Legends of the Old Plantation
XXIII. MR. RABBIT AND MR. BEAR.
.
“There was one season,” said Uncle Remus, pulling thoughtfully at his whiskers, “when Brer Fox say to himself that he expect he better whirl in and plant a goober-patch FN 1, and in them days, man, it was touch and go. The words weren’t more than out of his mouth before the ground was broke up and the goobers was planted. Old Brer Rabbit, he set off and watch the motions, he did, and he sort of shut one eye and sing to his children:
.
“Sure enough when the goobers begun to ripen up, every time Brer Fox go down to his patch, he find where somebody been grabblin’ amongst the vines, and he get mighty mad. He sort of expect who the somebody is, but old Brer Rabbit he cover his tracks so cute that Brer Fox don’t know how to catch him. By and by, one day Brer Fox take a walk all around the ground-pea patch, and it wasn’t long before he find a crack in the fence where the rail done been rubbed right smooth, and right there he set him a trap. He took and bent down a hickory sapling, growing in the fence-corner, and tie one end on a plow-line on the top, and in the other end he fix a loop-knot, and that he fasten with a trigger right in the crack. Next morning, when old Brer Rabbit come slipping along and creep through the crack, the loop-know catch him behind the forelegs, and the sapling flew up, and there he was ‘twixt the heavens and the earth. There he swung, and he feared he going to fall, and he feared he weren’t going to fall. While he was fixing up a tale for Brer Fox, he hear a lumbering down the road, and presently here come old Brer Bear ambling along from where he been taking a bee-tree FN 2. Brer Rabbit, he hail him:
.
“ ‘Howdy, Brer Bear!’
.
“Brer Bear, he look around and by and by he see Brer Rabbig swinging from the sapling, and he holler out:
.
“ ‘Heyo, Brer Rabbit! How you coming on this morning’ “
.
“ ‘Much obliged, I’m middling’, Brer Bear, says Brer Rabbit says he.
.
“Then Brer Bear, he asks Brer Rabbit what he doing up there in the elements, and Brer Rabbit, he up and say he making’ a dollar a minute. Brer Bear, he say how. Brer Rabbit say he keeping the crows out of Brer Fox’s ground-pea patch, and then he asked Brer Bear if he don’t want to make a dollar a minute, ‘cause he got family of children for to take care of,, and then he make such nice scarecrow. Brer Bear allow that he take the job, and and then Brer Rabbit show him how to bend down the sapling, and watsn’t long before Brer Bear was swinging up there in Brer Rabbit’s place. Then Brer Rabbit, he put out for Brer Fox house, and when he got there he sing out:
.
“ ‘Brer Fox! Oh, Brer Fox! Come out here, Brer Fox, and I’ll show you the man what been stealing your goobers.’
.
“Brer Fox, he grab up his walking stick, and both of them went running back down to the goober patch, and when they got there, sure enough, there was old Brer Bear.
.
“ ‘Oh, yes! You're caught, is you?’ says Brer Fox, and before Brer Bear could explain, Brer Rabbit he jump up and down, and holler out:
.
“ ‘Hit him in the mouth, Brer Fox; hit him in the mouth; and Brer Fox, he drew back with the walking-cane, and blip he took him, and every time Brer Bear try to expolain, Brer Fox would shower down on him.
.
“Whiles all this was going on, Brer Rabbit, he slip off an get in a mud-hole and just left his eyes sticking out, ‘cause he knowed that Brer Bear’d be a coming after him. Sure enough, by and by here come Brer Bear down the road, and when he get to the mud-hole, he say:
.
“ ‘Howdy, Brer Frog; have you seen Brer Rabbit go by here?’
.
“ ‘He just gone by,’ says Brer Rabbit, and old man Bear took off down the road like a ‘scared mule, and Brer Rabbit, he come out and dried himself in the sun, and go home to his family same as any other man.”
.
“The Bear didn’t catch the Rabbit, then?” inquired the little boy, sleepily.
.
“Jump up from there, honey!” exclaimed Uncle Remus, by way of reply. “ I ain’t got time for to be setting here propping your eyelids open.”
.
“ ‘Ti-yi! Tungalee!
I eat them pea, I pick them pea.
It grow in the ground, it grow so free,
Ti-yi! them goober pea.’
