{"id":"01KG6YGMRRAEEG55BK7HZN3ZYC","cid":"bafkreibnwfft4igybsr4jfpnalvfjmhybtqv2oww3oybqksnw6xjybcjji","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":525,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:35.240Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 4","source_file":"01KG6YDDFE1YJ2Q37Q9JT1AJVB","start_line":473,"text":"grumble, old man (she always calls me old man), it’s I, young I, that\r\nkeep you from stagnating.” Well, I suppose it is so. Yea, after all,\r\nthese things are well ordered. My wife, as one of her poor relations,\r\ngood soul, intimates, is the salt of the earth, and none the less the\r\nsalt of my sea, which otherwise were unwholesome. She is its monsoon,\r\ntoo, blowing a brisk gale over it, in the one steady direction of my\r\nchimney.\r\n\r\nNot insensible of her superior energies, my wife has frequently made me\r\npropositions to take upon herself all the responsibilities of my\r\naffairs. She is desirous that, domestically, I should abdicate; that,\r\nrenouncing further rule, like the venerable Charles V, I should retire\r\ninto some sort of monastery. But indeed, the chimney excepted, I have\r\nlittle authority to lay down. By my wife’s ingenious application of the\r\nprinciple that certain things belong of right to female jurisdiction, I\r\nfind myself, through my easy compliances, insensibly stripped by\r\ndegrees of one masculine prerogative after another. In a dream I go\r\nabout my fields, a sort of lazy, happy-go-lucky, good-for-nothing,\r\nloafing old Lear. Only by some sudden revelation am I reminded who is\r\nover me; as year before last, one day seeing in one corner of the\r\npremises fresh deposits of mysterious boards and timbers, the oddity of\r\nthe incident at length begat serious meditation. “Wife,” said I, “whose\r\nboards and timbers are those I see near the orchard there? Do you know\r\nanything about them, wife? Who put them there? You know I do not like\r\nthe neighbors to use my land that way, they should ask permission\r\nfirst.”\r\n\r\nShe regarded me with a pitying smile.\r\n\r\n“Why, old man, don’t you know I am building a new barn? Didn’t you know\r\nthat, old man?”\r\n\r\nThis is the poor old lady that was accusing me of tyrannizing over her.\r\n\r\nTo return now to the chimney. Upon being assured of the futility of her\r\nproposed hall, so long as the obstacle remained, for a time my wife was\r\nfor a modified project. But I could never exactly comprehend it. As far\r\nas I could see through it, it seemed to involve the general idea of a\r\nsort of irregular archway, or elbowed tunnel, which was to penetrate\r\nthe chimney at some convenient point under the staircase, and carefully\r\navoiding dangerous contact with the fireplaces, and particularly\r\nsteering clear of the great interior flue, was to conduct the\r\nenterprising traveler from the front door all the way into the\r\ndining-room in the remote rear of the mansion. Doubtless it was a bold\r\nstroke of genius, that plan of hers, and so was Nero’s when he schemed\r\nhis grand canal through the Isthmus of Corinth. Nor will I take oath,\r\nthat, had her project been accomplished, then, by help of lights hung\r\nat judicious intervals through the tunnel, some Belzoni or other might\r\nhave succeeded in future ages in penetrating through the masonry, and\r\nactually emerging into the dining-room, and once there, it would have\r\nbeen inhospitable treatment of such a traveler to have denied him a\r\nrecruiting meal.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 4"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6YGAG0XF41PYX0D598Y7TN","peer_type":"segment","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6YDDFE1YJ2Q37Q9JT1AJVB","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG6YCG626JN4FCG8QK17CQCF","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6YGMRRR37S3R3EGDJ2B16F","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6YGMRRARJQA929S162JHGM","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:35.384Z","ts":"2026-01-30T07:57:36.887Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}