary": "After dinner the basket is loaded with instruments, horns and food; it proves too heavy and one passenger has to climb out, much to his regret, before the pilot cuts the ropes.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A group setting out on a venture find there is not room for everyone, and one of them must stay behind."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 94,
|
||||
"story": 8,
|
||||
"summary": "The balloon shoots up over the city and the river; the pilot gloats over his varnish, and they tell whether they are rising by dropping cigarette papers.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A group lifted suddenly far above everyday life watch their friends and the world below shrink away."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 95,
|
||||
"story": 8,
|
||||
"summary": "At five hundred metres they hear wheels, whips, trains and children's voices distinctly, and answer the people calling up to them with their siren.",
|
||||
"predicament": "Travellers far above the world can still hear its ordinary noises clearly, and call back down to it."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 96,
|
||||
"story": 8,
|
||||
"summary": "As night falls they argue over which town they are passing, hear dogs and cattle raise the alarm below, and the narrator feels a well-being he has never known.",
|
||||
"predicament": "Travellers drifting with no fixed course debate where they are, and one feels a peace he has never known."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 97,
|
||||
"story": 8,
|
||||
"summary": "The crew keep the balloon level with pinches of sand, delighting in how it answers the smallest weight while remaining the slave of the wind; their siren terrifies sleeping peasants.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A crew handling something that answers every small touch but cannot be steered keep it aloft by constant small corrections."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 98,
|
||||
"story": 8,
|
||||
"summary": "They rise above the mist into starlight as the moon comes up below them, and float in a silent, weightless intoxication.",
|
||||
"predicament": "Cut off from the world below, a small group drift into a blissful state where nothing seems to matter."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 99,
|
||||
"story": 8,
|
||||
"summary": "All care forgotten, they climb to 2,350 metres; then the balloon plunges and they hurl out ballast, landing near a populous plain where strange lights flash on the rivers.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A group lost in blissful forgetfulness is jolted when their craft suddenly drops and they must act fast."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 100,
|
||||
"story": 8,
|
||||
"summary": "They mistake their racing shadow for a dog and steer by the pole star toward Belgium, calling out for directions; the narrator hears what he knows to be a strong wind.",
|
||||
"predicament": "An experienced traveller hears a sign of danger that the others, and even their leader, will not admit."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 101,
|
||||
"story": 8,
|
||||
"summary": "The pilot nudges him to keep quiet so as not to frighten the passengers, since a storm is pursuing them; they pass over the dazzling furnaces of a manufacturing town.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A leader who knows danger is coming keeps it quiet so as not to frighten the people in his care."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 102,
|
||||
"story": 8,
|
||||
"summary": "Dawn shows the fields racing past; peasants shout at them to come down, but they hold their course over an old canal city whose chimes greet them.",
|
||||
"predicament": "Travellers racing ahead of a storm are urged to come down, but hold their course as long as they can."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 103,
|
||||
"story": 8,
|
||||
"summary": "They sight the sea ahead with thunder behind them; the pilot orders everything packed and hunts for a landing as they skim over a canal and a farm, scattering the animals.",
|
||||
"predicament": "With open water ahead and a storm behind, a leader must bring his party down fast wherever he can."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 104,
|
||||
"story": 8,
|
||||
"summary": "They drop, drag the anchor through a beet field and bounce to a halt; wary peasants and curious cows gather, and they catch a train home just before the storm breaks.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A party makes a rough, frightening landing among wary strangers and escapes the storm with seconds to spare."
|
||||
}
|
||||
]
|
||||
@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
|
||||
[
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 105,
|
||||
"story": 9,
|
||||
"summary": "Two middle-aged friends dine on a summer evening; one laments growing old, and the other says he never noticed his own ageing until one simple, terrible revelation.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A middle-aged man who never felt himself growing old recalls the moment the truth was forced on him."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 106,
|
||||
"story": 9,
|
||||
"summary": "He recalls watching women bathe at a seaside resort twelve years earlier, and his first sight of a young woman who instantly seemed the one he was born to love.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A man recalls the first sight of a young woman who struck him at once as the one he was meant to love."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 107,
|
||||
"story": 9,
|
||||
"summary": "He is introduced and falls utterly in love, adoring even her gloves and veil; she is married, but her husband comes only at weekends and he gives the man no thought.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A man falls helplessly in love with a married woman and gives no thought at all to her husband."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 108,
|
||||
"story": 9,
|
||||
"summary": "He leaves for America after three months but keeps her image unchanged for twelve years; one spring, on a train, a stout mother with four girls asks whether he is the man she thinks.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A man who has kept a cherished memory unchanged for years is greeted by a stranger who seems to know him."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 109,
|
||||
"story": 9,
|
||||
"summary": "She is the woman he loved; he is stunned, takes her hand and weeps for her lost youth, while she cheerfully says she is only a mother now and that he too has gone white.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A man meets the woman he idealised for years and is shattered to find time has made her someone else."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 110,
|
||||
"story": 9,
|
||||
"summary": "He sees her old charm beginning in her eldest daughter, manages only commonplaces before his stop, and that night stares long into his mirror at his own old face.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A man shaken by how a former love has aged goes home and sees, at last, how much he has aged himself."
