Hawthorne's Mosses from an Old Manse

[Bick]

I went for a walk in the woods this Sunday - a 9 km 'loop' tramp in the Hunua Ranges, south of Auckland. This sounds, at first hand, like a non-sequitur in relation to the preceding discussion, but I came across pink ribbons tied in a tree by the side of the track:

These are placed to warn of the location of poison traps left for possums by rangers. The pink ribbon of course reminded me of Faith's pink ribbons, which got caught in a forest tree in Young Goodman Brown. Which let to me explaining the relevance and the story to my son as we tramped along.

 

[Bick]

I've read another couple of stories from the book.
Rapaccini's Daughter is great - probably the piece I've enjoyed the most so far. It was filmed apparently. I've not seen it, but the image below fits the story very well.

Mrs Bullfrog was both a lot of fun and filled with wisdom - and enjoyable short work. The twist at the end is rather good.