.“Sure enough when the goobers begun to ripen up, every time Brer Fox go down to his patch, he find where somebody been grabblin’ amongst the vines, and he get mighty mad. He sort of expect who the somebody is, but old Brer Rabbit he cover his tracks so cute that Brer Fox don’t know how to catch him. By and by, one day Brer Fox take a walk all around the ground-pea patch, and it wasn’t long before he find a crack in the fence where the rail done been rubbed right smooth, and right there he set him a trap. He took and bent down a hickory sapling, growing in the fence-corner, and tie one end on a plow-line on the top, and in the other end he fix a loop-knot, and that he fasten with a trigger right in the crack. Next morning, when old Brer Rabbit come slipping along and creep through the crack, the loop-know catch him behind the forelegs, and the sapling flew up, and there he was ‘twixt the heavens and the earth. There he swung, and he feared he going to fall, and he feared he weren’t going to fall. While he was fixing up a tale for Brer Fox, he hear a lumbering down the road, and presently here come old Brer Bear ambling along from where he been taking a bee-tree FN 2. Brer Rabbit, he hail him:
.
“ ‘Howdy, Brer Bear!’
.
“Brer Bear, he look around and by and by he see Brer Rabbig swinging from the sapling, and he holler out:
.
“ ‘Heyo, Brer Rabbit! How you coming on this morning’ “
.
“ ‘Much obliged, I’m middling’, Brer Bear, says Brer Rabbit says he.
.
“Then Brer Bear, he asks Brer Rabbit what he doing up there in the elements, and Brer Rabbit, he up and say he making’ a dollar a minute. Brer Bear, he say how. Brer Rabbit say he keeping the crows out of Brer Fox’s ground-pea patch, and then he asked Brer Bear if he don’t want to make a dollar a minute, ‘cause he got family of children for to take care of,, and then he make such nice scarecrow. Brer Bear allow that he take the job, and and then Brer Rabbit show him how to bend down the sapling, and watsn’t long before Brer Bear was swinging up there in Brer Rabbit’s place. Then Brer Rabbit, he put out for Brer Fox house, and when he got there he sing out:
.
“ ‘Brer Fox! Oh, Brer Fox! Come out here, Brer Fox, and I’ll show you the man what been stealing your goobers.’
.
“Brer Fox, he grab up his walking stick, and both of them went running back down to the goober patch, and when they got there, sure enough, there was old Brer Bear.
.
“ ‘Oh, yes! You're caught, is you?’ says Brer Fox, and before Brer Bear could explain, Brer Rabbit he jump up and down, and holler out:
.
“ ‘Hit him in the mouth, Brer Fox; hit him in the mouth; and Brer Fox, he drew back with the walking-cane, and blip he took him, and every time Brer Bear try to expolain, Brer Fox would shower down on him.
.
“Whiles all this was going on, Brer Rabbit, he slip off an get in a mud-hole and just left his eyes sticking out, ‘cause he knowed that Brer Bear’d be a coming after him. Sure enough, by and by here come Brer Bear down the road, and when he get to the mud-hole, he say:
.
“ ‘Howdy, Brer Frog; have you seen Brer Rabbit go by here?’
.
“ ‘He just gone by,’ says Brer Rabbit, and old man Bear took off down the road like a ‘scared mule, and Brer Rabbit, he come out and dried himself in the sun, and go home to his family same as any other man.”
.
“The Bear didn’t catch the Rabbit, then?” inquired the little boy, sleepily.
.
“Jump up from there, honey!” exclaimed Uncle Remus, by way of reply. “ I ain’t got time for to be setting here propping your eyelids open.”
......................................................
FN 1 Goober-patch, goobers.
Goobers are peanuts. See http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/goobers. Goober may derive from "ngubu" from 1833, a Bantu word says the site. But the Bantu people were not West African, the area where we understand most North and South American slaves originated, via the Caribbean often on the slave trade routes. See http://library.thinkquest.org/16645/the_people/ethnic_bantu.shtml
Grow your own goobers. See http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/2002-12-01/Peanuts.aspx?page=3
Sing about Eatin' Goober Peas with Johnny Cash and Burl Ives. This is a Civil War song from the South, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBOxw6vbDyo&feature=related
FN 2 Bee-tree. Bees can nest in trees, bears get at them for the honey, see http://extension.missouri.edu/p/G7391
FN 2 Bee-tree. Bees can nest in trees, bears get at them for the honey, see http://extension.missouri.edu/p/G7391
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