Войти в систему
Войти с помощью соц. сетей:
Brer Rabbit stayed away from Mr. Man’s garden for about a month, but he kept having dreams about all those pretty vegetables, and dream-food don’t make a meal. No, indeed!
Mr. Man figured that Brer Rabbit would be back and he left the garden gate wide open. He told his daughter, “Janey, I want you to watch careful. If Brer Rabbit or Mr. Billy Malone, or whatever he calls himself, goes in the garden, I want you to run quick and close the gate tight.”
“Yes, Daddy.”
When Brer Rabbit came and saw the gate open, he thought luck was with him. He ducked in the garden and got down to some serious eating. When he got ready to go, he found the gate closed. He shook it, but it didn’t open. He pushed it; it still didn’t open. He grunted and pulled on it; the gate didn’t budge.
Brer Rabbit hollered, “Hey, Janey! Come open the gate! It hurts my feelings to find the gate shut like this.”
Janey came, but she didn’t say a word.
“Come on, Janey! Open the gate! It hurts my feelings to see the gate shut like this. If you don’t open the gate, I’ll tear it off its hinges.”
“Daddy told me not to open the gate.”
Brer Rabbit opened his mouth wide. “See my long sharp teeth? If you don’t open this gate, I’ll bite you through and through.”
That scared Janey and she opened the gate right quick.
When Mr. Man came back and asked about Brer Rabbit, Janey said, “He was here, Daddy, but I let him out. He said he was going to bite me through and through with his long sharp teeth.”
Mr. Man said, “Janey, how is he going to bite you with him on one side of the gate and you the other?”
Janey hadn’t thought about that.
Next morning Brer Rabbit went to the garden, found the gate open, went in and proceeded to make friends with Mr. Man’s mustard greens. He ate until he was near ’bout green himself. He got ready to go, and lo and behold the gate was shut. He pushed; the gate didn’t open. He kicked; gate still didn’t open. He butted the gate with his head; nothing doing.
“Hey, Janey!” he hollered. “Come and open this gate! It’s bad to mess with a man like me. Very bad! Open the gate.”
Janey don’t say a word.
“Shame on you,” Brer Rabbit told her. “Shame on you doing me like this. You hurting my feelings. Open this gate before I tear it down.”
“My daddy told me not to.”
Brer Rabbit opened his eyes wide. “See my big eyes? I’ll pop one of these eyes at you and kill you dead if you don’t open this gate. Open the gate before my eye pops.”
Janey hurried right now to get that gate open.
When Mr. Man came back, he asked where Brer Rabbit was. Janey told her daddy he was gone because he was going to pop one of his eyes and kill her.
“Brer Rabbit told a big tale, Janey. He can’t do nothing like that.”
Next morning Brer Rabbit came, went in the garden, and commenced on the artichokes. He ate artichokes until he was choking. When he got ready to go he figured the gate would be shut, and it was. He pulled it; he shook it; he kicked it; and he cussed it. Gate didn’t open.
“Hey, Janey! Come open this gate! It’s very bad to treat your own kinfolks like this. It makes me feel so sad when you do me like this.”
Janey didn’t say a word.
“You ain’t supposed to treat kinfolks like this, Janey. Didn’t your daddy teach you anything?”
“How you kin to me?” Janey asked.
“Your granddaddy chased my uncle with a dog once. That makes us kin. Now open the gate.”
Janey didn’t say a word.
“See my long sharp teeth. I’ll bite you through and through.”
“Not as long as you on that side of the gate and I stay over here.”
“See my big eye. I’ll pop it at you and shoot you dead!”
“No, you won’t. Can’t nobody do nothing like that.”
Brer Rabbit was hot now. “See my horns!” He made his ears stand up stiff and straight. “I’ll run you through.”
She ran and opened the gate, and Brer Rabbit got on away from there.
When Mr. Man came back and Janey told him what happened, he said, “Tomorrow when Brer Rabbit comes, you shut the gate and go over to your girlfriend’s house and play.”
That suited Janey just fine.
Next day Brer Rabbit came and did away with the radishes. When he was ready to go, the gate was shut and he couldn’t get it open. He called for Janey, but she didn’t come. He tried to find a crack in the fence. No cracks. He looked for a hole.
No holes. He tried to jump over. Fence was too high.
Mr. Man came, went in the garden, and grabbed Brer Rabbit. He tied him in a sack, tied the sack high up on a tree limb, and went off to get his cane.
While he was gone, Brer Possum wandered into the garden. He looked up and saw the bag hanging from the tree limb.
“What’s that bag hanging up there for?”
Brer Rabbit said, “Hush, Brer Possum! I’m listening to the singing in the clouds.”
“I don’t hear no singing, Brer Rabbit.”
“Hush, I said! How can I hear if you keep flapping your mouth?”
There was a long pause. “I hear it now!” exclaimed Brer Rabbit. “I wish you could hear the singing in the clouds, Brer Possum.”
“So do I.”
“Tell you what. I’ll let you sit in the bag and listen if you promise not to stay too long.”
Brer Possum promised. He climbed the tree, untied the bag, and let it down real slow. Brer Rabbit crawled out and Brer Possum crawled in. Brer Rabbit tied the mouth of the sack real tight and started to pull the rope up to the tree limb.
“I don’t hear them singing, Brer Rabbit.”
“You will soon enough.”
Brer Rabbit tied the sack on the limb.
“I don’t hear them singing, Brer Rabbit.”
“You’ll hear them, Brer Possum. You’ll hear them.”
Brer Rabbit ran and hid in the bushes.
Just about the time Mr. Man came back, Brer Possum called out, “I don’t hear them singing.”
