{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/a-hasty-inference",
 "title": "A Hasty Inference",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Ambrose Bierce",
 "poet_slug": "ambrose-bierce",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Black Beetles in Amber",
 "book_slug": "black-beetles-in-amber",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 83,
 "container": "Black Beetles in Amber",
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1892,
  "venue": "Black Beetles in Amber (1892)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/blackbeetlesinam00bier"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
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  "repo": "standardebooks/ambrose-bierce_poetry",
  "file": "black-beetles-in-amber.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
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   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12658",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12977",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/15599",
   "https://archive.org/details/collectedworksof04bierrich",
   "https://archive.org/details/collectedworksof05bierrich",
   "https://archive.org/details/collectedworksof08bierrich",
   "https://archive.org/details/shapesofclay00bier",
   "https://archive.org/details/blackbeetlesinam00bier",
   "https://archive.org/details/literarycalifor05mighgoog",
   "https://archive.org/details/cali07webb"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 32,
  "n_stanzas": 8,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 56,
  "max_indent": 1
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "The Devil one day, coming up from the Pit",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All grimy with perspiration,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Applied to Saint Peter and begged he’d admit",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Him a moment for consultation.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The Saint showed him in where the Master reclined",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On the throne where petitioners sought him;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Both bowed, and the Evil One opened his mind",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Concerning the business that brought him:",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“For ten million years I’ve been kept in a stew",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Because you have thought me immoral;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And though I have had my opinion of you,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You’ve had the best end of the quarrel.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“But now⁠—well, I venture to hope that the past",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With its misunderstandings we’ll smother;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And you, sir, and I, sir, be throned here at last",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As equals, the one to the other.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Indeed!” said the Master (I cannot convey",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A sense of his tone by mere letters)",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“What makes you presume you’ll be bidden to stay",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Up here on such terms with your betters?”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Why, sure you can’t mean it!” said Satan. “I’ve seen",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How Stanford and Crocker you’ve nourished,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And Huntington⁠—bless me! the three like a green",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Umbrageous great bay-tree have flourished.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "They are fat, they are rolling in gold, they command",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All sources and well-springs of power;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "You’ve given them houses, you’ve given them land⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Before them the righteous all cower.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“What of that?” “What of that?” cried the Father of Sin;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Why, I thought when I saw you were winking",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "At crimes such as theirs that perhaps you had been",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Converted to my way of thinking.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}