|
||||
}
|
||||
]
|
||||
@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
|
||||
[
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 111,
|
||||
"story": 10,
|
||||
"summary": "After a hunt dinner full of boastful tales, an old nobleman who never hunts explains that his family gave it up after his hunting-mad ancestor and that ancestor's brother lived for nothing else.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A man who refuses to share his company's favourite pastime explains, with a family story, why his line gave it up."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 112,
|
||||
"story": 10,
|
||||
"summary": "The two brothers would not stop a chase even for the birth of an heir; in a bitter winter the wolves grow bold and begin attacking people and stables.",
|
||||
"predicament": "Two brothers are so consumed by one passion that they will not interrupt it even for the birth of a child."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 113,
|
||||
"story": 10,
|
||||
"summary": "A huge pale wolf terrorises the province; the brothers' great hunts never find it, it strikes wherever they are not, and when it eats their own pigs they take it as an insult and begin to feel it has a man's mind.",
|
||||
"predicament": "Proud men whose repeated efforts to catch a menace keep failing take it as a personal insult, and begin to fear it."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 114,
|
||||
"story": 10,
|
||||
"summary": "The wolf breaks cover at dusk and the brothers race after it at a reckless gallop; the elder strikes his head on a branch and is killed outright.",
|
||||
"predicament": "In the heat of a reckless chase, a man sees his brother killed in an instant by their own haste."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 115,
|
||||
"story": 10,
|
||||
"summary": "Alone in the freezing wood with the body, the younger brother is seized by a fear he has never known; when the wolf crosses his path, his fear turns to rage and he gives chase with the corpse across his saddle.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A man alone in the dark with his brother's body feels terror, then turns it into rage when the enemy reappears."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 116,
|
||||
"story": 10,
|
||||
"summary": "In a moonlit valley he props his brother's body on a rock, crying 'Look, Jean!', strangles the wolf with his bare hands, and lays it at the dead man's feet.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A grieving man takes his revenge with his bare hands and makes his dead brother's body witness the triumph."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 117,
|
||||
"story": 10,
|
||||
"summary": "He rides home laughing and weeping; the widow raises her son to hate hunting, a horror passed down to the narrator; a lady listening says it is fine to have passions like that.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A family's grief over a reckless passion hardens into a lasting refusal, handed down to every later generation."
|
||||
}
|
||||
]
|
||||
@@ -0,0 +1,116 @@
|
||||
[
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 118,
|
||||
"story": 11,
|
||||
"summary": "The family who keep a mountain inn leave for the valley as winter closes the pass, leaving an old caretaker, a young one on his first winter, and a dog shut in till spring.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A young man takes on his first long, isolated stint minding a place, cut off from everyone until spring."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 119,
|
||||
"story": 11,
|
||||
"summary": "On the way down the young caretaker catches up with the mule carrying the family's daughter, who looks at him sadly, and hears none of the mother's long list of winter duties.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A young man about to be parted for months from the girl he loves hears nothing of the duties he is given."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 120,
|
||||
"story": 11,
|
||||
"summary": "At the head of the descent everyone says goodbye; the young man whispers to the girl not to forget those up above, and she barely breathes 'No'.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A young man parting for a long season from the girl he loves asks her, in a whisper, not to forget him."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 121,
|
||||
"story": 11,
|
||||
"summary": "Walking back, the old caretaker says winter is bearable if you accept it from the start, but the young man's thoughts follow the girl; next day he walks back to the pass to gaze down at her village.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A young man shut away for a long season keeps going to look toward the place where the girl he loves is."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 122,
|
||||
"story": 11,
|
||||
"summary": "He longs to go down while he still can; the two settle into cards and dominoes until four days of snow bury the inn and they must dig themselves out.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A young man longing to leave while he still can watches the last chance close as heavy snow shuts him in."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 123,
|
||||
"story": 11,
|
||||
"summary": "They divide the chores and never quarrel; one morning the old man goes hunting, and the young one, alone, sleeps late, then grows frightened of the solitude and goes out to meet him.",
|
||||
"predicament": "Left alone for a day in an isolated place, a young man finds the solitude suddenly frightening and goes looking for company."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 124,
