Harris chose the plantation negro, he had a
character
of some sub-
tlety to deal with.
tlety to deal with.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v12 - Gre to Hen
"
"True," said the maltster. "Nater requires her swearing at
the regular times, or she's not herself; and unholy exclamations
is a necessity of life. "
Gabriel thought fit to change the subject. "You must be a
very aged man, malter, to have sons growed up so old and
ancient," he remarked.
"Father's so old that 'a can't mind his age, can ye, father? "
interposed Jacob. "And he's growed terrible crooked, too, lately,"
Jacob continued, surveying his father's figure, which was rather
more bowed than his own. Really, one may say that father
there is three-double. "
<<
"Crooked folk will last a long while," said the maltster
grimly, and not in the best humor.
"Shepherd would like to hear the pedigree of yer life, father
- would'nt ye, shepherd? "
"Ay, that I should," said Gabriel, with the heartiness of a
man who had longed to hear it for several months. "What may
your age be, malter? "
The maltster cleared his throat in an exaggerated form for
emphasis. and elongating his gaze to the remotest point of the
ash-pit said, in the slow speech justifiable when the importance
## p. 6955 (#343) ###########################################
THOMAS HARDY
6955
of a subject is so generally felt that any mannerism must be
tolerated in getting at it:-
"Well, I don't mind the year I were born in, but perhaps I
can reckon up the places I've lived at, and so get it that way. I
bode at Upper Longpuddle across there" (nodding to the north)
"till I were eleven. I bode seven at Kingsbere" (nodding to the
east), "where I took to malting. I went therefrom to Norcombe,
and malted there two-and-twenty years, and two-and-twenty years.
I was there turnip-hoeing and harvesting. Ah, I knowed that
old place Norcombe, years afore you were thought of, Master
Oak" (Oak smiled a corroboration of the fact). "Then I malted
at Durnover four year, and four year turnip-hoeing; and I was
fourteen times eleven months at Millpond St. Jude's" (nodding
north-west-by-north). "Old Twills wouldn't hire me for more
than eleven months at a time, to keep me from being chargeable
to the parish if so be I was disabled. Then I was three year at
Mellstock, and I've been here one-and-thirty year come Candle-
mas. How much is that? "
«Hundred and seventeen," chuckled another old gentleman,
given to mental arithmetic and little conversation, who had hith-
erto sat unobserved in a corner.
"Well then, that's my age," said the maltster emphatically.
"Oh no, father! " said Jacob. "Your turnip-hoeing were in
the summer and your malting in the winter of the same years,
and ye don't ought to count both halves, father. "
"Chok' it all! I lived through the summers, didn't I? That's
my question. I suppose ye'll say next I be no age at all to
speak of? "
"Sure we shan't," said Gabriel soothingly.
"Ye be a very old aged person, malter," attested Jan Coggan,
also soothingly. "We all know that, and ye must have a won-
derful talented constitution to be able to live so long, mustn't he,
neighbors ? "
"True, true; ye must, malter, wonderful," said the meeting
unanimously.
The maltster, being now pacified, was even generous enough.
to voluntarily disparage in a slight degree the virtue of having
lived a great many years, by mentioning that the cup they were
drinking out of was three years older than he.
While the cup was being examined, the end of Gabriel Oak's
flute became visible over his smock-frock pocket, and Henery
## p. 6956 (#344) ###########################################
6956
THOMAS HARDY
Fray exclaimed, "Surely, shepherd, I seed you blowing into a
great flute by now at Casterbridge? "
"You did," said Gabriel, blushing faintly.
trouble, neighbors, and was driven to it.
poor as I be now. "
"Never mind, heart! " said Mark Clark.
careless-like, shepherd, and your time will come.
thank ye for a tune, if ye bain't too tired. "
"Neither drum nor trumpet have I heard this Christmas,"
said Jan Coggan. "Come, raise a tune, Master Oak! "
"I've been in great
I used not to be so
"You should take it
But we could
"Ay, that I will," said Gabriel readily, pulling out his flute
and putting it together. "A poor tool, neighbors; but such as I
can do ye shall have and welcome. "
Oak then struck up 'Jockey to the Fair,' and played that
sparkling melody three times through, accenting the notes in the
third round in a most artistic and lively manner by bending his
body in small jerks and tapping with his foot to beat time.
"He can blow the flute very well, that 'a can," said a young
married man, who, having no individuality worth mentioning, was
known as "Susan Tall's husband. " He continued admiringly,
"I'd as lief as not be able to blow into a flute as well as that. "
"He's a clever man, and 'tis a true comfort for us to have
such a shepherd," murmured Joseph Poorgrass in a soft cadence.
"We ought to feel real thanksgiving that he's not a player of
ba'dy songs instead of these merry tunes; for 'twould have been
just as easy for God to have made the shepherd a loose low
mana man of iniquity, so to speak it as what he is. Yes,
for our wives' and daughters' sakes we should feel real thanks-
giving. "
"True, true,-real thanksgiving! " dashed in Mark Clark con-
clusively, not feeling it to be of any consequence to his opinion.
that he had only heard about a word and three-quarters of what
Joseph had said.
"Yes," added Joseph, beginning to feel like a man in the
Bible; "for evil do thrive so in these times, that ye may be as
much deceived in the clanest shaved and whitest shirted man as
in the raggedest tramp upon the turnpike, if I may term it so. "
"Ay, I can mind yer face now, shepherd," said Henery Fray,
criticizing Gabriel with misty eyes as he entered upon his second
"Yes, now I see ye blowing into the flute I know ye to
be the same man I see play at Casterbridge, for yer mouth were
tune.
## p. 6957 (#345) ###########################################
THOMAS HARDY
6957
scrimped up and yer eyes a-staring out like a strangled man's-
just as they be now. "
"Tis a pity that playing the flute should make a man look
such a scarecrow," observed Mr. Mark Clark, with additional criti-
cism of Gabriel's countenance, the latter person jerking out, with
the ghastly grimace required by the instrument, the chorus of
'Dame Durden':
'Twas Moll' and Bet', and Doll' and Kate',
And Dor'-othy Drag'-gle-Tail'. "
"I hope you don't mind that young man Mark Clark's bad
manners in naming your features? " whispered Joseph to Gabriel
privately.
"Not at all," said Mr. Oak.
"For by nature ye be a very handsome man, shepherd," con-
tinued Joseph Poorgrass, with winning suavity.
"Ay, that ye be, shepherd," said the company.
"Thank you very much," said Oak, in the modest tone good
manners demanded; thinking, however, that he would never let
Bathsheba see him playing the flute.
THE GRAVE-DIGGERS
From A Pair of Blue Eyes'
A
LL eyes were turned to the entrance as Stephen spoke, and
the ancient-mannered conclave scrutinized him inquiringly.
"Why, 'tis our Stephen! " said his father, rising from
his seat; and still retaining the frothy mug in his left hand, he
swung forward his right for a grasp. "Your mother is expect-
ing ye- thought you would have come afore dark.
But you'll
wait and go home with me? I have all but done for the day,
and was going directly. "
"Yes, 'tis Master Stephy, sure enough. Glad to see you so
soon again, Master Smith," said Martin Cannister, chastening the
gladness expressed in his words by a strict neutrality of counte-
nance, in order to harmonize the feeling as much as possible with.
the solemnity of a family vault.
"The same to you, Martin; and you, William," said Stephen,
nodding around to the rest, who, having their mouths full of
## p. 6958 (#346) ###########################################
6958
THOMAS HARDY
bread and cheese, were of necessity compelled to reply merely
by compressing their eyes to friendly lines and wrinkles.
"And who is dead? " Stephen repeated.
"Lady Luxellian, poor gentlewoman, as we all shall," said
the under-mason. "Ay, and we be going to enlarge the vault
to make room for her. "
"When did she die? "
"Early this morning," his father replied, with an appearance
of recurring to a chronic thought. "Yes, this morning. Martin
hev been tolling ever since, almost. There, 'twas expected. She
was very limber. "
"Ay, poor soul, this morning," resumed the under-mason, a
marvelously old man, whose skin seemed so much too large for
his body that it would not stay in position. "She must know by
this time whether she's to go up or down, poor woman. "
"What was her age? >>>
"Not more than seven or eight and twenty by candle-light.
But, Lord! by day 'a was forty if 'a were an hour. "
"Ay, night-time or daytime makes a difference of twenty
years to rich feymels," observed Martin.
"She was one-and-thirty really," said John Smith. "I had it
from them that know. "
"Not more than that! "
"A looked very bad, poor lady. In faith, ye might say she
was dead for years afore 'a would own it. "
"As my old father used to say, 'dead, but wouldn't drop
down. '»
-
"I seed her, poor soul," said a laborer from behind some
removed coffins, "only but last Valentine's Day of all the world.
