- description
- # COCK-A-DOODLE-DOO
## Overview
This is a segment of text extracted from the story "The Apple-Tree Table" by Herman Melville. It is part of the larger [The Apple-Tree Table and Other Sketches](arke:01KG6YFXZ62W4FVZVEZTBSQNZY) document. The segment spans lines 840-899 of the source file, [the_apple_tree_table_and_other_sketches.txt](arke:01KG6YDD8GKW0DRD5H2MY1NRZ7).
## Context
The segment is part of a collection of works by Herman Melville, stored in the [Melville](arke:01KG6YCG626JN4FCG8QK17CQCF) collection. It follows the segment labeled [PARADISE OF BACHELORS AND THE TARTARUS OF MAIDS](arke:01KG6YGAW387788QZ627RJBJFW) and precedes the segment labeled [THE FIDDLER](arke:01KG6YGAW8NKM3KY3M6C63834V).
## Contents
This segment describes the narrator's family's reaction to a mysterious ticking sound emanating from an old table. The narrator's daughters, Julia and Anna, believe the table is haunted by spirits. The narrator's wife is skeptical and seeks a rational explanation, suspecting bugs. The narrator initially dismisses the idea of spirits but becomes increasingly curious about the phenomenon. They decide to sit up with the table overnight to observe the source of the ticking.
- description_generated_at
- 2026-01-30T07:58:10.339Z
- description_model
- gemini-2.5-flash-lite
- description_title
- COCK-A-DOODLE-DOO
- end_line
- 899
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T07:57:25.113Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 840
- text
- "Not at all, my daughter. It is a very common thing for bugs to come
out of wood. You yourself must have seen them coming out of the ends of
the billets on the hearth."
"Ah, but that wood is almost fresh from the woodland. But the table is
at least a hundred years old."
"What of that?" said I, gayly. "Have not live toads been found in the
hearts of dead rocks, as old as creation?"
"Say what you will, papa, I feel it is spirits," said Julia. "Do, do
now, my dear papa, have that haunted table removed from the house."
"Nonsense," said I.
By another curious coincidence, the more they felt frightened, the more
I felt brave.
Evening came.
"This ticking," said my wife; "do you think that another bug will come
of this continued ticking?"
Curiously enough, that had not occurred to me before. I had not thought
of there being twins of bugs. But now, who knew; there might be even
triplets.
I resolved to take precautions, and, if there was to be a second bug,
infallibly secure it. During the evening, the ticking was again heard.
About ten o'clock I clapped a tumbler over the spot, as near as I could
judge of it by my ear. Then we all retired, and locking the door of the
cedar-parlor, I put the key in my pocket.
In the morning, nothing was to be seen, but the ticking was heard.
The trepidation of my daughters returned. They wanted to call in the
neighbors. But to this my wife was vigorously opposed. We should be the
laughing-stock of the whole town. So it was agreed that nothing should
be disclosed. Biddy received strict charges; and, to make sure, was not
allowed that week to go to confession, lest she should tell the priest.
I stayed home all that day; every hour or two bending over the table,
both eye and ear. Towards night, I thought the ticking grew more
distinct, and seemed divided from my ear by a thinner and thinner
partition of the wood. I thought, too, that I perceived a faint
heaving up, or bulging of the wood, in the place where I had placed
the tumbler. To put an end to the suspense, my wife proposed taking
a knife and cutting into the wood there; but I had a less impatient
plan; namely, that she and I should sit up with the table that night,
as, from present symptoms, the bug would probably make its appearance
before morning. For myself, I was curious to see the first advent of
the thing--the first dazzle of the chick as it chipped the shell.
The idea struck my wife not unfavorably. She insisted that both Julia
and Anna should be of the party, in order that the evidence of their
senses should disabuse their minds of all nursery nonsense. For that
spirits should tick, and that spirits should take unto themselves
the form of bugs, was, to my wife, the most foolish of all foolish
imaginations. True, she could not account for the thing; but she had
all confidence that it could be, and would yet be, somehow explained,
and that to her entire satisfaction. Without knowing it herself, my
- title
- COCK-A-DOODLE-DOO