XVII. Mr. Rabbit Nibbles Up the Butter. Uncle Remus Translation

Legends of the Old Plantation

XVII

MR. RABBIT NIBBLES UP THE BUTTER
Translation

“The animals and the creatures,” said Uncle Remus, shaking his coffee around in the bottom of his tin cup, in order to gather up all the sugar, “they kept on getting more and more familiar with one another, until by and by, it wasn’t long before Brer Rabbit, and Brer Fox, and Brer Possum got to sort of bunching their provisions * together in the same shanty. After a while, the roof sort of began to leak, and one day, Brer Rabbit, and Brer Fox, and Brer Possum, assembled for to see if they can’t kind of patch her up. They had a big day’s work in front of them, and they fetched their dinner with them. They lump the vittles up in one pile, and the butter what Brer Fox brought, and they goes and puts in the spring-house for to keep cool, and then they went to work, and it wasn’t long before Brer Rabbit stomach began to sort of growl and pester him. That butter of Brer Fox sat heavy on his mind, and his mouth water every time he remember about it. Presently he say to himself that he bleedzd ** to have a nip at that butter, and then he lay his plans, he did. First news you know, while they was all working long, Brer Rabbit raise his head quick and fling his ears forward and holler out:
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“ ‘Here I is. What you want with me?’ and off he put like something was after him.
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“He sallied around, old Brer Rabbit did, and after he make sure that nobody ain’t following on him, into the spring-house he bounces, and there he stays until he gets a bite of butter. Then he saunter on back and go to work.
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“ ‘Where you been?’ says Brer Fox, says he.
.

“ ‘I hear my children calling me,’ says Brer Rabbit, says he, ‘and I have to go see what they want. My old woman done gone and took mighty sick,’ says he.
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“They work on until by and by the butter taste so good that old Brer Rabbit want some more. Then he raise up his head, he did, and holler out:
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“ ‘Heyo! Hold on! I’m a-comin’!’ and off he put.
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“This time he stay a right smart while, and when he got back, Brer Fox asked where he been.
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“ “I been to see my old woman, and she’s a sinkin’,’ says he.
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“Directly Brer Rabbit hear them calling him again and off he goes, and this time, bless your soul, he gets the butter out so clean that he can see himself in the bottom of the bucket. He scrape it clean and lick it dry, and then he go back to work looking most same than a nigger what the patter-rollers *** been had a hold of.
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“ ‘How’s your old woman this time?’ says Brer Fox, says he.
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“ ‘I’m obliged to you, Brer Fox, says Brer Rabbit, says he, ‘but I’m feared she’s done gone by now,’ and that sort of make Brer Fox and Brer Possum feel in moanin’ **** with Brer Rabbit.
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“By and by, when dinner –time come, they all got out of vittles, but Brer Rabbit keep on lookin’ lonesome, and Brer Fox and Brer Possum they sort of rustle around for to see if they can’t make Brer Rabbit feel sort of splimmy.”
.

“What is that, Uncle Remus?” asked the little boy.

“Sort of splimmy-splammy, honey – sort of like he in a crowd – sort of like his old woman ain’t dead as she mout ***** be. You know how folks does when they gets where people’s a-moanin’.” ****
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The little boy didn’t know, fortunately for him, and Uncle Remus went on:
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“Brer Fox and Brer Possum rustle around, they did, getting out the vittles, and by and by Brer Fox he say, says he:
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“ ‘Brer Possum, you run down to the spring and fetch the butter, and I’ll sail around you and set the table,’ says he.
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“Brer Possum, he lop off after the butter, and directly her he come lopin’ back with his ears a tremblin’ and his tongue a hangin’ out. Brer Fox, he holler out:
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“ ‘What the matter now, Brer Possum? Says he.

