from Maine Lingo: Boiled Owls, Billdads, & Wazzats by John Gould
WOODBOX: The kitchen box for firewood which has additional duties in transferred usage. To be “sick a-bed in the woodbox” is to be laid up with a minor complaint which, although distressing, doesn’t put you to bed. To be flabbergasted by sudden bad news is to be “knocked clearn into the woodbox” by surprise. To get “hit in the woodbox” is somewhat like taking a poke in the breadbasket. (See snow in the woodbox.)
SNOW IN THE WOODBOX: Used to describe somebody down to the depths of poverty. If you’ve got snow in your woodbox, the Ladies’ Aid will bring you a Christmas basket.
CLEARN: Extra fillip for clear: “He’s a hundred percent honest clearn through.”