“‘Oh, Brer Fox,’ sezee, ‘plee-ee-eeze don’t tho me in de briers, an’ git me all scratched up; plee-ee-eeze tho me in de fire; fur de Lord’s sake,’ sezee, ‘don’t tho me in de briers.’

“And wid dat, Brer Fox he lif’ ‘im up, an’ tho’d ’im way-ay-ay over in de briers.  Den Brer Rabbit he kick up his heels, he did, an’ he laugh, an’ he laugh, an’ he holler out,

“‘Good-bye, Brer Fox!  Far’ yer well, Brer Coon!  I wuz born an’ riz in de briers!’ And wid dat he lit right out, he did, an’ he nuber stop tell he got clean smack home.”

The children were mightily pleased with this story; and Diddie, after carefully writing underneath it,

“The end of The Tar Baby,”

said she could write the poetry and history part some other day; so she closed the book, and gave it to Mammy to put away for her, and she and Dumps went out for a ride on Corbin.

CHAPTER VI

 Uncle snake-bit bob’s Sunday-school

There, was no more faithful slave in all the Southland than old Uncle Snake-bit Bob.  He had been bitten by a rattlesnake when he was a baby, and the limb had to be amputated, and its place was supplied with a wooden peg.  There were three or four other “Bobs” on the plantation, and he was called Snake-bit to distinguish him.  Though lame, and sick a good deal of his time, his life had not been wasted, nor had he been a useless slave to his master.  He made all of the baskets that were used in the cotton-picking season, and had learned to mend shoes; besides that, he was the great horse-doctor of the neighborhood, and not only cured his master’s horses and mules, but was sent for for miles around to see the sick stock; and then too, he could re-bottom chairs, and make buckets and tubs and brooms; and all of the money he made was his own:  so the old man had quite a little store of gold and silver sewed up in an old bag and buried somewhere—­ nobody knew where except himself; for Uncle Snake-bit Bob had never married, and had no family ties; and furthermore, he was old Granny Rachel’s only child, and Granny had died long, long ago, ever since the children’s mother was a baby, and he had no brothers or sisters.  So, having no cause to spend his money, he had laid it up until now he was a miser, and would steal out by himself at night and count his gold and silver, and chuckle over it with great delight.

But he was a very good old man; as Mammy used to say, “he wuz de piuses man dar wuz on de place;” and he had for years led in “de pra’r-meetin’s, and called up de mo’ners.”

One evening, as he sat on a hog-pen talking to Uncle Daniel, who was a preacher, they began to speak of the wickedness among the young negroes on the plantation.