'A was arm in crook wi' my lord. I says to myself, 'You be
ticketed "church-yard," my noble lady, although you don't dream
on't. '»
"I suppose my lord will write to all the other lords anointed in
the nation, to let 'em know that she that was is now no more? "
'Tis done and past. I see a bundle of letters go off an hour
after the death. Sich wonderful black rims as they letters had
- half an inch wide, at the very least. "
-
"Too much," observed Martin. "In short, 'tis out of the
question that a human being can be so mournful as black edges
half an inch wide. I'm sure people don't feel more than a very
narrow border when they feels most of all. "
## p. 6959 (#347) ###########################################
THOMAS HARDY
6959
"And there are two little girls, are there not? " said Ste-
phen.
"Nice clane little faces! -left motherless now. "
"They used to come to Parson Swancourt's to play with Miss
Elfride when I were there," said William Worm. "Ah, they did
so's! " The latter sentence was introduced to add the necessary
melancholy to a remark which intrinsically could hardly be made
to possess enough for the occasion. "Yes," continued Worm,
"they'd run upstairs, they'd run down; flitting about with her.
everywhere. Very fond of her, they were. Ah well! "
"Fonder than ever they were of their mother, so 'tis said here
and there," added a laborer.
"Well, you see, 'tis natural. Lady Luxellian stood aloof from
'em so was so drowsy-like, that they couldn't love her in the
jolly-companion way children want to like folks. Only last winter
I seed Miss Elfride talking to my lady and the two children, and
Miss Elfride wiped their noses for 'em so careful, my lady never
once seeing that it wanted doing; and naturally children take to
people that's their best friend. "
«< Be as 'twill, the woman is dead and gone, and we must
make a place for her," said John. "Come, lads, drink up your
ale, and we'll just rid this corner, so as to have all clear for
beginning at the wall as soon as 'tis light to-morrow. "
Stephen then asked where Lady Luxellian was to lie.
«< Here," said his father. "We are going to set back this wall
and make a recess; and 'tis enough for us to do before the
funeral. When my lord's mother died, she said, 'John, the place
must be enlarged before another can be put in. ' But 'a never
expected 'twould be wanted so soon. Better move Lord George
first, I suppose, Simeon ? »
He pointed with his foot to a heavy coffin, covered with what
had originally been red velvet, the color of which could only just
be distinguished now.
"Just as ye think best, Master John," replied the shriveled
mason. "Ah, poor Lord George! " he continued, looking con-
templatively at the huge coffin; "he and I were as bitter enemies
once as any could be, when one is a lord and t'other only a mor-
tal man. Poor fellow! He'd clap his hand upon my shoulder
and cuss me as familiar and neighborly as if he'd been a common
chap. Ay, 'a cussed me up hill and 'a cussed me down, and
then 'a would rave out again, and the goold clamps of his fine
## p. 6960 (#348) ###########################################
6960
THOMAS HARDY
new teeth would glisten in the sun like fetters of brass, while I,
being a small man and poor, was fain to say nothing at all.
Such a strappen fine gentleman as he was too! Yes, I rather
liked en sometimes. But once now and then, when I looked at
his towering height, I'd think in my inside, 'What a weight
you'll be, my lord, for our arms to lower under the aisle of
Endelstow Church some day! '"
"And was he? " inquired a young laborer.
"He was.
He was five hundredweight if 'a were a pound.
What with his lead, and his oak, and his handles, and his one
thing and t'other"-here the ancient man slapped his hand upon
the cover with a force that caused a rattle among the bones
inside "he half broke my back when I took his feet to lower
en down the steps there. 'Ah,' saith I to John there—didn't I,
John? —that ever one man's glory should be such a weight
upon another man! ' But there, I liked my Lord George some-
times. "
―――
Tis a strange thought," said another, "that while they be
all here under one roof, a snug united family o' Luxellians, they
be really scattered miles away from one another in the form of
good sheep and wicked goats, isn't it? "
"True; 'tis a thought to look at. "
"And that one, if he's gone upward, don't know what his
wife is doing no more than the man in the moon, if she's gone
downward. And that some unfortunate one in the hot place is
a-hollering across to a lucky one up in the clouds, and quite for-
getting their bodies be boxed close together all the time. "
"Ay, 'tis a thought to look at, too, that I can say 'Hullo! '
close to fiery Lord George, and 'a can't hear me. "
"And that I be eating my onion close to dainty Lady Jane's
nose, and she can't smell me. "
"What do 'em put all their heads one way for? " inquired a
young man.
"Because 'tis church-yard law, you simple. The law of the
living is, that a man shall be upright and downright; and the
law of the dead is, that a man shall be east and west. Every
state of society have its laws. "
"We must break the law wi' a few of the poor souls, however.
Come, buckle to," said the master mason.
And they set to work anew.
## p. 6961 (#349) ###########################################
6961
JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS
(1848-)
NE evening recently the lady whom Uncle Remus calls 'Miss
Sally' missed her little seven-year-old. Making search for
him through the house and through the yard, she heard
the sound of voices in the old man's cabin; and looking through the
window she saw the child sitting by Uncle Remus. His head rested
against the old man's arm, and he was gazing with an expression of
the most intense interest into the rough weather-beaten face that
beamed so kindly on him. "
With this charming picture Mr. Joel
Chandler Harris opens the historic advent-
ures of that Ulysses of the fields, Brer
Rabbit. Uncle Remus, the raconteur of the
adventures, has a prototype on every South-
ern plantation, and his stories are familiar
to all Southerners. The art of Mr. Harris
lies in the way he has transferred their im-
palpable charm to canvas.
Before the appearance of 'Uncle Remus,
His Songs and Sayings' (New York, 1880),
the negro had figured in literature; but he
had figured for a purpose, either to illus- JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS
trate a principle as in Mrs. Stowe's great
novels Uncle Tom's Cabin' and 'Dred,' or he was the stage negro
of the minstrel show- - an intolerable misrepresentation. Perhaps he
was too familiar a feature in the landscape of the Southern author
for him to appreciate his artistic value; and as for the foreigner's
conception of him, what Dr. Johnson said of the descriptive poems
of the blind poet Blacklock may very well be applied to these efforts.
"If," said Johnson, "you found that a paralytic had left his room,
you would conclude he had been carried," meaning that the blind
man had described what he had read, not what he had seen.
No such charge can be brought to the author of these inimitable
sketches. Like his own hero Brer Rabbit "he was born and bred in
a brier patch," in middle Georgia, in the town of Eatonton, Decem-
ber 8th, 1848, and his happy and adventurous youth, pleasantly com-
memorated in his On the Plantation,' was passed in the society he
XII-436
## p. 6962 (#350) ###########################################
6962
JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS
has made famous the world over. Uncle Remus, Mink, Sis Tempy,
Daddy Jake, were not more real personages to him than "de creeters »
they taught him to know and admire. In true American fashion, he
passed from the printer's case to the bar, but forsook law for litera-
ture, his first love,— became a member of the staff and later an editor
of the Atlanta Constitution, and the author of many books, of which
'Uncle Remus is the initial. 'Nights with Uncle Remus,' 'Rainy
Days with Uncle Remus,' 'Mingo and Other Sketches,' 'Daddy Jake
the Runaway,' and 'On the Plantation,' belong to the same series.
Mr. Harris has written other books of plantation romance and actual-
ities, that betray the charm of which he is a master, but to the vol-
umes we have named he owes his high and permanent place in
American literature.
Those who are familiar with the subject know that when Mr.
Harris chose the plantation negro, he had a character of some sub-
tlety to deal with. Like the Celt, he is a creature of extremes, care-
lessly happy one day and despairing the next; but saved from revolt
by a pathetic philosophy born of his helplessness, and also by a
sense of humor that restores his equilibrium. These peculiarities
are not so evident from his actions-for he has been suppressed by
his surroundings—as in his songs and stories, which display his poet-
ical temperament and his picturesque imagination. With the self-
confidence of the artist, Mr. Harris in portraying his character chooses
the most difficult, that is, the dramatic form. Uncle Remus, the seer
of the plantation, sits before his lightwood fire making "shuck" horse-
collars, with the "little boy" for audience, varied by occasional visits
from his satellite "Sis Tempy," or his enemy the incomparable, the
irrepressible Tildy"; and as he works at his self-imposed task, lev-
ies on the whole community for illustrations of weakness and folly.
Or like a child watching his elders, he imitates their manners and
customs, makes his shrewd comments, gives his hard thrusts, and
dispenses his deep philosophy. Only when Mr. Harris drops the dra-
matic form, as in 'On the Plantation,' 'Mingo and Other Sketches,'
and 'Daddy Jake the Runaway,' does he permit himself the luxury of
pathos, so obvious in the negro's life. When Uncle Remus or any
of his confrères is speaking in propria persona, he shows the same
reserve in displaying his deepest emotions as the wounded animal
who seeks his lair.