Mr. Man said, “I’ll make you hear singing!”
Mr. Man took the bag down from the tree, grabbed his cane, and beat on that sack until his arms were tired. Mr. Man figured Brer Rabbit had to be dead by now. Just as he started to open the sack, Brer Rabbit came out of the bushes and hollered, “I ate your artichokes! I ate your radishes! I ate your peas! I ate your greens, and I’m going to be eating out of your garden until you die!”
Mr. Man had almost caught Brer Rabbit, so Brer Rabbit decided it was time to settle down and do some honest work. Maybe he was getting old, or going through a midlife change.
He cleared a piece of ground back of his house and planted the nicest sweet potato patch anybody had ever seen. Brer Fox saw him sweating out there every day and couldn’t believe his eyes! Something must’ve scared Brer Rabbit for him to be putting in a hard day’s work. And if Brer Rabbit was living scared, Brer Fox saw his chance to get even for some of the misery he’d suffered.
Brer Fox decided to test Brer Rabbit, and one night he knocked down part of his fence. Next morning Brer Rabbit put it back up. That wasn’t the Brer Rabbit that Brer Fox knew. Next night Brer Fox knocked it all down. Brer Rabbit patiendy put the fence back up and went on to work in his potato patch. Brer Fox made ready to move in for the kill.
Next day he went over to Brer Rabbit’s house. “I got a proposition for you. Let’s take a walk and talk it over.”
“Walk where?” Brer Rabbit wanted to know.
“Right over yonder.”
“Where is over yonder?”
“Don’t be so suspicious. What I wants to talk to you about is these fine peaches I found. I need your help getting them down.”
This was something Brer Rabbit could understand. Before long they came to the peach orchard. Brer Rabbit picked a tree so heavy with peaches it was about to break, and he climbed up. Brer Fox sat at the base of the tree, figuring he would grab Brer Rabbit when he climbed down.
Brer Rabbit knew that, so when Brer Fox told him to throw down the peaches, Brer Rabbit hollered, “Can’t! If you miss, the peaches will get squashed on the ground. I’m going to throw them over there in the soft grass.”
When Brer Fox went to pick the peaches up, Brer Rabbit hurried out of the tree and ran into the weeds. “Say, Brer Fox! I got a riddle for you.”
“What is it?”
“It go like this,” and then Brer Rabbit sang:
Big bird rob and link bird sing,
The big bee zoom and the little bee sting,
The little man lead and the big horse follows —
Can you tell what’s good for a head in a hollow?
Brer Fox scratched his head and squinched up his face. He scratched his armpit and squinched some more. He scratched his rear and the more he scratched and the more he squinched, the more mixed up he got. Finally, he admitted, “That’s a good riddle, Brer Rabbit. What’s the answer?”
Brer Rabbit shook his head. “Can’t tell you. But I’ll give you some help. This is one of them riddles you can’t figure out unless you eat some honey. And I know where we can get plenty honey.”
Brer Fox followed Brer Rabbit until they came to Brer Bear’s backyard, where there were a lot of bee-gums. For all you city folks what ain’t been properly educated, a bee-gum is a beehive what’s in a gum tree.
Well, Brer Fox didn’t have much of a sweet tooth, but he sho’ did want to figure out the riddle. He watched while Brer Rabbit walked around among the bee-gums, tapping on them with a stick until he found one that sounded full of honey.
“This is a good one, Brer Fox. Now, put your head in and get some honey.”
Brer Rabbit tilted the bee-gum and Brer Fox stuck his head in. No sooner was it in than Brer Rabbit turned that bee-gum loose and down it came – ker-swoosh! – right tight on Brer Fox’s neck.
Brer Fox kicked; he squealed; he jumped; he squalled; he danced; he pranced; he begged; he even prayed, but nothing doing. He called out for Brer Rabbit to help him, but shoots! By that time Brer Rabbit was sitting on his front porch smoking a cigar.
After a while Brer Rabbit looked up to see Brer Fox’s granddaddy, who folks called Gran’sir’ Gray Fox.
“How you today, Gran’sir’ Gray Fox?” Brer Rabbit greeted him.
“Not doing too well,” Gran’sir’ Gray Fox said. “I got the old age in my teeths.”
“Sorry to hear that,” Brer Rabbit replied. “What brings you over to these parts?”
“You ain’t seen that good-for-nothing, triflin’ grandson of mine, have you?”
Brer Rabbit chuckled. “I seen him. Me and him been doing riddles. He’s off somewhere right now trying to figure out one I gave him. Why don’t I tell it to you? If you figure it out, it’ll take you right to him.”
“All right, Brer Rabbit. Lay it on me.”
The big bird rob and the little bird sing,
The big bee zoom and the little bee sting,
The little man lead and the big horse follows —
Can you tell what’s good far a head in a hollow?
Gran’sir’ Gray Fox put a pinch of snuff in his lip, scratched his head, and coughed a couple of times. He thought and thought and thought and scratched some more, but he couldn’t make it out either.
Brer Rabbit laughed and then sang:
Bee-gum mighty big to make a Fox collar,
Can you tell what’s good for a head in a hollow?
Gran’sir’ Gray Fox put some more snuff in his lip, scratched some more, thought some more, scratched again. Then he smiled, nodded, and headed for Brer Bear’s bee-gum trees.
He got there just in time to see Brer Bear catch Brer Fox with the bee-gum on his head. Yes, he got there just in time to see Brer Bear lay into Brer Fox with a hickory stick like Sister Goose battling clothes. Gran’sir’ Gray Fox enjoyed the sight too.
Войти с помощью соц. сетей: