Nights With Uncle Remus

The discussion over Aunt Tempy’s fragmentary story having exhausted itself, Daddy Jack turned up his coat collar until it was as high as the top of his head, and then tried to button it under his chin. If this attempt…

The little boy sat watching Uncle Remus sharpen his shoe-knife. The old man’s head moved in sympathy with his hands, and he mumbled fragments of a song. Occasionally he would feel of the edge of the blade with his thumb,…

” Dat tale,” said Uncle Remus, “puts me in min’ er de time w’en ole Brer Tarrypin had a tussel wid Brer Mink. Hit seem lak,” he went on, in response to inquiries from the little boy, “dat dey bofe…

At last Daddy Jack returned, and the fact that the little boy had missed him and inquired about him, seemed to give the old African particular pleasure. It was probably a new experience to Daddy Jack, and it vaguely stirred…

It was not many nights before the same company was gathered in Uncle Remus’s cabin,—Daddy Jack, Aunt Tempy, and the little boy. The conversation took a turn that thrilled the child with mingled fear and curiosity. Uncle Remus had inquired…

Daddy Jack, thus appealed to, turned half round in his seat, winked his bright little eyes very rapidly, and said, with great animation: “Hoo! me bin yeddy one sing-tale; me yeddy um so long tam ‘go. One tam dere bin…

” We er sorter bin a-waitin’ fer Sis Tempy,” Uncle Remus remarked when the little boy made his appearance the next night; “but somehow er n’er look lak she fear’d she hatter up en tell some mo’ tales. En yit…

One night when the little boy made his usual visit to Uncle Remus, he found the old man sitting up in his chair fast asleep. The child said nothing. He was prepared to exercise a good deal of patience upon…

The day and the night before Christmas were full of pleasure for the little boy. There was pleasure in the big house, and pleasure in the humble cabins in the quarters. The peculiar manner in which the negroes celebrated the…

” Uncle Remus,” said the little boy, one night shortly after Daddy Jack’s story of the lion’s sad predicament, “mamma says there are no lions in Georgia, nor anywhere in the whole country.” “Tooby sho’ly not, honey; tooby sho’ly not!”…

One night, when the little boy had grown tired of waiting for a story, he looked at Uncle Remus and said: “I wonder what ever became of old Brother Tarrypin.” Uncle Remus gave a sudden start, glanced all around the…

Uncle Remus relapsed into silence again, and the little boy, with nothing better to do, turned his attention to the bench upon which the old man kept his shoemaker’s tools. Prosecuting his investigations in this direction, the youngster finally suggested…

All this talk about Hawks and Buzzards evidently reminded Daddy Jack of another story. He began to shake his head and mumble to himself; and, finally, when he looked around and found that he had attracted the attention of the…

” I ‘clar’ ter gracious, honey,” Uncle Remus exclaimed one night, as the little boy ran in, “you sholy aint chaw’d yo’ vittles. Hit aint bin no time, skacely, sence de supper-bell rung, en ef you go on dis a-way,…

The little boy was not particularly pleased at the summary manner in which the young Alligators were disposed of; but he was very much amused at the somewhat novel method employed by the Bear to deceive the old Alligator. The…

The night after the violent flirtation between Daddy Jack and ‘Tildy, the latter coaxed and bribed the little boy to wait until she had finished her work about the house. After she had set things to rights in the dining-room…

One night, while the little boy was watching Uncle Remus broil a piece of bacon on the coals, he heard a great commotion among the guinea-fowls. The squawking and pot-racking went on at such a rate that the geese awoke…