{"id":"01KG6GMJGG7G1T4TVDZMDD2D4B","cid":"bafkreidppgtgydq2bbfdedha6qtpiaex6sqi77nifaxl3oxmpxuw5dl4a4","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":6158,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T03:55:03.883Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 3","source_file":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","start_line":6072,"text":"quite mossy and toad-stooled with long lying bedded among the\r\naccumulated dead leaves of many autumns. They made a sad hissing, and\r\nvain spluttering enough.\r\n\r\n‘You must rest yourself here till dinner-time, at least,’ said the dame;\r\n‘what I have you are heartily welcome to.’\r\n\r\nI thanked her again, and begged her not to heed my presence in the\r\nleast, but go on with her usual affairs.\r\n\r\nI was struck by the aspect of the room. The house was old, and\r\nconstitutionally damp. The window-sills had beads of exuded dampness\r\nupon them. The shrivelled sashes shook in their frames, and the green\r\npanes of glass were clouded with the long thaw. On some little errand\r\nthe dame passed into an adjoining chamber, leaving the door partly open.\r\nThe floor of that room was carpetless, as the kitchen was. Nothing but\r\nbare necessaries were about me; and those not of the best sort. Not a\r\nprint on the wall; but an old volume of Doddridge lay on the smoked\r\nchimney-shelf.\r\n\r\n‘You must have walked a long way, sir; you sigh so with weariness.’\r\n\r\n‘No, I am not nigh so weary as yourself, I dare say.’\r\n\r\n‘Oh, but _I_ am accustomed to that; _you_ are not, I should think,’ and\r\nher soft, sad, blue eye ran over my dress. ‘But I must sweep these\r\nshavings away; husband made him a new ax-helve this morning before\r\nsunrise, and I have been so busy washing, that I have had no time to\r\nclear up. But now they are just the thing I want for the fire. They’d be\r\nmuch better, though, were they not so green.’\r\n\r\nNow if Blandmour were here, thought I to myself, he would call those\r\ngreen shavings ‘Poor Man’s Matches,’ or ‘Poor Man’s Tinder,’ or some\r\npleasant name of that sort.\r\n\r\n‘I do not know,’ said the good woman, turning round to me again, as she\r\nstirred among her pots on the smoky fire--‘I do not know how you will\r\nlike our pudding. It is only rice, milk, and salt boiled together.’\r\n\r\n‘Ah, what they call “Poor Man’s Pudding,” I suppose you mean.’\r\n\r\nA quick flush, half resentful, passed over her face.\r\n\r\n‘_We_ do not call it so, sir,’ she said, and was silent.\r\n\r\nUpbraiding myself for my inadvertence, I could not but again think to\r\nmyself what Blandmour would have said, had he heard those words and seen\r\nthat flush.\r\n\r\nAt last a slow, heavy footfall was heard; then a scraping at the door,\r\nand another voice said, ‘Come, wife; come, come--I must be back again in\r\na jiff--if you say I _must_ take all my meals at home, you must be\r\nspeedy; because the Squire---- Good-day, sir,’ he exclaimed, now first\r\ncatching sight of me as he entered the room. He turned toward his wife,\r\ninquiringly, and stood stock-still, while the moisture oozed from his\r\npatched boots to the floor.\r\n\r\n‘This gentleman stops here a while to rest and refresh: he will take\r\ndinner with us, too. All will be ready now in a trice: so sit down on\r\nthe bench, husband, and be patient, I pray. You see, sir,’ she\r\ncontinued, turning to me, ‘William there wants, of mornings, to carry a\r\ncold meal into the woods with him, to save the long one-o’clock walk\r\nacross the fields to and fro. But I won’t let him. A warm dinner is more\r\nthan pay for the long walk.’\r\n\r\n‘I don’t know about that,’ said William, shaking his head. ‘I have often\r\ndebated in my mind whether it really paid. There’s not much odds, either\r\nway, between a wet walk after hard work, and a wet dinner before it. But\r\nI like to oblige a good wife like Martha. And you know, sir, that women\r\nwill have their whimseys.’\r\n\r\n‘I wish they all had as kind whimseys as your wife has,’ said I.\r\n\r\n‘Well, I’ve heard that some women ain’t all maple-sugar; but, content\r\nwith dear Martha, I don’t know much about others.’\r\n\r\n‘You find rare wisdom in the woods,’ mused I.\r\n\r\n‘Now, husband, if you ain’t too tired, just lend a hand to draw the\r\ntable out.’\r\n\r\n‘Nay,’ said I; ‘let him rest, and let me help.’\r\n\r\n‘No,’ said William, rising.\r\n\r\n‘Sit still,’ said his wife to me.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 3"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6GKXW75HFSDG7XY8DT06R3","peer_type":"section","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG2T49K0H5GDRB0G4YDTPG8H","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6GMJGGMF525W316PV122N4","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6GMJGHWK6015XE948AYEFE","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T03:55:04.080Z","ts":"2026-01-30T03:55:18.116Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}