«
Nor is it strange that the life of the plantation negro should have
developed his mystical side. Much of it is spent alone, with only the
"creeters," between whom and the white man he occupies a middle
distance, for companions. Nor strange that like St. Francis of As-
sisi, each living thing becomes a brother and sister to him, endowed
with personality and a sentient nature. St. Francis preached to the
## p. 6963 (#351) ###########################################
JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS
6963
birds and the "four-footed felons," the "ferocissimo lupo d'Agobis";
and Uncle Remus, though he considers them far too wise to learn
from so poor a creature as man, endows them with all our vices
and virtues. Did not the mystics Æsop and La Fontaine the same?
But the old darky in a dim fashion does more: through them he
expresses a revolt from his own condition, and the not unnatural
desire to circumvent the master who has so long controlled him.
Not to the swift in these stories is the race, nor to the strong the
battle. The weakest, the most helpless of all the animals, the rabbit,
is the hero and the champion, and in every contest is victorious over
the wolf, the fox, the bear. Not virtue but weakness triumphs when
Brer Rabbit milks the cow, fools the fox, and scalds the wolf; not
passion but mischievousness.
With a view to edification which cannot be too sternly deprecated,
etymologists have claimed Uncle Remus and his Songs' as a con-
tribution to the Folk-Lore Society. Better can we spare him to the
natural-history societies, to which he may contribute the chapters
on 'How Mr. Rabbit Lost his Fine Bushy Tail,' 'Why Mr. Rabbit
Whipped his Young Ones,' 'Why the Negro is Black,' and 'The Use
Miss Goose Put her Hands to. ' But Mr. Harris has a higher motive
in letters than utility, we believe. His province is to charm and to
amuse.
WHY BROTHER WOLF DIDN'T EAT THE LITTLE RABBITS
From 'Uncle Remus and his Friends. Copyright 1892 by Joel Chandler Har-
ris, and reprinted here by permission of and special arrangement with
Houghton, Mifflin & Co. , publishers, Boston.
"UNC
NCLE REMUS," said the little boy one day, "why don't you
come up to the big house sometimes, and tell me stories? »
"Shoo, honey, de spoon hatter go ter de bowl's house.
Ef I wuz atter you ter tell me tales, I'd come up dar en set in
de back porch en lissen at you eve'y day, en sometimes eve'y
night. But when de spoon want anything, it hatter go ter de
bowl. Hit bleedz ter be dat-a-way. "
"Well, you used to come. "
"Des so! " exclaimed Uncle Remus. "But whar wuz you
'bout dat time? Right flat er yo' back, dat's whar you wuz.
You laid dar en swaller'd dat doctor-truck, twel I be blest ef you
had mo' heft dan a pa'tridge egg wid' de innerds blow'd out.
En dar wuz Miss Sally a-cryin' en gwine on constant. Ef she
wan't cryin' 'bout you, she wuz quoilin' at me en Marse John.
## p. 6964 (#352) ###########################################
6964
JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS
'Oman tongue ain't got no Sunday. Co'se, when I git dar whar
you wuz, I hatter set down en tell tales fer ter make you fergit
'bout de fuss dat wuz gwine on. I 'member one time," Uncle
Remus went on, laughing, "I wuz settin' dar by yo' bed, tellin'
some great tale er nudder, en de fus' news I know'd I woke up
and foun' myse'f fast asleep, en you woke up en foun' yo'se'f in
de land er Nod. Dar we wuz,-me in de cheer, en you in de
bed; en I'd nod at you, en you'd sno' back at me; en dar wuz
de old torty-shell cat settin' by de h'ath, runnin' dat ar buzz-
wheel what cats has got somewhars in der innerds; en de clock
wuz a-clockin' en de candle a-splutterin'; en des 'bout dat time
Miss Sally come in en rap me 'pon topper de naked place on my
head wid er thimble; en I kotch my breff like a cow a-coughin',
en den Miss Sally start in ter quoilin', en Marse John ax 'er
what she doin', en she 'low she des whisperin' ter me; en Marse
John say ef she call dat whisperin', he dunner what she call
squallin'; en den I up en groanded one er deze yer meetin'-
house groans.
"Dem wuz great times, mon," continued the old man, after
pausing to recover his breath. "Dey mos' sholy wuz. Hit look
like ter me 'bout dem days dat you wan't no bigger dan a young
rabbit atter de hide been tuck off. You cert'nly wuz spare-made
den. I sot dar by yo' bed, en I say ter myse'f dat ef I wuz de
ole Brer Wolf en you wuz a young rabbit, I wouldn't git hongry
nuff fer ter eat you, caze you wuz too bony. "
"When did Brother Wolf want to eat the young rabbit, Uncle
Remus? " inquired the little boy, thinking that he saw the sug-
gestion of a story here.
He was not mistaken.
The old man regarded him with well-
feigned astonishment.
"Ain't I done tole you 'bout dat, honey? Des run over in yo'
min', en see ef I ain't. "
The youngster shook his head most emphatically.
"Well," said Uncle Remus, "ole Brer Wolf want ter eat de
little Rabs all de time, but dey wuz one time in 'tickeler dat dey
make his mouf water, en dat wuz de time when him en Brer
Fox wuz visitin' at Brer Rabbit's house. De times wuz hard,
but de little Rabs wuz slick en fat, en des ez frisky ez kittens.
Ole Brer Rabbit wuz off som'ers, en Brer Wolf en Brer Fox wuz
waitin' fer 'im. De little Rabs wuz playin' 'roun', en dough dey
wuz little dey kep' der years open.
Brer Wolf look at um out'n
## p. 6965 (#353) ###########################################
JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS
6965
de cornder uv his eyes, en lick his chops en wink at Brer Fox,
en Brer Fox wunk back at 'im. Brer Wolf cross his legs, en den
Brer Fox cross his'n. De little Rabs, dey frisk en dey frolic.
"Brer Wolf ho'd his head to'rds um en 'low, 'Dey er mighty
fat. '
"Brer Fox grin, en say, 'Man, hush yo' mouf! '
"De little Rabs frisk en frolic, en play furder off, but dey
keep der years primed.
"Brer Wolf look at um en 'low, 'Ain't dey slick en purty? '
"Brer Fox chuckle, en say, 'Oh, I wish you'd hush! '
"De little Rabs play off furder en furder, but dey keep der
years open.
"Brer Wolf smack his mouf, en 'low, 'Dey er joosy en tender. '
"Brer Fox roll his eye en say, 'Man, ain't you gwine ter
hush up, 'fo' you gi' me de fidgets? '
"De little Rabs dey frisk en dey frolic, but dey hear eve'y-
thing dat pass.
"Brer Wolf lick out his tongue quick, en 'low, 'Less us whirl
in en eat um. '
"Brer Fox say, 'Man, you make me hongry! Please hush up! '
"De little Rabs play off furder en furder, but dey know
'zackly what gwine on. Dey frisk en dey frolic, but dey got der
years wide open.
"Den Brer Wolf make a bargain wid Brer Fox dat when
Brer Rabbit git home, one un um ud git 'im wropped up in a
'spute 'bout fust one thing en den anudder, whiles tudder one ud
go out en ketch de little Rabs.
"Brer Fox 'low, 'You better do de talkin', Brer Wolf, en
lemme coax de little Rabs off. I got mo' winnin' ways wid chil-
luns dan what you is. '
"Brer Wolf say, 'You can't make gourd out'n punkin, Brer
Fox. I ain't no talker. Yo' tongue lots slicker dan mine. I kin
bite lots better'n I kin talk. Dem little Rabs don't want no
coaxin'; dey wants ketchin'-dat what dey wants. You keep ole
Brer Rabbit busy, en I'll ten' ter de little Rabs. '
"Bofe un um know'd dat whichever cotch de little Rabs, de
tudder one ain't gwine smell hide ner hair un um, en dey flew
up en got ter 'sputin, en whiles dey was 'sputin' en gwine on
dat-a-way, de little Rabs put off down de road, blickety-blickety,
for ter meet der daddy. Kase dey know'd ef dey stayed dar
dey'd git in big trouble.
## p. 6966 (#354) ###########################################
6966
JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS
"Dey went off down de road, de little Rabs did, en dey ain't
gone so mighty fur 'fo' dey meet der daddy comin' 'long home.
He had his walkin' cane in one han' en a jug in de udder, en he
look ez big ez life en twice ez natchul.
