IV. TRANSLATION - How Mr. Rabbit Was Too Sharp for Mr. Fox

This is the second part of the Tar-Baby story - the famous briar patch escape. The characters are, as the title says, only Mr. Rabbit and Mr. Fox.

IV.

HOW MR. RABBIT WAS TOO SHARP FOR MR. FOX

"Uncle Remus," said the little boy one evening, when he had found the old man with little or nothing to do, "did the fox kill and eat the rabbit when he caught him with the Tar-Baby?"

"Law, honey, ain't I tell you 'bout that??" replied the old darkey*, chuckling slyly. "I declare to gracious I ought to have told you that, but old man Nod was ridin' on my eyelids until a little mre and I'd have disremembered my own name, and then on to that here comes your mammy hollerin' after you.

"What I tell you when I first begin? I told you Brer Rabbit was a monstrous soon(?) creature: leastways that's what I laid out for to tell you. Well, then, honey, don't you go and make no other calculations, 'cause in them days Brer Rabbit and his family was at the head of the gang when any racket was on hand, and there they stayed. Before you begin for to wipe your eyes about Brer Rabbit you want and see whereabouts Brer Rabbit going to fetch up at. But that's neither here nor there.

"When Brer Fox find Brer Rabbit mixed up with the Tar-Baby, he feel mighty good, and he roll on the ground and laugh. By and by he up and say, says he:

"'Well, I expect I got you this time, Brer Rabbit, says he; 'maybe I ain't, but I expect I is. You been runnin' around here sassin' after me a mighty long time, but I expect you done come to the end of the row. You been cuttin' up yo' capers and bouncin' around in this neighborhood until you come to believe yourself the boss of the whole gang. End then you are always somewhere where you got no business,' sez brer Fox, says he. 'Who asked you for to come and strike up acquaintance with this here Tar-Baby? And who stuck you up there where you is? Nobody in the round world. You just took and jam yourslf on that Tar-Baby without waitin' for any invite,' says Brer Fox, says hee, 'and there you is, and there you'll stay til I fixes up a brush-pile and fires her up, 'cause I'm going to barbecue you this day, sure,' says Brer Fox, says he.

"Then Brer Rabbit talk mighty humble:

"'I don't care what you do with me, Brer Fox,' says he, 'so you don't fling me in that briar-patch,' says he.

"'It's so much trouble for to kinde a fire,' says Brer Fox, says he, 'that I expect I'll have to hang you,' says he.

"'Hang me just as high as you please, Brer Fox,' says Brer Rabbit, says he, 'but do for the Lord's sake, don't fling me in that briar-patch,' says he.

"' I ain't got no string,' says Brer Fox, says he, 'and now I expect I'll have to drown you,' says he.

"'Drown me just as deep as you please, Brer Fox,' says Brer Rabbit, says he, 'but don't fling me in that briar-patch,' says he.

"' There ain't no water nigh,' says Brer Fox, says he, ' and now I expect I'll have to skin you,' says he.

"'Skin me, Brer Fox,' says Brer Rabbit, says he, 'snatch out my eyeballs, tear out my ears by the roots, and cut off my legs,' says he, 'but do please, Brer Fox, don't fling e in that briar-patch,' says he.

"' 'Course Brer Fox want to hurt Brer Rabbit bad as he can, so he caught him by the behind legs and slung him in the middle of the briar-patch. There was a considerable flutter where Brer Rabbit struck the bushes, and Brer Fox sort of hang around for to see what was going to happen. By and by he hear somebody call him, and way up the hill he see Brer Rabbit settin'cross-legged on a chinkapin (?) log, combing the pitch out of his hair with a chip. Then Brer Fox know that he been swapped off mighty bad. Brer Rabbit was bleedzed (pleased?) for to fling back some of his sass, and he holler out:

"'Bred and born in a briar-patch, Brer Fox - bred and born in a briar-patch!' and with that, he skip out just as lively as a cricket in the embers."

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Read the original dialect at //xroads.virginia.edu/~UG97/remus/toosharp.html; and analysis at ://xroads.virginia.edu/~UG97/remus/anasharp.html.









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* These translations leave in the vernacular, including negro and colored, when they appear, but leave out some others. No set criteria, but more a personalsense of what gets in the way as an obtrusive and now seen as total insult, and other phrases that seem more local and not so obtrusive.
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Read the original dialect at //xroads.virginia.edu/~UG97/remus/toosharp.html; and analysis at //xroads.virginia.edu/~UG97/remus/anasharp.html