{"id":"01KG6GMNZQETSSMXDAX5BAQQJM","cid":"bafkreigtzlavgvhnqwrjv7vvq2e3mcolqgxdxaolwqgbg52uence3z2bgy","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":3806,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T03:55:03.879Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","start_line":3754,"text":"her cheeks--this delightful creature, this charming Cherry says to\r\nme--‘I see you spend your mornings in the haymow; and yesterday I found\r\nthere Dwight’s _Travels in New England_. Now I have something far better\r\nthan that, something more congenial to our summer on these hills. Take\r\nthese raspberries, and then I will give you some moss.’ ‘Moss!’ said I.\r\n‘Yes, and you must take it to the barn with you, and good-bye to\r\nDwight.’\r\n\r\nWith that she left me, and soon returned with a volume, verdantly bound,\r\nand garnished with a curious frontispiece in green; nothing less than a\r\nfragment of real moss, cunningly pressed to a fly-leaf. ‘Why, this,’\r\nsaid I, spilling my raspberries, ‘this is the _Mosses from an Old\r\nManse_.’ ‘Yes,’ said cousin Cherry, ‘yes, it is that flowery Hawthorne.’\r\n‘Hawthorne and Mosses,’ said I, ‘no more it is morning: it is July in\r\nthe country: and I am off for the barn.’\r\n\r\nStretched on that new-mown clover, the hill-side breeze blowing over me\r\nthrough the wide barn door, and soothed by the hum of the bees in the\r\nmeadows around, how magically stole over me this Mossy Man! and how\r\namply, how bountifully, did he redeem that delicious promise to his\r\nguests in the Old Manse, of whom it is written: ‘Others could give them\r\npleasure, or amusement, or instruction--these could be picked up\r\nanywhere; but it was for me to give them rest--rest, in a life of\r\ntrouble! What better could be done for those weary and world-worn\r\nspirits?... what better could be done for anybody who came within our\r\nmagic circle than to throw the spell of a tranquil spirit over him?’ So\r\nall that day, half-buried in the new clover, I watched this Hawthorne’s\r\n‘Assyrian dawn, and Paphian sunset and moonrise from the summit of our\r\neastern hill.’\r\n\r\nThe soft ravishments of the man spun me round about in a web of dreams,\r\nand when the book was closed, when the spell was over, this wizard\r\n‘dismissed me with but misty reminiscences, as if I had been dreaming of\r\nhim.’\r\n\r\nWhat a wild moonlight of contemplative humour bathes that Old\r\nManse!--the rich and rare distilment of a spicy and slowly-oozing heart.\r\nNo rollicking rudeness, no gross fun fed on fat dinners, and bred in the\r\nlees of wine,--but a humour so spiritually gentle, so high, so deep, and\r\nyet so richly relishable, that it were hardly inappropriate in an angel.\r\nIt is the very religion of mirth; for nothing so human but it may be\r\nadvanced to that. The orchard of the Old Manse seems the visible type of\r\nthe fine mind that has described it--those twisted and contorted old\r\ntrees, ‘they stretch out their crooked branches, and take such hold of\r\nthe imagination that we remember them as humorists and odd-fellows.’ And\r\nthen, as surrounded by these grotesque forms, and hushed in the noonday\r\nrepose of this Hawthorne’s spell, how aptly might the still fall of his\r\nruddy thoughts into your soul be symbolised by: ‘In the stillest\r\nafternoon, if I listened, the thump of a great apple was audible,\r\nfalling without a breath of wind, from the mere necessity of perfect\r\nripeness.’ For no less ripe than ruddy are the apples of the thoughts\r\nand fancies in this sweet Man of Mosses.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6GKXWDXFM3DZHBPM1RWGSW","peer_type":"section","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG2T49K0H5GDRB0G4YDTPG8H","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6GMNZS2YGFF39QFAF0AT7G","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T03:55:07.639Z","ts":"2026-01-30T03:55:15.820Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}