| The Tale of Brer Rabbit |
| Brer Rabbit Tricks Brer Fox Again |
| When all the animals saw how well Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox were getting along, they decided to patch up their quarrels. One hot day Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox, Brer Coon, Brer Bear and a whole lot of the other animals were clearing new ground so they could plant corn and have some roasting ears when autumn came. Brer Rabbit got tired about three minutes after he started, but he couldn't say anything if he didn't want the other animals calling him lazy. So he kept carrying off the weeds and brambles the others were pulling out of the ground. After a while he screamed real loud and said a briar was stuck in his hand. He wandered off, picking at his hand. As soon as he was out of sight, he started looking for a shady place where he could nap. He saw a well with a bucket in it. That was the very thing he'd been looking for. He climbed, jumped in, and whoops! The bucket went down, down, down until --SPLASH!-- it hit the water. Now, I know you don't know nothing about no well. You probably think that when God made water, He made the faucet too. Well, God don't know nothing about no faucet, and I don't care too much for them myself. When I was coming up, everybody had their own well. Over the well was a pulley with a rope on it. Tied to each end of the rope was a bucket, and when you pulled one bucket up, the other one went down. Brer Rabbit found out about them kind of wells when he looked up at the other bucket. He didn't know what he was going to do. He couldn't even move around very much or else he'd tip over and land in the water. Brer Fox and Brer Rabbit might've made up and become friends, but that didn't mean Brer Fox trusted Brer Rabbit. Brer Fox had seen him sneaking off, so he followed. He watched Brer Rabbit get in the bucket and go to the bottom of the well. That was the most astonishing thing he had ever seen. Brer Rabbit had to be up to something. "I bet you anything that's where Brer Rabbit hides all his money. Or he's probably discovered a gold mine down there!" Brer Fox peeked down into the well. "Hey, Brer Rabbit! What are you doing down there?" "Who? Me? Fishing. I thought I'd surprise everybody and catch a mess of fish for dinner." "Many of 'em down there?" "Is there stars in the sky? I'm glad you come, 'cause there's more fish down here that I can haul up. Why don't you come on down and give me a hand?" "How do I get down there?" "Jump in the bucket." Brer Fox did that and started going down. The bucket Brer Rabbit was in started up. As Brer Rabbit passed Brer Fox, he sang out: Goodbye, Brer Fox, take care of your clothes, For this is the way the world goes; Some goes up and some goes down, You'll get to the bottom all safe and sound Just as Brer Fox hit the water --SPLASH!-- Brer Rabbit jumped out at the top. He ran and told the other animals that Brer Fox was muddying up the drinking water. They ran to the well and hauled Brer Fox out, chastising him for muddying up some good water. Wasn't nothing he could say. Everybody went back to work, and every now and then Brer Rabbit looked at Brer Fox and laughed. Brer Fox had to give a little dry grin himself. |
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