"De little Rabs run to'rds 'im en holler, 'What you got,
daddy? What you got, daddy? '
"Brer Rabbit say, 'Nothin' but er jug er 'lasses. '
"De little Rabs holler, 'Lemme tas'e, daddy! Lemme tas'e,
daddy! '
"Den ole Brer Rabbit sot de jug down in de road en let um
lick de stopper a time er two, en atter dey done get der win'
back, dey up'n tell 'im 'bout de 'greement dat Brer Wolf en Brer
Fox done make, en 'bout de 'spute what dey had. Ole Brer
Rabbit sorter laugh ter hisse'f, en den he pick up his jug en jog
on to'rds home. When he git mos' dar he stop en tell de little
Rabs fer stay back dar out er sight, en wait twel he call um 'fo'
dey come. Dey wuz mighty glad ter do des like dis, kaze dey'd
done seed Brer Wolf tushes, en Brer Fox red tongue, en dey
huddle up in de broom-sage ez still ez a mouse in de flour-bar'l.
"Brer Rabbit went on home, en sho 'nuff, he fin' Brer Wolf
en Brer Fox waitin' fer 'im. Dey 'd done settle der 'spute, en
dey wuz settin' dar des ez smilin' ez a basket er chips. Dey
pass de time er day wid Brer Rabbit, en den dey ax 'im what
he got in de jug. Brer Rabbit hummed en haw'd, en looked
sorter sollum.
"Brer Wolf look like he wuz bleedz ter fin' out what wuz in
de jug, en he keep a pesterin' Brer Rabbit 'bout it; but Brer
Rabbit des shake his head en look sollum, en talk 'bout de wed-
der, en de craps, en one thing en anudder. Bimeby Brer Fox
make out he wuz gwine atter a drink er water, en he slip out,
he did, fer ter ketch de little Rabs. Time he git out de house,
Brer Rabbit look all 'roun' ter see ef he lis'nen, en den he went
ter de jug en pull out de stopper.
"He han' it ter Brer Wolf en say, 'Tas'e dat. '
'lasses, en smack his mouf.
Hit sho is good. ’
"Brer Rabbit git up close ter Brer Wolf en say, 'Don't tell
nobody. Hit's Fox-blood. '
"Brer Wolf tas'e de
'What kinder truck dat?
"Brer Wolf look 'stonish'. He 'low, 'How you know? '
"Brer Rabbit say, 'I knows what I knows! '
"Brer Wolf say, 'Gimme some mo'! '
He 'low,
## p. 6967 (#355) ###########################################
JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS
6967
"Brer Rabbit say, 'You kin git some mo' fer yo'se'f easy
'nuff; en de fresher 'tis, de better. '
"Brer Wolf 'low, 'How you know? '
"Brer Rabbit say, 'I knows what I knows! '
"Wid dat Brer Wolf stepped out, en start to'rds Brer Fox.
Brer Fox seed 'im comin', en he sorter back off. Brer Wolf got
little closer, en bimeby he make a dash at Brer Fox. Brer Fox
dodge, he did, en den he put out fer de woods wid Brer Wolf
right at his heels.
"Den atter so long a time, atter Brer Rabbit got done
laughin', he call up de little Rabs, gi' um some 'lasses fer sup-
per, en spanked um en sont um ter bed. "
"Well, what did he spank 'em for, Uncle Remus? " asked the
little boy.
"Ter make um grow, honey,—des ter make um grow! Young
creeturs is got ter have der hide loosen'd dat-a-way, same ez
young chilluns. "
"Did Brother Wolf catch Brother Fox? "
"How I know, honey? Much ez I kin do ter foller de tale
when it keeps in de big road, let 'lone ter keep up wid dem
creeturs whiles dey gone sailin' thoo de woods. De tale ain't
persoo on atter um no furder dan de place whar dey make der
disappear'nce. I tell you now, when I goes in de woods, I got
ter know whar I'm gwine. "
BROTHER MUD TURTLE'S TRICKERY
From Uncle Remus and his Friends. Copyright 1892 by Joel Chandler Har-
ris, and reprinted here by permission of and special arrangement with
Houghton, Mifflin & Co. , publishers, Boston.
DON'T like deze yer tales 'bout folks, no how you kin fix um,"
said Uncle Remus after an unusually long pause, during
which he rubbed his left hand with the right, in order to
run the rheumatism out. "No, suh, I don't like um, kaze folks
can't play no tricks, ner git even wid der neighbors, widout
hurtin' somebody's feelin's, er breakin' some law er 'nudder, er
gwine 'ginst what de preacher say.
"Look at dat man what I des been tellin' you 'bout. He let
de udder man fool 'im en ketch 'im, en mo' dan dat, he let um
tote 'im off de calaboose. He oughter been tuck dar; I ain't
་་
"I
## p. 6968 (#356) ###########################################
6968
JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS
'sputin' dat; yit ef dat had been some er de creeturs, dey'd er
sholy got loose fum dar.
-
"When it comes ter talkin' 'bout gittin' loose," Uncle Remus
continued, settling himself comfortably in his chair, "I git ter
runnin' on in my min' 'bout ole Brer Fox en ole Brer Mud
Turkle. Dey had some kinder fallin' out once 'pon a time - I
dunner what. I speck hit's got a tale hung on it, but de tale
done switch itself out'n my min'. Yit dey'd done had a fallin'
out, en dey wa'nt no love los' betwixt um. Well, suh, one day
Brer Fox wuz gwine down de creek fishin'. Little ez you may
think un it, Brer Fox wuz monst'us fon' er fishes, so eve'y chance
he got he'd go fishin'. "
"On Sunday, too? " inquired the little boy. He had been
lectured on that subject not long before.
"Well, I tell you now," replied Uncle Remus laughing, "Brer
Fox is like 'oman's tongue; he ain't got no Sunday. "
"What kind of bait did he have? " the youngster asked.
"What he want wid bait, honey? He ain't got no bait, en no
pole, en no hook. He des went down de creek, en when he
come ter a good place, he'd wade in en feel und' de rocks en
und' de bank. Sometimes he'd ketch a horny-head, en den ag'in
he'd ketch a peerch. Well, suh, he went on en went on, en he
had bad luck. Look like de fishes wuz all gone fum home, but
he kep' on en kep' on. He 'low ter hisse'f dat he bleedz ter
have some fish fer dinner. One time he put his han' in a craw-
fish nes' en got nipt, en anudder time he tetched a eel, en it
made de col' chills run 'cross 'im. Yit he kep' on.
"Bimeby Brer Fox come ter whar ole Brer Mud Turkle live
at. I dunner what make ole Brer Mud Turkle live in such a
damp place like dat. Look like him en his folks 'ud have a bad
col' de whole blessid time. But dar he wuz in de water und' de
bank, layin' dar fas' asleep, dreamin' 'bout de good times he'd
have when de freshet come. He 'uz layin' dar wid his eyes shot,
when de fus' news he know he feel sump'n 'nudder fumblin'
'roun' his head. 'Twan't nobody but ole Brer Fox feelin' 'roun'
und' de bank fer fishes.
"Brer Mud Turkle move his head, he did, but de fumblin'
kep' on, en bimeby he open his mouf en Brer Fox fumble en
fumble, twel bimeby he got 'is han' in dar, en time he do dat,
ole Brer Mud Turkle shet down on it. En I let you know,"
continued Uncle Remus, shaking his head slowly from side to
## p. 6969 (#357) ###########################################
JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS
6969
side as if to add emphasis to the statement, "I let you know
when ole Brer Mud Turkle shet down on yo' han', you got
ter cut off his head en den wait twel it thunder, 'fo' he turn
loose.
"Well, suh, he shet down on ole Brer Fox, en ef you'd 'a'
been anywhars in dat settlement you'd 'a' heard squallin' den ef
you ain't never hear none befo'.
"Brer Fox des hilt his head back en holler 'Ouch! Ouch!
What dis got me? Ouch! Turn me aloose! Ouch! Somebody
better run here quick! Laws a massy! Ouch! '
"But Brer Mud Turkle he helt on, en he feel so much com-
fort dat he'd er in about went ter asleep ag'in ef Brer Fox
hadn't er snatched en jerked so hard en a-holler'd so loud.
"Brer Fox holler, en Brer Mud Turkle hol' on; Brer Fox
holler, en Brer Mud Turkle hol' on. Dar dey wuz, nip en tug,
holler en hol' fas'! Bimeby it hurt so bad dat Brer Fox des
fetched one loud squall en made one big pull, en out come ole
Brer Mud Turkle, a-hangin' ter his han'.
"Well, suh, when dey got out on de bank en Brer Mud Tur-
kle sorter woke up, he tuck'n turn Brer Fox loose widout waitin'
fer de thunder. He ax. Brer Fox pardon, but Brer Fox he ain't
got no pardon fer ter gi' 'im.
"Brer Mud Turkle make like he skeer'd. He 'low: 'I 'clar'
ter gracious, Brer Fox! ef I'd a know'd 'twuz you, I'd 'a' never
shet down on you in de roun' worl'; kaze I know what a danger-
some man you is.