“ ‘You all better run here, folks,’ says Brer Possum, says he. ‘The last drop of that butter done gone!’
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“ ‘Where she gone?’ says Brer Fox, says he.
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“ ‘Look like she dry up,’ says Brer Possum, says he.
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“Then Brer Rabbit, he look sort of solemn, he did, and he up and say, says he.
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“ ‘I expect that butter melt in somebody mouth,’ says he.
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“Then they went down to the spring with Brer Possum, and sure enough the butter done gone. While they was disputin’ over the wonderment, Brer Rabbit say he see tracks all around there, and he point out that if they’ll all go to sleep, he can catch the chap what stole the butter. Then they all lie down and Brer Fox and Brer Possum they soone dropped off to sleep, but Brer Rabbit he stay awake, and when the time come he raise up easy and smear Brer Possum’s mouth with the butter on his paws, and then he run off and nibble up the best of the dinner what they left layin’ out, and then he come back and wake up Brer fox, and sho him the butter on Brer Possum’s mouth. Then they wake up Brer Possum, and tell him about it, but of course Brer Possum deny it o the last. Brer Fox, though, he’s a kind of lawyer, and he argue this way – that Brer Possum was the first one at the butter, and the first one for to miss it, and more than that, there hand the signs on his mouth. Brer Possum see that they got him jammed up on a corner, and then he up and say that the way for to catch the man what stole the butter is to build a big brush-heap and set her afire, and all hands try to jump over, and the one what fall in, then he the chap what stole the butter. Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox they both agree, they did, and they whirl in and build the brush-heap, and they build her high and they build her wide, and then they touch her off. When she got to blazin’ up good, Brer Rabbit, he took the first turn. He sort of step back, and look around and giggle, and over he went more samer than a bird flying. Then come Brer Fox. He got back a little further, and spit on his hands, and lit out and makd the jump, and he come so nigh getting in that that the end of his tail catch afire. Ain’t you never see no fox, honey? Inquired Uncle Remus, in a tone that implied both conciliation and information.
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The little boy though probably he had, but he wouldn’t commit himself.
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“Well, then,” continued the old man, "next time you see one of them, you look right close nd see if the end of his tail ain't white. It's just like I tell you. They b'ars are scared of that brush-heap to this day. They are marked -- that's what they is - they are marked."

"And what about Brother Possum?" asked the little boy.

"Old Brer Possum, he took a running start, he did, and he come lumberin' along, and hn he lit -- kerblam! --right in the middle of the fire, and that was the last of old Brer Possum."

"But, Uncle Remus, Brother Possum didn't steal the butter after all," said the little boy, who was not at all satisfied with such summary injustice.

"That's what make I say what I does, honey. In this world, lots of folks have got to suffer for other folks sins. Look like it's mighty on wrong; but it's just that way. Tribulation seem like she's a-waitin' 'round the corner for to catch one and all of us, honey."

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* Bunching their perwishuns together – their provisions, food

** Bleedzd to - obliged to

*** pater-rollers – patrollers, whites who monitored the area, and the people on and off the roads of it, focusing on blacks being where the patrollers thought they should not.

