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- 2026-01-30T03:48:16.153Z
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- 9994
- text
- But worst of all was that time I unexpectedly returned at early morning
from a visit to the city, and upon approaching the house, narrowly
escaped three brickbats which fell, from high aloft, at my feet.
Glancing up, what was my horror to see three savages, in blue jean
overalls, in the very act of commencing the long-threatened attack. Ay,
indeed, thinking of those three brickbats, I and my chimney have had
narrow escapes.
It is now some seven years since I have stirred from home. My city
friends all wonder why I don’t come to see them, as in former times.
They think I am getting sour and unsocial. Some say that I have become a
sort of mossy old misanthrope, while all the time the fact is, I am
simply standing guard over my mossy old chimney; for it is resolved
between me and my chimney, that I and my chimney will never surrender.
-----
Footnote 12:
In the margin of the MS. of this Essay, Melville’s wife wrote the
following note:--
‘All this about his wife, applied to his mother--who was very vigorous
and energetic about the farm, etc. The proposed removal of the chimney
is purely mythical.’
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