"True," said the maltster. "Nater requires her swearing at
the regular times, or she's not herself; and unholy exclamations
is a necessity of life. "
Gabriel thought fit to change the subject. "You must be a
very aged man, malter, to have sons growed up so old and
ancient," he remarked.
"Father's so old that 'a can't mind his age, can ye, father? "
interposed Jacob. "And he's growed terrible crooked, too, lately,"
Jacob continued, surveying his father's figure, which was rather
more bowed than his own. Really, one may say that father
there is three-double. "
<<
"Crooked folk will last a long while," said the maltster
grimly, and not in the best humor.
"Shepherd would like to hear the pedigree of yer life, father
- would'nt ye, shepherd? "
"Ay, that I should," said Gabriel, with the heartiness of a
man who had longed to hear it for several months. "What may
your age be, malter? "
The maltster cleared his throat in an exaggerated form for
emphasis. and elongating his gaze to the remotest point of the
ash-pit said, in the slow speech justifiable when the importance
## p. 6955 (#343) ###########################################
THOMAS HARDY
6955
of a subject is so generally felt that any mannerism must be
tolerated in getting at it:-
"Well, I don't mind the year I were born in, but perhaps I
can reckon up the places I've lived at, and so get it that way. I
bode at Upper Longpuddle across there" (nodding to the north)
"till I were eleven. I bode seven at Kingsbere" (nodding to the
east), "where I took to malting. I went therefrom to Norcombe,
and malted there two-and-twenty years, and two-and-twenty years.
I was there turnip-hoeing and harvesting. Ah, I knowed that
old place Norcombe, years afore you were thought of, Master
Oak" (Oak smiled a corroboration of the fact). "Then I malted
at Durnover four year, and four year turnip-hoeing; and I was
fourteen times eleven months at Millpond St. Jude's" (nodding
north-west-by-north). "Old Twills wouldn't hire me for more
than eleven months at a time, to keep me from being chargeable
to the parish if so be I was disabled. Then I was three year at
Mellstock, and I've been here one-and-thirty year come Candle-
mas. How much is that? "
«Hundred and seventeen," chuckled another old gentleman,
given to mental arithmetic and little conversation, who had hith-
erto sat unobserved in a corner.
"Well then, that's my age," said the maltster emphatically.
"Oh no, father! " said Jacob. "Your turnip-hoeing were in
the summer and your malting in the winter of the same years,
and ye don't ought to count both halves, father. "
"Chok' it all! I lived through the summers, didn't I? That's
my question. I suppose ye'll say next I be no age at all to
speak of? "
"Sure we shan't," said Gabriel soothingly.
"Ye be a very old aged person, malter," attested Jan Coggan,
also soothingly. "We all know that, and ye must have a won-
derful talented constitution to be able to live so long, mustn't he,
neighbors ? "
"True, true; ye must, malter, wonderful," said the meeting
unanimously.
The maltster, being now pacified, was even generous enough.
to voluntarily disparage in a slight degree the virtue of having
lived a great many years, by mentioning that the cup they were
drinking out of was three years older than he.
While the cup was being examined, the end of Gabriel Oak's
flute became visible over his smock-frock pocket, and Henery
## p. 6956 (#344) ###########################################
6956
THOMAS HARDY
Fray exclaimed, "Surely, shepherd, I seed you blowing into a
great flute by now at Casterbridge? "
"You did," said Gabriel, blushing faintly.
trouble, neighbors, and was driven to it.
poor as I be now. "
"Never mind, heart! " said Mark Clark.
careless-like, shepherd, and your time will come.
thank ye for a tune, if ye bain't too tired. "
"Neither drum nor trumpet have I heard this Christmas,"
said Jan Coggan. "Come, raise a tune, Master Oak! "
"I've been in great
I used not to be so
"You should take it
But we could
"Ay, that I will," said Gabriel readily, pulling out his flute
and putting it together. "A poor tool, neighbors; but such as I
can do ye shall have and welcome. "
Oak then struck up 'Jockey to the Fair,' and played that
sparkling melody three times through, accenting the notes in the
third round in a most artistic and lively manner by bending his
body in small jerks and tapping with his foot to beat time.
"He can blow the flute very well, that 'a can," said a young
married man, who, having no individuality worth mentioning, was
known as "Susan Tall's husband. " He continued admiringly,
"I'd as lief as not be able to blow into a flute as well as that. "
"He's a clever man, and 'tis a true comfort for us to have
such a shepherd," murmured Joseph Poorgrass in a soft cadence.
"We ought to feel real thanksgiving that he's not a player of
ba'dy songs instead of these merry tunes; for 'twould have been
just as easy for God to have made the shepherd a loose low
mana man of iniquity, so to speak it as what he is. Yes,
for our wives' and daughters' sakes we should feel real thanks-
giving. "
"True, true,-real thanksgiving! " dashed in Mark Clark con-
clusively, not feeling it to be of any consequence to his opinion.
that he had only heard about a word and three-quarters of what
Joseph had said.
"Yes," added Joseph, beginning to feel like a man in the
Bible; "for evil do thrive so in these times, that ye may be as
much deceived in the clanest shaved and whitest shirted man as
in the raggedest tramp upon the turnpike, if I may term it so. "
"Ay, I can mind yer face now, shepherd," said Henery Fray,
criticizing Gabriel with misty eyes as he entered upon his second
"Yes, now I see ye blowing into the flute I know ye to
be the same man I see play at Casterbridge, for yer mouth were
tune.
## p. 6957 (#345) ###########################################
THOMAS HARDY
6957
scrimped up and yer eyes a-staring out like a strangled man's-
just as they be now. "
"Tis a pity that playing the flute should make a man look
such a scarecrow," observed Mr. Mark Clark, with additional criti-
cism of Gabriel's countenance, the latter person jerking out, with
the ghastly grimace required by the instrument, the chorus of
'Dame Durden':
'Twas Moll' and Bet', and Doll' and Kate',
And Dor'-othy Drag'-gle-Tail'. "
"I hope you don't mind that young man Mark Clark's bad
manners in naming your features? " whispered Joseph to Gabriel
privately.
"Not at all," said Mr. Oak.
"For by nature ye be a very handsome man, shepherd," con-
tinued Joseph Poorgrass, with winning suavity.
"Ay, that ye be, shepherd," said the company.
"Thank you very much," said Oak, in the modest tone good
manners demanded; thinking, however, that he would never let
Bathsheba see him playing the flute.
THE GRAVE-DIGGERS
From A Pair of Blue Eyes'
A
LL eyes were turned to the entrance as Stephen spoke, and
the ancient-mannered conclave scrutinized him inquiringly.
"Why, 'tis our Stephen! " said his father, rising from
his seat; and still retaining the frothy mug in his left hand, he
swung forward his right for a grasp. "Your mother is expect-
ing ye- thought you would have come afore dark.
But you'll
wait and go home with me? I have all but done for the day,
and was going directly. "
"Yes, 'tis Master Stephy, sure enough. Glad to see you so
soon again, Master Smith," said Martin Cannister, chastening the
gladness expressed in his words by a strict neutrality of counte-
nance, in order to harmonize the feeling as much as possible with.
the solemnity of a family vault.
"The same to you, Martin; and you, William," said Stephen,
nodding around to the rest, who, having their mouths full of
## p. 6958 (#346) ###########################################
6958
THOMAS HARDY
bread and cheese, were of necessity compelled to reply merely
by compressing their eyes to friendly lines and wrinkles.
"And who is dead? " Stephen repeated.
"Lady Luxellian, poor gentlewoman, as we all shall," said
the under-mason. "Ay, and we be going to enlarge the vault
to make room for her. "
"When did she die? "
"Early this morning," his father replied, with an appearance
of recurring to a chronic thought. "Yes, this morning. Martin
hev been tolling ever since, almost. There, 'twas expected. She
was very limber. "
"Ay, poor soul, this morning," resumed the under-mason, a
marvelously old man, whose skin seemed so much too large for
his body that it would not stay in position. "She must know by
this time whether she's to go up or down, poor woman. "
"What was her age? >>>
"Not more than seven or eight and twenty by candle-light.
But, Lord! by day 'a was forty if 'a were an hour. "
"Ay, night-time or daytime makes a difference of twenty
years to rich feymels," observed Martin.
"She was one-and-thirty really," said John Smith. "I had it
from them that know. "
"Not more than that! "
"A looked very bad, poor lady. In faith, ye might say she
was dead for years afore 'a would own it. "
"As my old father used to say, 'dead, but wouldn't drop
down. '»
-
"I seed her, poor soul," said a laborer from behind some
removed coffins, "only but last Valentine's Day of all the world.
