“Well, suh, one year it fell out dat de craps wuz burnt up. A dry drouth had done de work, an’ ef you’d ’a’ struck a match anywhar in dat settlement, de whole county would ’a’ blazed up. Ol’ man Hongriness des natchally tuck of his cloze an’ went paradin’ ’bout eve’ywhar, an’ de creeturs got bony an’ skinny. Ol’ Brer B’ar done better dan any un um, kaze all he hatter do wuz go ter sleep an’ live off’n his own fat; an’ Brer Rabbit an’ his ol’ ’oman had put some calamus root by, an’ saved up some sugar-cane dat dey fin’ lyin’ ’roun’ loose, an’ dey got ’long purty well. But de balance er de creeturs wuz dat ga’nt dat dey ain’t got over it down ter dis day.

 

“De creeturs had der meetin’-place, whar dey could all set ’roun’ an’ talk de kind er politics dey had, des like folks does at de cross-roads grocery. One day, whiles dey wuz all settin’ an’ squottin’ ’roun’, jowerin’ an’ confabbin’, Brer Rabbit, he up ’n’ say, sezee, dat ol’ Mammy-Bammy-Big-Money tol’ his great gran’daddy dat dar wuz a mighty³ big an’ fat gol’ mine in deze parts, an’ he say dat he wouldn’t be ’tall ’stonished ef ’twant some’rs close ter Brer B’ar’s house. Brer B’ar, he growled⁴, he did, an’ say dat de gol’ mine better not let him fin’ it, kaze atter he got done wid it, dey won’t be no gol’ mine dar.

 

”Some laughed, some grinned an’ some gapped, an’, atter jowerin’ some mo’, dey all put out ter whar der famblies wuz livin’ at; but I boun’ you dey ain’t fergit ’bout dat gol’ mine, kaze, fum dat time on, go whar you mought, you’d ketch some er de creeturs diggin’ an’ grabblin’ in de groun’, some in de fields, some in de woods, an’ some in de big road; an’ dey wuz so weak an’ hongry dat dey kin

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