{"id":"01KG8AM79FXMD5ZS8SBGFJ1CYT","cid":"bafkreia3lsozgnoeuegzoa3e2i4wk2exrtulno2hzvfq2sonszfkdqeyv4","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":9140,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:26.985Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 6","source_file":"01KG89J1FFTGRE9J93Z3K29NGY","start_line":9088,"text":"‘Gold-digging, sir?’\r\n\r\n‘Nay, sir,’ answered I, starting, ‘I was merely--ahem! merely--I say I\r\nwas merely digging--round my chimney.’\r\n\r\n‘Ah, loosening the soil, to make it grow. Your chimney, sir, you regard\r\nas too small, I suppose; needing further development, especially at the\r\ntop?’\r\n\r\n‘Sir!’ said I, throwing down the spade, ‘do not be personal. I and my\r\nchimney----’\r\n\r\n‘Personal?’\r\n\r\n‘Sir, I look upon this chimney less as a pile of masonry than as a\r\npersonage. It is the king of the house. I am but a suffered and inferior\r\nsubject.’\r\n\r\nIn fact, I would permit no gibes to be cast at either myself or my\r\nchimney; and never again did my visitor refer to it in my hearing,\r\nwithout coupling some compliment with the mention. It well deserves a\r\nrespectful consideration. There it stands, solitary and alone--not a\r\ncouncil-of-ten flues, but, like his sacred majesty of Russia, a unit of\r\nan autocrat.\r\n\r\nEven to me, its dimensions, at times, seem incredible. It does not look\r\nso big--no, not even in the cellar. By the mere eye, its magnitude can\r\nbe but imperfectly comprehended, because only one side can be received\r\nat one time; and said side can only present twelve feet, linear measure.\r\nBut then, each other side also is twelve feet long; and the whole\r\nobviously forms a square; and twelve times twelve is one hundred and\r\nforty-four. And so, an adequate conception of the magnitude of this\r\nchimney is only to be got at by a sort of process in the higher\r\nmathematics, by a method somewhat akin to those whereby the surprising\r\ndistances of fixed stars are computed.\r\n\r\nIt need hardly be said, that the walls of my house are entirely free\r\nfrom fireplaces. These all congregate in the middle--in the one grand\r\ncentral chimney, upon all four sides of which are hearths--two tiers of\r\nhearths--so that when, in the various chambers, my family and guests are\r\nwarming themselves of a cold winter’s night, just before retiring, then,\r\nthough at the time they may not be thinking so, all their faces mutually\r\nlook towards each other, yea, all their feet point to one centre; and,\r\nwhen they go to sleep in their beds, they all sleep round one warm\r\nchimney, like so many Iroquois Indians, in the woods, round their one\r\nheap of embers. And just as the Indians’ fire serves, not only to keep\r\nthem comfortable, but also to keep off wolves and other savage monsters,\r\nso my chimney, by its obvious smoke at top, keeps off prowling burglars\r\nfrom the towns--for what burglar or murderer would dare break into an\r\nabode from whose chimney issues such a continual smoke--betokening that\r\nif the inmates are not stirring, at least fires are, and in case of an\r\nalarm, candles may readily be lighted, to say nothing of muskets.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 6"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJWC2XZP9WWPK8DAFVAR9","peer_type":"segment","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1FFTGRE9J93Z3K29NGY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AM79FAKCTT61FV58VZGJS","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AM79MPVG3NJPXJE7032VG","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:29.999Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:43.428Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}