{"id":"01KG6YGMRRJZTAB18J22A2FAWK","cid":"bafkreie6h3g6yo4445gbsxyrtw4bu5emn3nx6ude5iprvl64mdfhfmymny","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":381,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:35.240Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG6YDDFE1YJ2Q37Q9JT1AJVB","start_line":334,"text":"enough landing-place, I admit, but not attaining to the dignity of a\r\nhall. Now, as the front door is precisely in the middle of the front of\r\nthe house, inwards it faces the chimney. In fact, the opposite wall of\r\nthe landing-place is formed solely by the chimney; and hence-owing to\r\nthe gradual tapering of the chimney—is a little less than twelve feet\r\nin width. Climbing the chimney in this part, is the principal\r\nstaircase—which, by three abrupt turns, and three minor landing-places,\r\nmounts to the second floor, where, over the front door, runs a sort of\r\nnarrow gallery, something less than twelve feet long, leading to\r\nchambers on either hand. This gallery, of course, is railed; and so,\r\nlooking down upon the stairs, and all those landing-places together,\r\nwith the main one at bottom, resembles not a little a balcony for\r\nmusicians, in some jolly old abode, in times Elizabethan. Shall I tell\r\na weakness? I cherish the cobwebs there, and many a time arrest Biddy\r\nin the act of brushing them with her broom, and have many a quarrel\r\nwith my wife and daughters about it.\r\n\r\nNow the ceiling, so to speak, of the place where you enter the house,\r\nthat ceiling is, in fact, the ceiling of the second floor, not the\r\nfirst. The two floors are made one here; so that ascending this turning\r\nstairs, you seem going up into a kind of soaring tower, or lighthouse.\r\nAt the second landing, midway up the chimney, is a mysterious door,\r\nentering to a mysterious closet; and here I keep mysterious cordials,\r\nof a choice, mysterious flavor, made so by the constant nurturing and\r\nsubtle ripening of the chimney’s gentle heat, distilled through that\r\nwarm mass of masonry. Better for wines is it than voyages to the\r\nIndias; my chimney itself a tropic. A chair by my chimney in a November\r\nday is as good for an invalid as a long season spent in Cuba. Often I\r\nthink how grapes might ripen against my chimney. How my wife’s\r\ngeraniums bud there! Bud in December. Her eggs, too—can’t keep them\r\nnear the chimney, on account of the hatching. Ah, a warm heart has my\r\nchimney.\r\n\r\nHow often my wife was at me about that projected grand entrance-hall of\r\nhers, which was to be knocked clean through the chimney, from one end\r\nof the house to the other, and astonish all guests by its generous\r\namplitude. “But, wife,” said I, “the chimney—consider the chimney: if\r\nyou demolish the foundation, what is to support the superstructure?”\r\n“Oh, that will rest on the second floor.” The truth is, women know next\r\nto nothing about the realities of architecture. However, my wife still\r\ntalked of running her entries and partitions. She spent many long\r\nnights elaborating her plans; in imagination building her boasted hall\r\nthrough the chimney, as though its high mightiness were a mere spear of\r\nsorrel-top. At last, I gently reminded her that, little as she might\r\nfancy it, the chimney was a fact—a sober, substantial fact, which, in\r\nall her plannings, it would be well to take into full consideration.\r\nBut this was not of much avail.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6YGAG0XF41PYX0D598Y7TN","peer_type":"segment","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6YDDFE1YJ2Q37Q9JT1AJVB","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG6YCG626JN4FCG8QK17CQCF","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6YGMRP5R2E77S92F1GJXRD","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:35.384Z","ts":"2026-01-30T07:57:36.827Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}