"How you come on, den? Is you deaf?' sez Brer Rabbit, sezee, 'Kaze if you is, I kin holler louder,' sezee.

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

"Youer stuck up, dat's what you is,' says Brer Rabbit, sezee, 'en I gwineter kyore you, dat's what I'm gwineter do,' sezee.

"Brer Fox, he sorter chuckle in his stummuck, he did, but Tar-Baby ain't sayin' nuthin'.

"I'm gwineter learn you howter talk ter 'spectubble fokes ef hit's de las' ack,' sez Brer Rabbit, sezee. 'Ef you don't take off dat hat en tell me howdy, I'm gwineter bus you wide open,' sezee.

"Tar-Baby stay still, en Brer Fox, he lay low. "Brer Rabbit keep on axin' 'im, en de Tar-Baby, she keep on sayin' nuthin', twel presently Brer Rabbit draw back wid his fis', he did, en blip he tuck 'er side er de head. Right dar's whar he broke his merlasses jug. His fis' stuck, en he can't pull loose. De tar hilt 'im. But Tar-Baby, she stay still, en Brer Fox, he lay low.

"Ef you don't lemme loose, I'll knock you agin',' sez Brer Rabbit, sezee, en wid dat he fotch 'er a wipe wid de unner han', en dat stuck. Tar-Baby, she ain't sayin' nuthin,' an Brer Fox, he lay low.

"Tu'n me loose, 'fore I kick de natal stuffin' outen you,' sez Brer Rabbit, sezee, but de Tar-Baby, she ain't sayin' nuthin'. She des hilt on, en den Brer Rabbit he lose de use er his feet in de same way. Brer Fox, he lay low. Den Brer Rabbit he squall out det ef der Tar-Baby don't tu'n 'im loose, he butt 'er

cranksided. En den he butted, en his head got stuck. Den Brer Fox, he sa'ntered fort', lookin' des ez innercent ez wunner yo' mammy's mockin' birds.

"Howdy, Brer Rabbit,' sez Brer Fox, sezee. 'You look sorter stuck up dis mawnin',' sezee, en den he rolled on de groun', en laft twel he couldn't laff no mo'. 'I speck you'll take dinner wid me dis time, Brer Rabbit. I done laid in some calamus root, en I ain't gwineter take no skuse,' sez Brer Fox,

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.

"Dat's all de fur de tale goes," replied the old man. "He mout, en den again he moutent. Some say Jedge B'ar come 'long en loosed him-some say he didn't. I hear Miss Sally callin'. You better run 'long."

To investigate the sources of the stories of the fox and the rabbit is a task for the student of folklore. The layman is struck with the idea that in reversing the rôles usually assigned to the two animals in other animal stories and fables, the oppressed negro race takes its harmless revenge by representing the strong and unscrupulous creature as a victim of the weaker one. Connoisseurs admire the wonderful fidelity with

which the pronunciation, the vocabulary, and the sentence structure of the negro are reproduced in "Uncle Remus."

This little book, which in America is as widely read as "Uncle Tom's Cabin," was followed by several sequels: "Nights with Uncle Remus" (1883) and "Uncle Remus and His Friends" (1893).

The seamy side of negro emancipation is brought out by Harris in the sketch "Free Joe." The negro, Joe, was set free by his abolitionist master. At first he was delighted with his unaccustomed liberty; gradually, however, he realized his peculiar position: he became conscious that in spite of his freedom he was more helpless than a slave. Since he had no owner, everybody was his master. He noticed that he was an object of suspicion; therefore all his little resources and how pitifully slender they were

-were employed to obtain not friendliness and esteem but toleration; all his efforts were centred upon mitigating the circumstances which made his condition so much worse than that of the other negroes, the negroes who had friends because they had masters.

Very recently Lucy Pratt, in her "Ezekiel," has depicted with the deepest sympathy the

nature of the negro child. Stephen Collins Foster (1826-1864) likewise sought to give expression to the inner life of the negro. He wrote and set to music more than a hundred and twenty-five negro songs. Of these, The Old Folks at Home, so full of tenderness and pathos, is the most widely known. Whether these songs, which have become popular among the whites, really represent the negro soul is a question which the negroes alone can answer.

THE END