suspect, to see my chimney than me) I then stand, not so much
before, as, strictly speaking, behind my chimney, which is,
indeed, the true host. Not that I demur. In the presence of my
betters, I hope I know my place.

From this habitual precedence of my chimney over me, some even
think that I have got into a sad rearward way altogether; in
short, from standing behind my old- fashioned chimney so much, I
have got to be quite behind the age too, as well as running
behindhand in everything else. But to tell the truth, I never was
a very forward old fellow, nor what my farming neighbors call a
forehanded one. Indeed, those rumors about my behindhandedness
are so far correct, that I have an odd sauntering way with me
sometimes of going about with my hands behind my back. As for my
belonging to the rear-guard in general, certain it is, I bring up
the rear of my chimney--which, by the way, is this moment before
me--and that, too, both in fancy and fact. In brief, my chimney
is my superior; my superior, too, in that humbly bowing over with
shovel and tongs, I much minister to it; yet never does it
minister, or incline over to me; but, if anything, in its
settlings, rather leans the other way.

My chimney is grand seignior here--the one great domineering
object, not more of the landscape, than of the house; all the
rest of which house, in each architectural arrangement, as may
shortly appear, is, in the most marked manner, accommodated, not
to my wants, but to my chimney's, which, among other things, has
the centre of the house to himself, leaving but the odd holes and
corners to me.