{"id":"01KG6GMPF3W9NV7HZQXJ8H8T1W","cid":"bafkreic4nicaycjxasbtjdcuxwmmjtorzqaxn2fbbvg7gzee2w2jyq7ayi","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":8981,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T03:55:03.883Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 3","source_file":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","start_line":8930,"text":"sends for his architect and claps a fifth and a sixth story on top of\r\nhis previous four. And, not till the gentleman has achieved his\r\naspiration, not till he has stolen over the way by twilight and observed\r\nhow his sixth story soars beyond his neighbour’s fifth--not till then\r\ndoes he retire to his rest with satisfaction.\r\n\r\nSuch folks, it seems to me, need mountains for neighbours, to take this\r\nemulous conceit of soaring out of them.\r\n\r\nIf, considering that mine is a very wide house, and by no means lofty,\r\naught in the above may appear like interested pleading, as if I did but\r\nfold myself about in the cloak of a general proposition, cunningly to\r\ntickle my individual vanity beneath it, such misconception must vanish\r\nupon my frankly conceding, that land adjoining my alder swamp was sold\r\nlast month for ten dollars an acre, and thought a rash purchase at that;\r\nso that for wide houses hereabouts there is plenty of room, and cheap.\r\nIndeed so cheap--dirt cheap--is the soil, that our elms thrust out their\r\nroots in it, and hang their great boughs over it, in the most lavish and\r\nreckless way. Almost all our crops, too, are sown broadcast, even peas\r\nand turnips. A farmer among us, who should go about his twenty-acre\r\nfield, poking his finger into it here and there, and dropping down a\r\nmustard seed, would be thought a penurious, narrow-minded husbandman.\r\nThe dandelions in the river meadows, and the forget-me-nots along the\r\nmountain roads, you see at once they are put to no economy in space.\r\nSome seasons, too, our rye comes up here and there a spear, sole and\r\nsingle like a church-spire. It doesn’t care to crowd itself where it\r\nknows there is such a deal of room. The world is wide, the world is all\r\nbefore us, says the rye. Weeds, too, it is amazing how they spread. No\r\nsuch thing as arresting them--some of our pastures being a sort of\r\nAlsatia for the weeds. As for the grass, every spring it is like\r\nKossuth’s rising of what he calls the peoples. Mountains, too, a regular\r\ncamp-meeting of them. For the same reason, the same all-sufficiency of\r\nroom, our shadows march and countermarch, going through their various\r\ndrills and masterly evolutions, like the old imperial guard on the Champ\r\nde Mars. As for the hills, especially where the roads cross them, the\r\nsupervisors of our various towns have given notice to all concerned,\r\nthat they can come and dig them down and cart them off, and never a cent\r\nto pay, no more than for the privilege of picking blackberries. The\r\nstranger who is buried here, what liberal-hearted landed proprietor\r\namong us grudges him his six feet of rocky pasture?\r\n\r\nNevertheless, cheap, after all, as our land is, and much as it is\r\ntrodden under foot, I, for one, am proud of it for what it bears; and\r\nchiefly for its three great lions--the Great Oak, Ogg Mountain, and my\r\nchimney.\r\n\r\nMost houses here are but one and a half stories high; few exceed two.\r\nThat in which I and my chimney dwell, is in width nearly twice its\r\nheight, from sill to eaves--which accounts for the magnitude of its main\r\ncontent--besides showing that in this house, as in this country at\r\nlarge, there is abundance of space, and to spare, for both of us.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 3"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6GKZ3MPDDZB30GXGTJ7ATV","peer_type":"section","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG2T49K0H5GDRB0G4YDTPG8H","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6GMPEZ0QAKA91RPCT5BKX6","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6GMQ4W5T4WER6GVDM8GNF7","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T03:55:08.131Z","ts":"2026-01-30T03:55:19.767Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}