{"id":"01KG6YH19A9RDGRBMKFXJBE3NZ","cid":"bafkreigy7lysopiyjnw4i5snnrj4wnozxwltusy4f5y2f35nbck6hdqmju","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":2696,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:45.581Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 7","source_file":"01KG6YDD8GKW0DRD5H2MY1NRZ7","start_line":2645,"text":"calls me old man), it's I, young I, that keep you from stagnating.\"\r\nWell, I suppose it is so. Yea, after all, these things are well\r\nordered. My wife, as one of her poor relations, good soul, intimates,\r\nis the salt of the earth, and none the less the salt of my sea, which\r\notherwise were unwholesome. She is its monsoon, too, blowing a brisk\r\ngale over it, in the one steady direction of my chimney.\r\n\r\nNot insensible of her superior energies, my wife has frequently made\r\nme propositions 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,\r\nI find 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\r\nis over 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 who 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\r\nwas for a modified project. But I could never exactly comprehend it.\r\nAs far as I could see through it, it seemed to involve the general\r\nidea of a sort of irregular archway, or elbowed tunnel, which was to\r\npenetrate the chimney at some convenient point under the staircase,\r\nand carefully avoiding dangerous contact with the fireplaces, and\r\nparticularly steering clear of the great interior flue, was to conduct\r\nthe enterprising 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 7"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6YGBGPFPH23W72RDZNFT0X","peer_type":"segment","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6YDD8GKW0DRD5H2MY1NRZ7","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG6YCG626JN4FCG8QK17CQCF","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6YH19AEMYDJFK00TAS4E73","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6YH19AQEWW8E8THBD7V4CZ","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:48.202Z","ts":"2026-01-30T07:57:53.815Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}