**** feel in moanin’; a-moanin' – in mourning?

***** mout be – might be?

XVI. Old Mr. Rabbit, He's a Good Fisherman. Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings, Translation

Legends of the Old Plantation
XVI

OLD MR. RABBIT, HE’S A GOOD FISHERMAN
Translation

“Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox was like some children what I knows of,” said Uncle Remus, regarding the little boy, who had come to hear another story, with an affection of great solemnity. “Both of them was always after one another, a prankin’ and a pesterin’ around, but Brer Rabbit did have some peace, cause Brer Fox got skittish about puttin’ the clamps * on Brer Rabbit.
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“One day, when Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox, and Brer Coon, and Brer B’ar, and a whole lot of them was clearin’ up a new ground for to plant a roasting ear patch **, the sun began to get sort of hot, and Brer Rabbit he got tired; but he didn’t let on, because he feared the balance of them would call him lazy, and he keep on toting off trash and piling up brush, until by and by he holler out that he got a briar in his hand and then he take and slip off, and hunt for cool place for to rest. After while he come across a well with a bucket hanging in it.
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“ ‘That look cool,’ says Brer Rabbit, says he, ‘and cool I expect she is. I’ll just about get in there and take a nap,’ and with that in he jump, he did, and he ain’t no sooner fix himself than the bucket began to go down.
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“Wasn’t the Rabbit scared, Uncle Remus?” asked the little boy.
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“Honey, there ain’t been no worser scared beast since the world began than this here same Brer Rabbit. He fairly had a ager. *** He know where he come from, but he don’t know where he going. Directly, he feel the bucket hit the water, and there she sat, but Brer Rabbit he keep mighty still, because he don’t know what minute going to be the next. He just lay there and shook and shiver.
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“Brer Fox always got one eye on Brer Rabbit, and when he slip off from the new ground, Brer Fox he sneak after him. He know Brer Rabbit was after some project or another, and he took and crept off, he did, and watch him. Brer Fox see Brer Rabbit come to the well and stop, and then he see him jump in the bucket, and then, no and behold, he see him go down out of sight. Brer Fox was the most astonished Fox that you ever laid eyes on. He sat off there in the bushes and study and study but he don’t make no heads nor tails to this kind of business. Then he say to himself, says he:
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“ ‘Well, if this don’t bang my times,’ says he, ‘then Joe's dead and Sal’s a widow. Right down there in that well Brer Rabbit keeps his money hid, and if it ain’t that then he done gone and discovered a gold mine, and if it ain’t that, then I’m a-gonna see what’s in there, ‘ says he.
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“Brer Fox crept up a little nigher, he did, and listen, but he don’t hear no fuss, and he keep on gettin’ nigher, and yet he don’t hear nothing. Al this time Brer Rabbit mighty nigh scared out of his skin, and he feared for to move because the bucket might keel over and spill him out in the water. While he saying his prayers over like a train of cars runnin’, old Brer Fox holler out:
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“ ‘Heyo, Brer Rabbit! Who you with sittin’ down there?’ says he.
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“ ‘Who? Me? Oh, I’m just a fishin’, Brer Fox,’ says Brer Rabbit, says he. ‘I just say to myself that I’d sort of surprise you all with a mess of fishes for dinner, and so here I is, and there’s the fishes. I’m a fishin’ for suckers, Brer Fox,’ says Brer Rabbit, says he.
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“ ‘Is there many of them down there, Brer Rabbit?’ says Brer Fox, says he.
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“ ‘Lots of them, Brer Fox; scores and scores of them. The water is naturally alive with them. Come down and help me haul them in, Brer Fox,’ says Brer Rabbit, says he.
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“ ‘How I going to get down, Brer Rabbit?’
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“ ‘Jump into the bucket, Brer Fox. It’ll fetch you down all safe and sound.’
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“Brer Rabbit talk so happy and talk so sweet that Brer Fox he jump in the bucket, he did, and he went down, because his weight pulled Brer Rabbit up. When they pass one another on the half-way ground, Brer Rabbit he sing out:
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“ ‘Good-by, Brer Fox, take care 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.’ ****

“When Brer Rabbit got out, he gallop off and told the folks what the well belong to that Brer Fox was down in there muddying up the drinkin’ water, and then he gallop back to the well, and holler down to Brer Fox:
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“ ‘Here come a man with a great big gun –

When he haul you up, you jump and run.’ “
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“What then, Uncle Remus?” asked the little boy, as the old man paused.
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“In just about half an hour, honey, both of them was back in the new ground, working just like they never heard of no well, except that every now and then Brer Rabbit would bust out in the laugh, and Old Brer Fox, he’d get a spell of the dry grins.”

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*Puttin’ the clamps on Brer Rabbit – Is this clamping a way of castrating. See the fate of this poor fellow on the wrong side of Judgment Day, a clamping fate inflicted by the gleeful imp, about third from the right. Bern Cathedral, Switzerland.

A Judgment Day clamping, imp and sinner, Bern Cathedral, Switzerland

** roasting corn; tougher than sweet eating corn

*** fairly had a ager – could be ague: illness with fever, shivers, paroxysms, see ://www.medterm.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=10965; or agida, heartburn, eart palpitations, a fit of some kind. See etymology of ague at http://www.20kweb.com/etymology_dictionary_A/origin_of_the_word_ague.htm

**** Some goes up and some goes down, bottom safe and sound: There is a footnote to a single asterisk in the text here, and the footnote reads: “As a Northern friend suggests that this story may be somewhat obscure, it may be as well to state that the well is supposed to be supplied with a rope over a wheel, or pulley, with a basket at each end.”