{"id":"01KG8AK781YWSCCYK0EXERQM8V","cid":"bafkreibuabyrsaei37haw2ab7nb2jfbfhy23wu2tzp6bkxlth2qyv2p66u","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":1219,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:56.335Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J1C1N72JCD0ZBGTBX0EX","start_line":1167,"text":"this charming Cherry says to me--\"I see you spend your mornings in the\r\nhaymow; and yesterday I found there Dwight's _Travels in New England_.\r\nNow I have something far better than that, something more congenial to\r\nour summer on these hills. Take these raspberries, and then I will give\r\nyou some moss.\" \"Moss!\" said I. \"Yes, and you must take it to the barn\r\nwith you, and good-by to Dwight.\"\r\n\r\nWith that she left me, and soon returned with a volume, verdantly\r\nbound, and garnished with a curious frontispiece in green; nothing\r\nless than a fragment of real moss, cunningly pressed to a fly-leaf.\r\n\"Why, this,\" said I, spilling my raspberries, \"this is the _Mosses from\r\nan Old Manse_.\" \"Yes,\" said cousin Cherry, \"yes, it is that flowery\r\nHawthorne.\" \"Hawthorne and Mosses,\" said I, \"no more it is morning: it\r\nis July in the country: and I am off for the barn.\"\r\n\r\nStretched on that new mown clover, the hillside breeze blowing over\r\nme through the wide barn door, and soothed by the hum of the bees in\r\nthe meadows around, how magically stole over me this Mossy Man! and\r\nhow amply, how bountifully, did he redeem that delicious promise to\r\nhis guests in the Old Manse, of whom it is written: \"Others could give\r\nthem pleasure, or amusement, or instruction--these could be picked\r\nup anywhere; but it was for me to give them rest--rest, in a life of\r\ntrouble! What better could be done for those weary and world-worn\r\nspirits? ... what better could be done for anybody who came within our\r\nmagic circle than to throw the spell of a tranquil spirit over him?\" So\r\nall that day, half-buried in the new clover, I watched this Hawthorne's\r\n\"Assyrian dawn, and Paphian sunset and moonrise from the summit of our\r\neastern hill.\"\r\n\r\nThe soft ravishments of the man spun me round about in a web of dreams,\r\nand when the book was closed, when the spell was over, this wizard\r\n\"dismissed me with but misty reminiscences, as if I had been dreaming\r\nof him.\"\r\n\r\nWhat a wild moonlight of contemplative humor bathes that Old\r\nManse!--the rich and rare distilment of a spicy and slowly-oozing\r\nheart. No rollicking rudeness, no gross fun fed on fat dinners, and\r\nbred in the lees of wine,--but a humor so spiritually gentle, so\r\nhigh, so deep, and yet so richly relishable, that it were hardly\r\ninappropriate in an angel. It is the very religion of mirth; for\r\nnothing so human but it may be advanced to that. The orchard of the\r\nOld Manse seems the visible type of the fine mind that has described\r\nit--those twisted and contorted old trees, \"they stretch out their\r\ncrooked branches, and take such hold of the imagination that we\r\nremember them as humorists and odd-fellows.\" And then, as surrounded\r\nby these grotesque forms, and hushed in the noonday repose of this\r\nHawthorne's spell, how aptly might the still fall of his ruddy thoughts\r\ninto your soul be symbolized by: \"In the stillest afternoon, if I\r\nlistened, the thump of a great apple was audible, falling without a\r\nbreath of wind, from the mere necessity of perfect ripeness.\" For no\r\nless ripe than ruddy are the apples of the thoughts and fancies in this\r\nsweet Man of Mosses.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJJJHK56PS5G4VD1NXGJ7","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1C1N72JCD0ZBGTBX0EX","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AK77VKVW6SYNM6P95WPGR","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AK781WQ6A58MSN108MW3V","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:57.185Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:04.802Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}