along the big road—it is always the big road in contradistinction to neighbourhood paths and by-paths, called in the vernacular "nigh-cuts" -when he came to a pumpkin-patch. The Irishman had never seen any of this fruit before, and he at once concluded that he had discovered a veritable mare's nest. Making the most of his opportunity, he gathered one of the pumpkins in his arms and went on his way. A pumpkin is an exceedingly awkward thing to carry, and the Irishman had not gone far before he made a misstep, and stumbled. The pumpkin fell to the ground, rolled down the hill into a "brush-heap," and striking against a stump, was broken. The story continues in the dialect: "W'en de punkin roll in de bresh-heap out jump a rabbit; en soon's de I'shmuns see dat, he take atter de rabbit en holler: Kworp, colty! kworp, colty!' but de rabbit, he des flew." The point of this is obvious. If the reader not familiar with plantation life will imagine that the myth-stories of Uncle Remus are told night after night to a little boy by an old Negro who appears to be venerable enough to have lived during the period which he describes who has nothing but pleasant memories of the discipline of slavery and who has all the prejudices of caste and pride of family that were the natural results of the system; if the reader can imagine all this, he will find little difficulty in appreciating and sympathizing with the air of affectionate superiority which Uncle Remus assumes as he proceeds to unfold the mysteries of plantation lore to a little child who is a product of that practical reconstruction which has been going on to some extent since the war in spite of the politicians. J. C. H CONTENTS. I. UNCLE REMUS INITIATES THE LITTLE BOY II. THE WONDERFUL TAR-BABY STORY. IV. How MR. RABBIT WAS TOO SHARP FOR MR. Fox PAGE I 6 II VII.-MR. Fox IS AGAIN VICTIMIZED VIII. MR. FOX IS OUTDONE BY MR. BUZZARD XI.-MR. WOLF MAKES A FAILURE XII.-MR. WOLF TACKLES OLD MAN TARRYPIN XIII. THE AWFUL FATE OF MR. WOLF XIV.-MR. FOX AND THE DECEITFUL FROGS XV.-MR. FOX GOES A-HUNTING, BUT MR. RABBIT BAGS THE GAME XVI.-OLD MR. RABBIT, HE'S A GOOD FISHERMAN XVII.-MR. RABBIT NIBBLES UP THE BUTTER b XVIII. MR. RABBIT FINDS HIS MATCH AT LAST XIX. THE FATE OF MR. JACK SPARROW XX. How MR. RABBIT SAVED HIS MEAT XXI.-MR. RABBIT MEETS HIS MATCH AGAIN XXIV. MR. BEAR CATCHES OLD MR. BULL-FROG XXV.-How MR. RABBIT LOST HIS FINE BUSHY TAIL XXVI.-MR. TERRAPIN SHOWS HIS STRENGTH |