II. TRANSLATION - The Wonderful Tar-Baby Story

Just try to force an issue, and make somebody respond the way you would like, and follow it up with a cuff to the haid to make your point, without first checking out what might happen, given the givens, and watch how you get totally stuck. A story of getting taken in.

II.

THE WONDERFUL TAR-BABY

"Didn't the fox ever catch the rabbit, Uncle Remus?" asked the little boy the next evening.

"He came mighty near it, honey, sure as you're born - Brer Fox did. One day after Brer Rabbit fooled him with that calamus root, Brer Fox went to work and got him some tar, and mixed it with some turpentine, and fixed up a contraption that he called a Tar-Baby, and he took this here Tar-Baby and he set her in the big road, and then he lay off in the bushes to see what the news was goin' to be. And he didn't have to wait long, neither, 'cause by and by here come Brer Rabbit pacin' down the road - lippity-clippity, clippity-lippity - just as sassy as a jay-bird. Brer Fox, he lay low. Brer Rabbit came prancin' along until he spied the Tar-Baby, and then he fetched up on his behind legs like he was astonished. The Tar-Baby, she sat there, she did, and Brer Fox, he lay low.

"'Mawnin'!" says Brer Rabbit says he - 'nice weather this mawnin'," says he.

"Tar-Baby ain't sayin' nothin', and Brer Fox, he lay low.

"'How do your symptoms seem to segashuate*?" says Brer Rabbit, says he.

"Brer Fox, he wink his eye slow, and lay low, and the Tar-Baby, she ain't sayin' nothin'.

"'How you come on, then? Is you deaf?' says Brer Rabbit, says he. 'Cause if you is, I can holler louder,' says he.

"Tar-Baby stay still, and Brer Fox, he lay low.

"'You're stuck up, that's what you is,' says Brer Rabbit, says he, 'and I'm going to kill you, that's what I'm going to do,' says he.

"Brer Fox, he sort of chuckled in his stomach, he did, but Tar-Baby ain't sayin' nothin.'

""I'm going to teach you how to talk to respectable folks if it's the last act,' says Brer Rabbit, says he. 'If you don't take off that hat and tell me howdy, I'm going to bust you wide open,' says he.

"Tar-Baby stay still, and Brer Fox, he lay low.

"Brer Rabbit kept on askin' him, and the Tar-Baby, she kept on sayin' nothin', until presently Brer Rabbit drew back with his fist, he did and blip he tucked her side of her head. Right there's where he broke his molasses jug. His fist stuck, and he can't pull loose. The tar held him. But Tar-Baby she stay still, and Brer Fox, he lay low.

"'If you don't let me loose, I'll knock you again,' says Brer Rabbit, says he, and with that he fetched her a wipe with the other hand, and that stuck. Tar-Baby, she ain't sayin' nothin', and Brer Fox, he lay low.

"'Turn me loose, before I kick the natural stuffing out of you,' says Brer Rabbit, says he, but the Tar-Baby, she ain't sayin' nothin.' She just held on, and then Brer Rabbit lost the use of his feet in the same way. Brer Fox he lay low. Then Brer Rabbit squalled out that if the Tar-Baby don't turn him loose he'll butt her cranksided. And then he butted, and his head got stuck. Then Brer Fox, he sauntered forth, lookin' just as innocent as one of your nanny's** mockin' birds.

"'Howdy, Brer Rabbit,' says Brer Fox, says he. 'You look sort of stuck up this mawnin'," says he, and then he rolled on the ground, and laughed and laughed 'til he couldn't laugh no more. 'I expect you'll take dinner with me this time, Brer Rabbit. I laid in some calamus root, and I ain't going to take no excuse,' says Brer Fox, says he."

Here Uncle Remus paused, and drew a two-pound yam out of the ashes.

"Did the fox eat the rabbit?" asked the little boy to whom the story had been told.

"That's all the far the tale goes," replied the old man. "He might, and then again he mightn't. Some say Judge Bar came along and loosed him - some say he didn't. I hear Miss Sally calling. You better run along."

[note there is no briar patch conclusion here, and that is true to the book - stay in suspense please, just like the little boy] [also note there is no Brer B'ar in this story - Walt Disney fakes things]
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* segashuate - ? "exaggerate"?
** please put back in the real word

Look up the film clip of Walt Disney's 1946 "Song of the South." See the Tar-Baby section bit at at //www.uncleremus.com/tarbaby.html, about 15 minutes long from the Walt Disney film.
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Read the original dialect at //xroads.virginia.edu/~UG97/remus/tar-baby.html; and analysis there at ://xroads.virginia.edu/~UG97/remus/anatar.html