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.”