'A was arm in crook wi' my lord. I says to myself, 'You be
ticketed "church-yard," my noble lady, although you don't dream
on't. '»
"I suppose my lord will write to all the other lords anointed in
the nation, to let 'em know that she that was is now no more? "
'Tis done and past. I see a bundle of letters go off an hour
after the death. Sich wonderful black rims as they letters had
- half an inch wide, at the very least. "
-
"Too much," observed Martin. "In short, 'tis out of the
question that a human being can be so mournful as black edges
half an inch wide. I'm sure people don't feel more than a very
narrow border when they feels most of all. "
## p. 6959 (#347) ###########################################
THOMAS HARDY
6959
"And there are two little girls, are there not? " said Ste-
phen.
"Nice clane little faces! -left motherless now. "
"They used to come to Parson Swancourt's to play with Miss
Elfride when I were there," said William Worm. "Ah, they did
so's! " The latter sentence was introduced to add the necessary
melancholy to a remark which intrinsically could hardly be made
to possess enough for the occasion. "Yes," continued Worm,
"they'd run upstairs, they'd run down; flitting about with her.
everywhere. Very fond of her, they were. Ah well! "
"Fonder than ever they were of their mother, so 'tis said here
and there," added a laborer.
"Well, you see, 'tis natural. Lady Luxellian stood aloof from
'em so was so drowsy-like, that they couldn't love her in the
jolly-companion way children want to like folks. Only last winter
I seed Miss Elfride talking to my lady and the two children, and
Miss Elfride wiped their noses for 'em so careful, my lady never
once seeing that it wanted doing; and naturally children take to
people that's their best friend. "
«< Be as 'twill, the woman is dead and gone, and we must
make a place for her," said John. "Come, lads, drink up your
ale, and we'll just rid this corner, so as to have all clear for
beginning at the wall as soon as 'tis light to-morrow. "
Stephen then asked where Lady Luxellian was to lie.
«< Here," said his father. "We are going to set back this wall
and make a recess; and 'tis enough for us to do before the
funeral. When my lord's mother died, she said, 'John, the place
must be enlarged before another can be put in. ' But 'a never
expected 'twould be wanted so soon. Better move Lord George
first, I suppose, Simeon ? »
He pointed with his foot to a heavy coffin, covered with what
had originally been red velvet, the color of which could only just
be distinguished now.
"Just as ye think best, Master John," replied the shriveled
mason. "Ah, poor Lord George! " he continued, looking con-
templatively at the huge coffin; "he and I were as bitter enemies
once as any could be, when one is a lord and t'other only a mor-
tal man. Poor fellow! He'd clap his hand upon my shoulder
and cuss me as familiar and neighborly as if he'd been a common
chap. Ay, 'a cussed me up hill and 'a cussed me down, and
then 'a would rave out again, and the goold clamps of his fine
## p. 6960 (#348) ###########################################
6960
THOMAS HARDY
new teeth would glisten in the sun like fetters of brass, while I,
being a small man and poor, was fain to say nothing at all.
Such a strappen fine gentleman as he was too! Yes, I rather
liked en sometimes. But once now and then, when I looked at
his towering height, I'd think in my inside, 'What a weight
you'll be, my lord, for our arms to lower under the aisle of
Endelstow Church some day! '"
"And was he? " inquired a young laborer.
"He was.
He was five hundredweight if 'a were a pound.
What with his lead, and his oak, and his handles, and his one
thing and t'other"-here the ancient man slapped his hand upon
the cover with a force that caused a rattle among the bones
inside "he half broke my back when I took his feet to lower
en down the steps there. 'Ah,' saith I to John there—didn't I,
John? —that ever one man's glory should be such a weight
upon another man! ' But there, I liked my Lord George some-
times. "
―――
Tis a strange thought," said another, "that while they be
all here under one roof, a snug united family o' Luxellians, they
be really scattered miles away from one another in the form of
good sheep and wicked goats, isn't it? "
"True; 'tis a thought to look at. "
"And that one, if he's gone upward, don't know what his
wife is doing no more than the man in the moon, if she's gone
downward. And that some unfortunate one in the hot place is
a-hollering across to a lucky one up in the clouds, and quite for-
getting their bodies be boxed close together all the time. "
"Ay, 'tis a thought to look at, too, that I can say 'Hullo! '
close to fiery Lord George, and 'a can't hear me. "
"And that I be eating my onion close to dainty Lady Jane's
nose, and she can't smell me. "
"What do 'em put all their heads one way for? " inquired a
young man.
"Because 'tis church-yard law, you simple. The law of the
living is, that a man shall be upright and downright; and the
law of the dead is, that a man shall be east and west. Every
state of society have its laws. "
"We must break the law wi' a few of the poor souls, however.
Come, buckle to," said the master mason.
And they set to work anew.
## p. 6961 (#349) ###########################################
6961
JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS
(1848-)
NE evening recently the lady whom Uncle Remus calls 'Miss
Sally' missed her little seven-year-old. Making search for
him through the house and through the yard, she heard
the sound of voices in the old man's cabin; and looking through the
window she saw the child sitting by Uncle Remus. His head rested
against the old man's arm, and he was gazing with an expression of
the most intense interest into the rough weather-beaten face that
beamed so kindly on him. "
With this charming picture Mr. Joel
Chandler Harris opens the historic advent-
ures of that Ulysses of the fields, Brer
Rabbit. Uncle Remus, the raconteur of the
adventures, has a prototype on every South-
ern plantation, and his stories are familiar
to all Southerners. The art of Mr. Harris
lies in the way he has transferred their im-
palpable charm to canvas.
Before the appearance of 'Uncle Remus,
His Songs and Sayings' (New York, 1880),
the negro had figured in literature; but he
had figured for a purpose, either to illus- JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS
trate a principle as in Mrs. Stowe's great
novels Uncle Tom's Cabin' and 'Dred,' or he was the stage negro
of the minstrel show- - an intolerable misrepresentation. Perhaps he
was too familiar a feature in the landscape of the Southern author
for him to appreciate his artistic value; and as for the foreigner's
conception of him, what Dr. Johnson said of the descriptive poems
of the blind poet Blacklock may very well be applied to these efforts.
"If," said Johnson, "you found that a paralytic had left his room,
you would conclude he had been carried," meaning that the blind
man had described what he had read, not what he had seen.
No such charge can be brought to the author of these inimitable
sketches. Like his own hero Brer Rabbit "he was born and bred in
a brier patch," in middle Georgia, in the town of Eatonton, Decem-
ber 8th, 1848, and his happy and adventurous youth, pleasantly com-
memorated in his On the Plantation,' was passed in the society he
XII-436
## p. 6962 (#350) ###########################################
6962
JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS
has made famous the world over. Uncle Remus, Mink, Sis Tempy,
Daddy Jake, were not more real personages to him than "de creeters »
they taught him to know and admire. In true American fashion, he
passed from the printer's case to the bar, but forsook law for litera-
ture, his first love,— became a member of the staff and later an editor
of the Atlanta Constitution, and the author of many books, of which
'Uncle Remus is the initial. 'Nights with Uncle Remus,' 'Rainy
Days with Uncle Remus,' 'Mingo and Other Sketches,' 'Daddy Jake
the Runaway,' and 'On the Plantation,' belong to the same series.
Mr. Harris has written other books of plantation romance and actual-
ities, that betray the charm of which he is a master, but to the vol-
umes we have named he owes his high and permanent place in
American literature.
Those who are familiar with the subject know that when Mr.
Harris chose the plantation negro, he had a character of some sub-
tlety to deal with. Like the Celt, he is a creature of extremes, care-
lessly happy one day and despairing the next; but saved from revolt
by a pathetic philosophy born of his helplessness, and also by a
sense of humor that restores his equilibrium. These peculiarities
are not so evident from his actions-for he has been suppressed by
his surroundings—as in his songs and stories, which display his poet-
ical temperament and his picturesque imagination. With the self-
confidence of the artist, Mr. Harris in portraying his character chooses
the most difficult, that is, the dramatic form. Uncle Remus, the seer
of the plantation, sits before his lightwood fire making "shuck" horse-
collars, with the "little boy" for audience, varied by occasional visits
from his satellite "Sis Tempy," or his enemy the incomparable, the
irrepressible Tildy"; and as he works at his self-imposed task, lev-
ies on the whole community for illustrations of weakness and folly.
Or like a child watching his elders, he imitates their manners and
customs, makes his shrewd comments, gives his hard thrusts, and
dispenses his deep philosophy. Only when Mr. Harris drops the dra-
matic form, as in 'On the Plantation,' 'Mingo and Other Sketches,'
and 'Daddy Jake the Runaway,' does he permit himself the luxury of
pathos, so obvious in the negro's life. When Uncle Remus or any
of his confrères is speaking in propria persona, he shows the same
reserve in displaying his deepest emotions as the wounded animal
who seeks his lair.
