[
 {
  "chunk": 14,
  "story": 2,
  "summary": "After a verse epigraph, the narrator argues that a boy raised under a sheltered life meets the world's dangers too late and too hard, like a puppy kept from soap.",
  "predicament": "A young man raised with every protection is about to meet all of the world's temptations at once, with nobody to warn him."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 15,
  "story": 2,
  "summary": "The boy, who never gave his parents a moment's worry, slips at his training, disappoints his family, and is sent out alone to his first posting.",
  "predicament": "A young man who never gave his family a moment's worry leaves them for his first post, with nobody left to fall back on."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 16,
  "story": 2,
  "summary": "The narrator's cynical creed: in this country good work goes to others, bad work goes unpunished, and the wise man takes nothing seriously.",
  "predicament": "In a new place where good work goes uncredited and bad work unpunished, a newcomer must decide how seriously to take anything at all."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 17,
  "story": 2,
  "summary": "The boy takes everything seriously, gambling, women and quarrels, losing money and health, and nobody tells him what everyone else knows.",
  "predicament": "A newcomer throws himself into every amusement and quarrel, losing money and health, and nobody tells him the rules everyone else knows."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 18,
  "story": 2,
  "summary": "After a season of excess a severe rebuke from his commanding officer makes him more wretched, and he privately believes himself ruined beyond redemption.",
  "predicament": "After a season of excess, a young man is scolded by someone above him and privately decides he is ruined beyond repair."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 19,
  "story": 2,
  "summary": "A woman's cruel remark tips him over; he goes off alone to shoot, and a senior officer who had tried to check him guesses the truth and recruits the narrator.",
  "predicament": "A senior colleague senses that a troubled young man has gone off to harm himself, and recruits a companion who can lie."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 20,
  "story": 2,
  "summary": "The two race thirty miles to the rest house and find it silent but for a lamp burning in daylight and the sound of flies.",
  "predicament": "Racing to reach a despairing young man in time, two companions arrive at his door and sense they may already be too late."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 21,
  "story": 2,
  "summary": "The boy has shot himself; the two go through the letters he wrote to his family, his commanding officer and a girl at home.",
  "predicament": "Two companions find the young man has killed himself, and read the despairing letters he left for his family and his superior."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 22,
  "story": 2,
  "summary": "The letters would break his parents' hearts, so the narrator proposes they say he died of cholera with them at his side.",
  "predicament": "Holding a dead man's letters that would break his family's hearts, two witnesses decide to replace the truth with a kind lie."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 23,
  "story": 2,
  "summary": "They draft a glowing false account of his death, strip his keepsakes, and cut a lock of the senior officer's hair to send as his.",
  "predicament": "Two witnesses forge a comforting account of a young man's death, down to the keepsakes his grieving family will expect to receive."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 24,
  "story": 2,
  "summary": "They burn the bedding, bury the body themselves, and settle how to time the story so it seems natural.",
  "predicament": "Having chosen a merciful lie, two companions destroy every trace of the truth and bury the dead man with their own hands."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 25,
  "story": 2,
  "summary": "They rehearse the story all day; the senior officer admits he once came close to the same end; they report the death to the commanding officer.",
  "predicament": "Two companions rehearse their false account until it holds, then report it to the one in charge, feeling like criminals."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 26,
  "story": 2,
  "summary": "Everyone forgets the boy within a fortnight; some blame the senior officer for denying a proper funeral; the mother writes a grateful letter.",
  "predicament": "The lie holds, the dead man is soon forgotten, and his grieving mother thanks the two who deceived her for their great kindness."
 }
]