{"id":"01KG6G88AK7PH9YVZRVYPS7B6X","cid":"bafkreicgltjax6u222emnsagrbzexrly7yojyowejlraoeo6vpoczw32iq","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":9596,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T03:48:16.153Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 14","source_file":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","start_line":9523,"text":"answer, the next day, she gave me to understand that either she or the\r\nchimney must quit the house.\r\n\r\nFinding matters coming to such a pass, I and my pipe philosophised over\r\nthem a while, and finally concluded between us, that little as our\r\nhearts went with the plan, yet for peace’ sake, I might write out the\r\nchimney’s death-warrant, and, while my hand was in, scratch a note to\r\nMr. Scribe.\r\n\r\nConsidering that I, and my chimney, and my pipe, from having been so\r\nmuch together, were three great cronies, the facility with which my pipe\r\nconsented to a project so fatal to the goodliest of our trio; or rather,\r\nthe way in which I and my pipe, in secret, conspired together, as it\r\nwere, against our unsuspicious old comrade--this may seem rather\r\nstrange, if not suggestive of sad reflections upon us two. But, indeed,\r\nwe, sons of clay, that is my pipe and I, are no whit better than the\r\nrest. Far from us, indeed, to have volunteered the betrayal of our\r\ncrony. We are of a peaceable nature, too. But that love of peace it was\r\nwhich made us false to a mutual friend, as soon as his cause demanded a\r\nvigorous vindication. But I rejoice to add, that better and braver\r\nthoughts soon returned, as will now briefly be set forth.\r\n\r\nTo my note, Mr. Scribe replied in person.\r\n\r\nOnce more we made a survey, mainly now with a view to a pecuniary\r\nestimate.\r\n\r\n‘I will do it for five hundred dollars,’ said Mr. Scribe at last, again\r\nhat in hand.\r\n\r\n‘Very well, Mr. Scribe, I will think of it,’ replied I, again bowing him\r\nto the door.\r\n\r\nNot unvexed by this, for the second time, unexpected response, again he\r\nwithdrew, and from my wife and daughters again burst the old\r\nexclamations.\r\n\r\nThe truth is, resolve how I would, at the last pinch I and my chimney\r\ncould not be parted.\r\n\r\n‘So Holofernes will have his way, never mind whose heart breaks for it,’\r\nsaid my wife next morning, at breakfast, in that half-didactic,\r\nhalf-reproachful way of hers, which is harder to bear than her most\r\nenergetic assault. Holofernes, too, is with her a pet name for any fell\r\ndomestic despot. So, whenever, against her most ambitious innovations,\r\nthose which saw me quite across the grain, I, as in the present\r\ninstance, stand with however little steadfastness on the defence, she is\r\nsure to call me Holofernes, and ten to one takes the first opportunity\r\nto read aloud, with a suppressed emphasis, of an evening, the first\r\nnewspaper paragraph about some tyrannic day-labourer, who, after being\r\nfor many years the Caligula of his family, ends by beating his\r\nlong-suffering spouse to death, with a garret door wrenched off its\r\nhinges, and then, pitching his little innocents out of the window,\r\nsuicidally turns inward toward the broken wall scored with the butcher’s\r\nand baker’s bills, and so rushes headlong to his dreadful account.\r\n\r\nNevertheless, for a few days, not a little to my surprise, I heard no\r\nfurther reproaches. An intense calm pervaded my wife, but beneath which,\r\nas in the sea, there was no knowing what portentous movements might be\r\ngoing on. She frequently went abroad, and in a direction which I thought\r\nnot unsuspicious; namely, in the direction of New Petra, a griffin-like\r\nhouse of wood and stucco, in the highest style of ornamental art, graced\r\nwith four chimneys in the form of erect dragons spouting smoke from\r\ntheir nostrils; the elegant modern residence of Mr. Scribe, which he had\r\nbuilt for the purpose of a standing advertisement, not more of his taste\r\nas an architect, than his solidity as a master mason.\r\n\r\nAt last, smoking my pipe one morning, I heard a rap at the door, and my\r\nwife, with an air unusually quiet for her, brought me a note. As I have\r\nno correspondents except Solomon, with whom, in his sentiments, at\r\nleast, I entirely correspond, the note occasioned me some little\r\nsurprise, which was not diminished upon reading the following:--\r\n\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 14"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6G6QRNCH782S2B3576MSHF","peer_type":"article","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG2T49K0H5GDRB0G4YDTPG8H","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6G88AN8GZKEGK1DGH9Y23A","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6G88ANJFTJQKS1FAGDM1S0","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T03:48:20.435Z","ts":"2026-01-30T03:48:30.859Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}