«
Nor is it strange that the life of the plantation negro should have
developed his mystical side. Much of it is spent alone, with only the
"creeters," between whom and the white man he occupies a middle
distance, for companions. Nor strange that like St. Francis of As-
sisi, each living thing becomes a brother and sister to him, endowed
with personality and a sentient nature. St. Francis preached to the
## p. 6963 (#351) ###########################################
JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS
6963
birds and the "four-footed felons," the "ferocissimo lupo d'Agobis";
and Uncle Remus, though he considers them far too wise to learn
from so poor a creature as man, endows them with all our vices
and virtues. Did not the mystics Æsop and La Fontaine the same?
But the old darky in a dim fashion does more: through them he
expresses a revolt from his own condition, and the not unnatural
desire to circumvent the master who has so long controlled him.
Not to the swift in these stories is the race, nor to the strong the
battle. The weakest, the most helpless of all the animals, the rabbit,
is the hero and the champion, and in every contest is victorious over
the wolf, the fox, the bear. Not virtue but weakness triumphs when
Brer Rabbit milks the cow, fools the fox, and scalds the wolf; not
passion but mischievousness.
With a view to edification which cannot be too sternly deprecated,
etymologists have claimed Uncle Remus and his Songs' as a con-
tribution to the Folk-Lore Society. Better can we spare him to the
natural-history societies, to which he may contribute the chapters
on 'How Mr. Rabbit Lost his Fine Bushy Tail,' 'Why Mr. Rabbit
Whipped his Young Ones,' 'Why the Negro is Black,' and 'The Use
Miss Goose Put her Hands to. ' But Mr. Harris has a higher motive
in letters than utility, we believe. His province is to charm and to
amuse.
WHY BROTHER WOLF DIDN'T EAT THE LITTLE RABBITS
From 'Uncle Remus and his Friends. Copyright 1892 by Joel Chandler Har-
ris, and reprinted here by permission of and special arrangement with
Houghton, Mifflin & Co. , publishers, Boston.
"UNC
NCLE REMUS," said the little boy one day, "why don't you
come up to the big house sometimes, and tell me stories? »
"Shoo, honey, de spoon hatter go ter de bowl's house.
Ef I wuz atter you ter tell me tales, I'd come up dar en set in
de back porch en lissen at you eve'y day, en sometimes eve'y
night. But when de spoon want anything, it hatter go ter de
bowl. Hit bleedz ter be dat-a-way. "
"Well, you used to come. "
"Des so! " exclaimed Uncle Remus. "But whar wuz you
'bout dat time? Right flat er yo' back, dat's whar you wuz.
You laid dar en swaller'd dat doctor-truck, twel I be blest ef you
had mo' heft dan a pa'tridge egg wid' de innerds blow'd out.
En dar wuz Miss Sally a-cryin' en gwine on constant. Ef she
wan't cryin' 'bout you, she wuz quoilin' at me en Marse John.
## p. 6964 (#352) ###########################################
6964
JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS
'Oman tongue ain't got no Sunday. Co'se, when I git dar whar
you wuz, I hatter set down en tell tales fer ter make you fergit
'bout de fuss dat wuz gwine on. I 'member one time," Uncle
Remus went on, laughing, "I wuz settin' dar by yo' bed, tellin'
some great tale er nudder, en de fus' news I know'd I woke up
and foun' myse'f fast asleep, en you woke up en foun' yo'se'f in
de land er Nod. Dar we wuz,-me in de cheer, en you in de
bed; en I'd nod at you, en you'd sno' back at me; en dar wuz
de old torty-shell cat settin' by de h'ath, runnin' dat ar buzz-
wheel what cats has got somewhars in der innerds; en de clock
wuz a-clockin' en de candle a-splutterin'; en des 'bout dat time
Miss Sally come in en rap me 'pon topper de naked place on my
head wid er thimble; en I kotch my breff like a cow a-coughin',
en den Miss Sally start in ter quoilin', en Marse John ax 'er
what she doin', en she 'low she des whisperin' ter me; en Marse
John say ef she call dat whisperin', he dunner what she call
squallin'; en den I up en groanded one er deze yer meetin'-
house groans.
"Dem wuz great times, mon," continued the old man, after
pausing to recover his breath. "Dey mos' sholy wuz. Hit look
like ter me 'bout dem days dat you wan't no bigger dan a young
rabbit atter de hide been tuck off. You cert'nly wuz spare-made
den. I sot dar by yo' bed, en I say ter myse'f dat ef I wuz de
ole Brer Wolf en you wuz a young rabbit, I wouldn't git hongry
nuff fer ter eat you, caze you wuz too bony. "
"When did Brother Wolf want to eat the young rabbit, Uncle
Remus? " inquired the little boy, thinking that he saw the sug-
gestion of a story here.
He was not mistaken.
The old man regarded him with well-
feigned astonishment.
"Ain't I done tole you 'bout dat, honey? Des run over in yo'
min', en see ef I ain't. "
The youngster shook his head most emphatically.
"Well," said Uncle Remus, "ole Brer Wolf want ter eat de
little Rabs all de time, but dey wuz one time in 'tickeler dat dey
make his mouf water, en dat wuz de time when him en Brer
Fox wuz visitin' at Brer Rabbit's house. De times wuz hard,
but de little Rabs wuz slick en fat, en des ez frisky ez kittens.
Ole Brer Rabbit wuz off som'ers, en Brer Wolf en Brer Fox wuz
waitin' fer 'im. De little Rabs wuz playin' 'roun', en dough dey
wuz little dey kep' der years open.
Brer Wolf look at um out'n
## p. 6965 (#353) ###########################################
JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS
6965
de cornder uv his eyes, en lick his chops en wink at Brer Fox,
en Brer Fox wunk back at 'im. Brer Wolf cross his legs, en den
Brer Fox cross his'n. De little Rabs, dey frisk en dey frolic.
"Brer Wolf ho'd his head to'rds um en 'low, 'Dey er mighty
fat. '
"Brer Fox grin, en say, 'Man, hush yo' mouf! '
"De little Rabs frisk en frolic, en play furder off, but dey
keep der years primed.
"Brer Wolf look at um en 'low, 'Ain't dey slick en purty? '
"Brer Fox chuckle, en say, 'Oh, I wish you'd hush! '
"De little Rabs play off furder en furder, but dey keep der
years open.
"Brer Wolf smack his mouf, en 'low, 'Dey er joosy en tender. '
"Brer Fox roll his eye en say, 'Man, ain't you gwine ter
hush up, 'fo' you gi' me de fidgets? '
"De little Rabs dey frisk en dey frolic, but dey hear eve'y-
thing dat pass.
"Brer Wolf lick out his tongue quick, en 'low, 'Less us whirl
in en eat um. '
"Brer Fox say, 'Man, you make me hongry! Please hush up! '
"De little Rabs play off furder en furder, but dey know
'zackly what gwine on. Dey frisk en dey frolic, but dey got der
years wide open.
"Den Brer Wolf make a bargain wid Brer Fox dat when
Brer Rabbit git home, one un um ud git 'im wropped up in a
'spute 'bout fust one thing en den anudder, whiles tudder one ud
go out en ketch de little Rabs.
"Brer Fox 'low, 'You better do de talkin', Brer Wolf, en
lemme coax de little Rabs off. I got mo' winnin' ways wid chil-
luns dan what you is. '
"Brer Wolf say, 'You can't make gourd out'n punkin, Brer
Fox. I ain't no talker. Yo' tongue lots slicker dan mine. I kin
bite lots better'n I kin talk. Dem little Rabs don't want no
coaxin'; dey wants ketchin'-dat what dey wants. You keep ole
Brer Rabbit busy, en I'll ten' ter de little Rabs. '
"Bofe un um know'd dat whichever cotch de little Rabs, de
tudder one ain't gwine smell hide ner hair un um, en dey flew
up en got ter 'sputin, en whiles dey was 'sputin' en gwine on
dat-a-way, de little Rabs put off down de road, blickety-blickety,
for ter meet der daddy. Kase dey know'd ef dey stayed dar
dey'd git in big trouble.
## p. 6966 (#354) ###########################################
6966
JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS
"Dey went off down de road, de little Rabs did, en dey ain't
gone so mighty fur 'fo' dey meet der daddy comin' 'long home.
He had his walkin' cane in one han' en a jug in de udder, en he
look ez big ez life en twice ez natchul.
