{"id":"01KG6YH3QH7WBHG2KYWDNKJAF5","cid":"bafkreieacudpberypw3q3hr3d24hgfic2ser26y2kwedvklyrh7lfcauce","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":5683,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:45.581Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 13","source_file":"01KG6YDD8GKW0DRD5H2MY1NRZ7","start_line":5596,"text":"Standard, now suddenly shifting the subject.\r\n\r\n\"Not a word of that, for heaven's sake!\" cried I. \"If Cicero, traveling\r\nin the East, found sympathetic solace for his grief in beholding the\r\narid overthrow of a once gorgeous city, shall not my petty affair be as\r\nnothing, when I behold in Hautboy the vine and the rose climbing the\r\nshattered shafts of his tumbled temple of Fame?\"\r\n\r\nNext day I tore all my manuscripts, bought me a fiddle, and went to\r\ntake regular lessons of Hautboy.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nPOOR MAN'S PUDDING AND RICH MAN'S CRUMBS\r\n\r\n\r\nPICTURE FIRST\r\n\r\nPOOR MAN'S PUDDING\r\n\r\n\"You see,\" said poet Blandmour, enthusiastically--as some forty years\r\nago we walked along the road in a soft, moist snowfall, toward the\r\nend of March--\"you see, my friend, that the blessed almoner, Nature,\r\nis in all things beneficent; and not only so, but considerate in\r\nher charities, as any discreet human philanthropist might be. This\r\nsnow, now, which seems so unseasonable, is in fact just what a poor\r\nhusbandman needs. Rightly is this soft March snow, falling just before\r\nseed-time, rightly it is called 'Poor Man's Manure.' Distilling from\r\nkind heaven upon the soil, by a gentle penetration it nourishes every\r\nclod, ridge, and furrow. To the poor farmer it is as good as the rich\r\nfarmer's farmyard enrichments. And the poor man has no trouble to\r\nspread it, while the rich man has to spread his.\"\r\n\r\n\"Perhaps so,\" said I, without equal enthusiasm, brushing some of the\r\ndamp flakes from my chest. \"It may be as you say, dear Blandmour. But\r\ntell me, how is it that the wind drives yonder drifts of 'Poor Man's\r\nManure' off poor Coulter's two-acre patch here, and piles it up yonder\r\non rich Squire Teamster's twenty-acre field?\"\r\n\r\n\"Ah! to be sure--yes--well; Coulter's field, I suppose is sufficiently\r\nmoist without further moistenings. Enough is as good as a feast, you\r\nknow.\"\r\n\r\n\"Yes,\" replied I, \"of this sort of damp fare,\" shaking another shower\r\nof the damp flakes from my person. \"But tell me, this warm spring snow\r\nmay answer very well, as you say; but how is it with the cold snows of\r\nthe long, long winters here?\"\r\n\r\n\"Why, do you not remember the words of the Psalmist?--'The Lord giveth\r\nsnow like wool'; meaning not only that snow is white as wool, but\r\nwarm, too, as wool. For the only reason, as I take it, that wool is\r\ncomfortable, is because air is entangled, and therefore warmed among\r\nits fibres. Just so, then, take the temperature of a December field\r\nwhen covered with this snow-fleece, and you will no doubt find it\r\nseveral degrees above that of the air. So, you see, the winter's snow\r\n_itself_ is beneficent; under the pretense of frost--a sort of gruff\r\nphilanthropist--actually warming the earth, which afterward is to be\r\nfertilizingly moistened by these gentle flakes of March.\"\r\n\r\n\"I like to hear you talk, dear Blandmour; and, guided by your\r\nbenevolent heart, can only wish to poor Coulter plenty of this 'Poor\r\nMan's Manure.'\"\r\n\r\n\"But that is not all,\" said Blandmour, eagerly. \"Did you never hear of\r\nthe 'Poor Man's Eye-water'?\"\r\n\r\n\"Never.\"\r\n\r\n\"Take this soft March snow, melt it, and bottle it. It keeps pure as\r\nalcohol. The very best thing in the world for weak eyes. I have a whole\r\ndemijohn of it myself. But the poorest man, afflicted in his eyes, can\r\nfreely help himself to this same all-bountiful remedy. Now, what a kind\r\nprovision is that!\"\r\n\r\n\"Then 'Poor Man's Manure' is 'Poor Man's Eye-water' too?\"\r\n\r\n\"Exactly. And what could be more economically contrived? One thing\r\nanswering two ends--ends so very distinct.\"\r\n\r\n\"Very distinct, indeed.\"\r\n\r\n\"Ah! that is your way. Making sport of earnest. But never mind. We have\r\nbeen talking of snow; but common rain-water--such as falls all the year\r\nround--is still more kindly. Not to speak of its known fertilizing\r\nquality as to fields, consider it in one of its minor lights. Pray, did\r\nyou ever hear of a 'Poor Man's Egg'?\"\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 13"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6YGBGKG15EQNWSZXFWPM05","peer_type":"segment","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6YDD8GKW0DRD5H2MY1NRZ7","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG6YCG626JN4FCG8QK17CQCF","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6YH3QH81TJ5N8B72S2QC6T","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6YH4FXC3P2EQ0HKHNQ5CRT","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:50.705Z","ts":"2026-01-30T07:57:55.921Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}