|
||||
"story": 11,
|
||||
"summary": "He crosses the snow-levelled valley, glances down at the buried village, searches the glacier for his companion, and calls out at dusk with no answer.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A young man goes out to meet his companion at the expected hour and finds no sign of him anywhere."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 125,
|
||||
"story": 11,
|
||||
"summary": "Seized by fear of the cold and silence, he runs back sure the old man took another road, but the inn is cold and empty; he makes soup and keeps going out to look.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A young man, frightened by the emptiness, hurries home sure his missing companion will be there, and finds the house cold."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 126,
|
||||
"story": 11,
|
||||
"summary": "By the fire he pictures every accident that could have befallen the old man, knowing twenty guides could search a week without finding him, and resolves to set out at one in the morning.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A young man whose companion is missing pictures every disaster, knowing he alone cannot search so vast a wilderness."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 127,
|
||||
"story": 11,
|
||||
"summary": "He packs food, rope and axe, waits trembling for the clock, then sets out with the dog and climbs for five hours to a summit his companion used to hunt from, where he watches the dawn.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A young man sets out alone in the night to search for a missing companion, taking on a dangerous climb."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 128,
|
||||
"story": 11,
|
||||
"summary": "He searches all day, calling and listening, walks over thirty miles, and spends the night half frozen in a snow hole with the dog, waking in despair.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A searcher who has given everything to finding a lost companion is exhausted, freezing, and has still found nothing."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 129,
|
||||
"story": 11,
|
||||
"summary": "Afraid he will die too, he struggles back to the inn and sleeps like the dead, until a voice crying his name wakes him; he shouts into the dark and hears nothing.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A young man who gave up a search to save himself wakes to hear his lost companion's voice calling his name."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 130,
|
||||
"story": 11,
|
||||
"summary": "He bolts the door, certain the old man has just died calling to him, whether in farewell or to curse the one who did not search hard enough, and that the ghost will haunt the inn until the body is buried.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A young man is convinced his dead companion is reproaching him for not searching harder, and is haunted by the guilt."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 131,
|
||||
"story": 11,
|
||||
"summary": "By day he sits tortured by the thought of the body in the snow; by night he paces, too afraid to open the door or lie in bed, until the cry comes again and he falls backward in terror.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A young man alone with his guilt dreads each night, certain the one he failed will come calling again."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 132,
|
||||
"story": 11,
|
||||
"summary": "The dog bristles and growls at the door; the young man brandishes a chair at the unseen visitor, then drinks glass after glass of brandy until his courage returns.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A terrified young man shut in alone turns to drink to quiet his fear of what he believes waits outside."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 133,
|
||||
"story": 11,
|
||||
"summary": "For weeks he lives drunk to blot out the voice, until the brandy runs out and the terror returns worse, and he paces like a caged beast, defying the thing through the wall.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A man drowning guilt and fear in drink runs out of it, and finds the terror waiting for him, worse than before."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 134,
|
||||
"story": 11,
|
||||
"summary": "He flings the door open to face the caller, is driven back by the wind and bolts it, not seeing the dog run out; hearing scratching and wailing, he barricades the door and windows with furniture.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A man half mad with fear shuts out his only companion by mistake and barricades himself against its cries."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 135,
|
||||
"story": 11,
|
||||
"summary": "Days of howling back and forth end in silence and an empty-headed sleep; in spring the family return, surprised no one came down, and find a torn animal skeleton by the door.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A family returning after a long absence find signs that something has gone terribly wrong with those they left behind."
|
||||
},
|
||||
{
|
||||
"chunk": 136,
|
||||
"story": 11,
|
||||
"summary": "They batter down the barricaded door and find a ragged, white-haired man they do not recognise until the daughter cries his name; he is mad, the old man is never found, and the girl nearly dies that summer.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A family break into their shut-up house and find the young man they left in charge changed past recognition by solitude."
|
||||
}
|
||||
]
|
||||
Reference in New Issue
Block a user