"De little Rabs run to'rds 'im en holler, 'What you got,
daddy? What you got, daddy? '
"Brer Rabbit say, 'Nothin' but er jug er 'lasses. '
"De little Rabs holler, 'Lemme tas'e, daddy! Lemme tas'e,
daddy! '
"Den ole Brer Rabbit sot de jug down in de road en let um
lick de stopper a time er two, en atter dey done get der win'
back, dey up'n tell 'im 'bout de 'greement dat Brer Wolf en Brer
Fox done make, en 'bout de 'spute what dey had. Ole Brer
Rabbit sorter laugh ter hisse'f, en den he pick up his jug en jog
on to'rds home. When he git mos' dar he stop en tell de little
Rabs fer stay back dar out er sight, en wait twel he call um 'fo'
dey come. Dey wuz mighty glad ter do des like dis, kaze dey'd
done seed Brer Wolf tushes, en Brer Fox red tongue, en dey
huddle up in de broom-sage ez still ez a mouse in de flour-bar'l.
"Brer Rabbit went on home, en sho 'nuff, he fin' Brer Wolf
en Brer Fox waitin' fer 'im. Dey 'd done settle der 'spute, en
dey wuz settin' dar des ez smilin' ez a basket er chips. Dey
pass de time er day wid Brer Rabbit, en den dey ax 'im what
he got in de jug. Brer Rabbit hummed en haw'd, en looked
sorter sollum.
"Brer Wolf look like he wuz bleedz ter fin' out what wuz in
de jug, en he keep a pesterin' Brer Rabbit 'bout it; but Brer
Rabbit des shake his head en look sollum, en talk 'bout de wed-
der, en de craps, en one thing en anudder. Bimeby Brer Fox
make out he wuz gwine atter a drink er water, en he slip out,
he did, fer ter ketch de little Rabs. Time he git out de house,
Brer Rabbit look all 'roun' ter see ef he lis'nen, en den he went
ter de jug en pull out de stopper.
"He han' it ter Brer Wolf en say, 'Tas'e dat. '
'lasses, en smack his mouf.
Hit sho is good. ’
"Brer Rabbit git up close ter Brer Wolf en say, 'Don't tell
nobody. Hit's Fox-blood. '
"Brer Wolf tas'e de
'What kinder truck dat?
"Brer Wolf look 'stonish'. He 'low, 'How you know? '
"Brer Rabbit say, 'I knows what I knows! '
"Brer Wolf say, 'Gimme some mo'! '
He 'low,
## p. 6967 (#355) ###########################################
JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS
6967
"Brer Rabbit say, 'You kin git some mo' fer yo'se'f easy
'nuff; en de fresher 'tis, de better. '
"Brer Wolf 'low, 'How you know? '
"Brer Rabbit say, 'I knows what I knows! '
"Wid dat Brer Wolf stepped out, en start to'rds Brer Fox.
Brer Fox seed 'im comin', en he sorter back off. Brer Wolf got
little closer, en bimeby he make a dash at Brer Fox. Brer Fox
dodge, he did, en den he put out fer de woods wid Brer Wolf
right at his heels.
"Den atter so long a time, atter Brer Rabbit got done
laughin', he call up de little Rabs, gi' um some 'lasses fer sup-
per, en spanked um en sont um ter bed. "
"Well, what did he spank 'em for, Uncle Remus? " asked the
little boy.
"Ter make um grow, honey,—des ter make um grow! Young
creeturs is got ter have der hide loosen'd dat-a-way, same ez
young chilluns. "
"Did Brother Wolf catch Brother Fox? "
"How I know, honey? Much ez I kin do ter foller de tale
when it keeps in de big road, let 'lone ter keep up wid dem
creeturs whiles dey gone sailin' thoo de woods. De tale ain't
persoo on atter um no furder dan de place whar dey make der
disappear'nce. I tell you now, when I goes in de woods, I got
ter know whar I'm gwine. "
BROTHER MUD TURTLE'S TRICKERY
From Uncle Remus and his Friends. Copyright 1892 by Joel Chandler Har-
ris, and reprinted here by permission of and special arrangement with
Houghton, Mifflin & Co. , publishers, Boston.
DON'T like deze yer tales 'bout folks, no how you kin fix um,"
said Uncle Remus after an unusually long pause, during
which he rubbed his left hand with the right, in order to
run the rheumatism out. "No, suh, I don't like um, kaze folks
can't play no tricks, ner git even wid der neighbors, widout
hurtin' somebody's feelin's, er breakin' some law er 'nudder, er
gwine 'ginst what de preacher say.
"Look at dat man what I des been tellin' you 'bout. He let
de udder man fool 'im en ketch 'im, en mo' dan dat, he let um
tote 'im off de calaboose. He oughter been tuck dar; I ain't
་་
"I
## p. 6968 (#356) ###########################################
6968
JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS
'sputin' dat; yit ef dat had been some er de creeturs, dey'd er
sholy got loose fum dar.
-
"When it comes ter talkin' 'bout gittin' loose," Uncle Remus
continued, settling himself comfortably in his chair, "I git ter
runnin' on in my min' 'bout ole Brer Fox en ole Brer Mud
Turkle. Dey had some kinder fallin' out once 'pon a time - I
dunner what. I speck hit's got a tale hung on it, but de tale
done switch itself out'n my min'. Yit dey'd done had a fallin'
out, en dey wa'nt no love los' betwixt um. Well, suh, one day
Brer Fox wuz gwine down de creek fishin'. Little ez you may
think un it, Brer Fox wuz monst'us fon' er fishes, so eve'y chance
he got he'd go fishin'. "
"On Sunday, too? " inquired the little boy. He had been
lectured on that subject not long before.
"Well, I tell you now," replied Uncle Remus laughing, "Brer
Fox is like 'oman's tongue; he ain't got no Sunday. "
"What kind of bait did he have? " the youngster asked.
"What he want wid bait, honey? He ain't got no bait, en no
pole, en no hook. He des went down de creek, en when he
come ter a good place, he'd wade in en feel und' de rocks en
und' de bank. Sometimes he'd ketch a horny-head, en den ag'in
he'd ketch a peerch. Well, suh, he went on en went on, en he
had bad luck. Look like de fishes wuz all gone fum home, but
he kep' on en kep' on. He 'low ter hisse'f dat he bleedz ter
have some fish fer dinner. One time he put his han' in a craw-
fish nes' en got nipt, en anudder time he tetched a eel, en it
made de col' chills run 'cross 'im. Yit he kep' on.
"Bimeby Brer Fox come ter whar ole Brer Mud Turkle live
at. I dunner what make ole Brer Mud Turkle live in such a
damp place like dat. Look like him en his folks 'ud have a bad
col' de whole blessid time. But dar he wuz in de water und' de
bank, layin' dar fas' asleep, dreamin' 'bout de good times he'd
have when de freshet come. He 'uz layin' dar wid his eyes shot,
when de fus' news he know he feel sump'n 'nudder fumblin'
'roun' his head. 'Twan't nobody but ole Brer Fox feelin' 'roun'
und' de bank fer fishes.
"Brer Mud Turkle move his head, he did, but de fumblin'
kep' on, en bimeby he open his mouf en Brer Fox fumble en
fumble, twel bimeby he got 'is han' in dar, en time he do dat,
ole Brer Mud Turkle shet down on it. En I let you know,"
continued Uncle Remus, shaking his head slowly from side to
## p. 6969 (#357) ###########################################
JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS
6969
side as if to add emphasis to the statement, "I let you know
when ole Brer Mud Turkle shet down on yo' han', you got
ter cut off his head en den wait twel it thunder, 'fo' he turn
loose.
"Well, suh, he shet down on ole Brer Fox, en ef you'd 'a'
been anywhars in dat settlement you'd 'a' heard squallin' den ef
you ain't never hear none befo'.
"Brer Fox des hilt his head back en holler 'Ouch! Ouch!
What dis got me? Ouch! Turn me aloose! Ouch! Somebody
better run here quick! Laws a massy! Ouch! '
"But Brer Mud Turkle he helt on, en he feel so much com-
fort dat he'd er in about went ter asleep ag'in ef Brer Fox
hadn't er snatched en jerked so hard en a-holler'd so loud.
"Brer Fox holler, en Brer Mud Turkle hol' on; Brer Fox
holler, en Brer Mud Turkle hol' on. Dar dey wuz, nip en tug,
holler en hol' fas'! Bimeby it hurt so bad dat Brer Fox des
fetched one loud squall en made one big pull, en out come ole
Brer Mud Turkle, a-hangin' ter his han'.
"Well, suh, when dey got out on de bank en Brer Mud Tur-
kle sorter woke up, he tuck'n turn Brer Fox loose widout waitin'
fer de thunder. He ax. Brer Fox pardon, but Brer Fox he ain't
got no pardon fer ter gi' 'im.
"Brer Mud Turkle make like he skeer'd. He 'low: 'I 'clar'
ter gracious, Brer Fox! ef I'd a know'd 'twuz you, I'd 'a' never
shet down on you in de roun' worl'; kaze I know what a danger-
some man you is.
