{"id":"01KG8AK8N1C5S1BRKSMS874FQ6","cid":"bafkreicceikn7xrj5belactwg6nohr5nbfvdrudagvc56zfhexcvpwc5ii","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":2246,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:56.336Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J1C1N72JCD0ZBGTBX0EX","start_line":2180,"text":"I AND MY CHIMNEY\r\n\r\n\r\nI and my chimney, two grey-headed old smokers, reside in the country.\r\nWe are, I may say, old settlers here; particularly my old chimney,\r\nwhich settles more and more every day.\r\n\r\nThough I always say, _I and my chimney_, as Cardinal Wolsey used to\r\nsay, \"_I and my King_,\" yet this egotistic way of speaking, wherein I\r\ntake precedence of my chimney, is hereby borne out by the facts; in\r\neverything, except the above phrase, my chimney taking precedence of me.\r\n\r\nWithin thirty feet of the turf-sided road, my chimney--a huge,\r\ncorpulent old Harry VIII of a chimney--rises full in front of me and\r\nall my possessions. Standing well up a hillside, my chimney, like Lord\r\nRosse's monster telescope, swung vertical to hit the meridian moon, is\r\nthe first object to greet the approaching traveler's eye, nor is it the\r\nlast which the sun salutes. My chimney, too, is before me in receiving\r\nthe first-fruits of the seasons. The snow is on its head ere on my hat;\r\nand every spring, as in a hollow beech tree, the first swallows build\r\ntheir nests in it.\r\n\r\nBut it is within doors that the pre-eminence of my chimney is most\r\nmanifest. When in the rear room, set apart for that object, I stand\r\nto receive my guests (who, by the way call more, I suspect, to see\r\nmy chimney than me) I then stand, not so much before, as, strictly\r\nspeaking, behind my chimney, which is, indeed, the true host. Not that\r\nI demur. In the presence of my betters, I hope I know my place.\r\n\r\nFrom this habitual precedence of my chimney over me, some even think\r\nthat I have got into a sad rearward way altogether; in short, from\r\nstanding behind my old-fashioned chimney so much, I have got to be\r\nquite behind the age too, as well as running behindhand in everything\r\nelse. But to tell the truth, I never was a very forward old fellow,\r\nnor what my farming neighbors call a forehanded one. Indeed, those\r\nrumors about my behindhandedness are so far correct, that I have an odd\r\nsauntering way with me sometimes of going about with my hands behind\r\nmy back. As for my belonging to the rear-guard in general, certain\r\nit is, I bring up the rear of my chimney--which, by the way, is this\r\nmoment before me--and that, too, both in fancy and fact. In brief, my\r\nchimney is my superior; my superior by I know not how many heads and\r\nshoulders; my superior, too, in that humbly bowing over with shovel and\r\ntongs, I much minister to it; yet never does it minister, or incline\r\nover to me; but, if anything, in its settlings, rather leans the other\r\nway.\r\n\r\nMy chimney is grand seignior here--the one great domineering object,\r\nnot more of the landscape, than of the house; all the rest of which\r\nhouse, in each architectural arrangement, as may shortly appear, is,\r\nin the most marked manner, accommodated, not to my wants, but to my\r\nchimney's, which, among other things, has the centre of the house to\r\nhimself, leaving but the odd holes and corners to me.\r\n\r\nBut I and my chimney must explain; and as we are both rather obese, we\r\nmay have to expatiate.\r\n\r\nIn those houses which are strictly double houses--that is, where the\r\nhall is in the middle--the fireplaces usually are on opposite sides;\r\nso that while one member of the household is wanning himself at a fire\r\nbuilt into a recess of the north wall, say another member, the former's\r\nown brother, perhaps, may be holding his feet to the blaze before a\r\nhearth in the south wall--the two thus fairly sitting back to back. Is\r\nthis well? Be it put to any man who has a proper fraternal feeling.\r\nHas it not a sort of sulky appearance? But very probably this style\r\nof chimney building originated with some architect afflicted with a\r\nquarrelsome family.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJJJM9B1B6R0AVRGKYSED","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1C1N72JCD0ZBGTBX0EX","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AK8N1MV0F9WTHA9CT983F","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:58.625Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:06.007Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}