I just finished reading Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Twenty Days with Julian and Little Bunny by Papa. This short book, 74 pages, was taken from his notebooks. It is about his having to tend to his son and his son’s rabbit (named by Julian, his child) for twenty days, during the absence of his wife.

The book is, for sure, a series of well-written dispatches. And dispatches they are, because he sees himself as being in a war zone of sorts, in having for what to him seems a great length of time, for Julian and Hindquarters.

Our road

I found myself empathizing for Hindquarters. Hawthorne considers him to be a bother and gives him away. The rabbit doesn’t fare well, so he takes him back. On the last page of the book, before his wife Pheobe returns, Hindquarters convulses and dies. I felt a pang of remorse in reading this – the rabbit grew on me.

As for Hawthorne’s lamentable who as when it came to child rearing. I wanted to shake him and say, “get a life,” for he complains a lot about having to tend to this child. For instance, he writes about the child’s endless prattling and babbling, and as well, about the arduous nature of having to care for Hindquarters.

No woman would ever write a book like this. This book is about a man who has been inconvenienced. Women who end up spending any length of time with their kids just grin and bear it.

I kept reading because this is at the same time a very funny book, maybe because Hawthorne is being honest about the considerable hardship that he must, for twenty long days, endure.

It was a good day to be reading this book. For a better part of the day the temperatures were in the high 30s and the cloud cover made the landscape look flat. It was also a good day to be packing clothes and getting ready for my trip north. I will be there 4 days and 4 nights. I am pretending like I am going camping, because Pam and I will be staying in a modified Connex with no provisions, except for the ones that we bring with us.

It was also a good day to go for a horseback ride; although it takes some motivation to get going. I first took Hrimmi for a walk, so as to make sure that she was okay. I had feared that something might be wrong because she was so sluggish the other day.

Pete and I then took Raudi and Tyra out for a ride. It was still warm, but it was starting to snow when we set out. When, finally, we got to Siggi’s Trail, it was downright blustery. I thought a few degrees warmer, and we would have been riding in the rain.

Raudi and Tyra were in good spirits and cantered some. Pete takes one trail and I take the other in one spot – we race. Today Raudi put on a burst of speed and won, coming out far ahead of Tyra.

I have book work to do tomorrow, but I am going to see what the weather’s doing before committing to it.

Now I must find another book for what remains of this long, dark evening.

Next: 326. 11/27/23: More snow