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    Uncle Remus Stories
    Uncle Remus Stories
    Uncle Remus Stories
    Ebook174 pages2 hours

    Uncle Remus Stories

    By Joel Chandler Harris

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    About this ebook

    Uncle Remus Stories was first published in 1906 by Joel Chandler Harris, is presented here with full illustrations by A.B . Frost and Harry Rowntree.

    Uncle Remus is a collection of animal stories, songs, and oral folklore, collected from Southern United States African-Americans. Many of the stories are didactic, much like those of Aesop's Fables and the stories of Jean de La Fontaine. Uncle Remus is a kindly old former slave who serves as a storytelling device, passing on the folktales to children gathered around him.

    Br'er Rabbit ("Brother Rabbit") is the main character of the stories, a likable character, prone to tricks and trouble-making who is often opposed by Br'er Fox and Br'er Bear.

    In one tale, Br'er Fox constructs a lump of tar and puts clothing on it. When Br'er Rabbit comes along he addresses the "tar baby" amiably, but receives no response. Br'er Rabbit becomes offended by what he perceives as Tar Baby's lack of manners, punches it, and becomes stuck.
     
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJoel Chandler Harris
    Release dateMay 2, 2016
    ISBN9786050429060
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      Book preview

      Uncle Remus Stories - Joel Chandler Harris

      Uncle Remus Stories

      by Joel Chandler Harris

      Illustratrions by A.B . Frost and Harry Rowntree

      Mawnin'!' sez Brer Rabbit, sezee

      About the Author

      Joel Chandler Harris (1845-1908) was a journalist, folklorist and writer, best known as author of the Uncle Remus Stories or Tales of Uncle Remus tales moral tales inspired by traditional African American slaves in their country.

      The father, not married to her mother abandoned her shortly after the future writer was born and therefore the name of the mother, Mary Harris, and Joel name in honor of the doctor who brought the world, with one second surname, Chandler, his mother's uncle. Another prominent physician, Andrew Reid, Harris gave the family a small house to live behind his mansion. Mary Harris worked as a seamstress and gardener for its neighbors in order to keep her and her offspring. He was a voracious reader and instilled his son his love of language: The desire to write, to express my thoughts came when I heard my mother read The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith, he wrote. Dr. Reid also paid school fees for several years Harris and Young said in reading and writing, but was known for his sense of humor, his repeated absences, his pranks and jokes, this character helped him overcoming insecurity caused by his illegitimate status, redheaded and Irish descent.

      Preface

      DEAR FROST:

      I am expected to supply a preface for this new edition of my first book--to advance from behind the curtain, as it were, and make a fresh bow to the public that has dealt with Uncle Remus in so gentle and generous a fashion. For this event the lights are to be rekindled, and I am expected to respond in some formal way to an encore that marks the fifteenth anniversary of the book. There have been other editions--how many I do not remember--but this is to be an entirely new one, except as to the matter: new type, new pictures, and new binding.

      But, as frequently happens on such occasions, I am at a loss for a word. I seem to see before me the smiling faces of thousands of children--some young and fresh, and some wearing the friendly marks of age, but all children at heart--and not an unfriendly face among them. And out of the confusion, and while I am trying hard to speak the right word, I seem to hear a voice lifted above the rest, saying You have made some of us happy. And so I feel my heart fluttering and my lips trembling, and I have to how silently and him away, and hurry back into the obscurity that fits me best.

      Phantoms! Children of dreams! True, my dear Frost; but if you could see the thousands of letters that have come to me from far and near, and all fresh from the hearts and hands of children, and from men and women who have not forgotten how to be children, you would not wonder at the dream. And such a dream can do no harm. Insubstantial though it may be, I would not at this hour exchange it for all the fame won by my mightier brethren of the pen--whom I most humbly salute.

      Measured by the material developments that have compressed years of experience into the space of a day, thus increasing the possibilities of life, if not its beauty, fifteen years constitute the old age of a book. Such a survival might almost be said to be due to a tiny sluice of green sap under the gray bark. where it lies in the matter of this book, or what its source if, indeed, it be really there--is more of a mystery to my middle age than it was to my prime.

      But it would be no mystery at all if this new edition were to be more popular than the old one. Do you know why? Because you have taken it under your hand and made it yours. Because you have breathed the breath of life into these amiable brethren of wood and field. Because, by a stroke here and a touch there, you have conveyed into their quaint antics the illumination of your own inimitable humor, which is as true to our sun and soil as it is to the spirit and essence of the matter set forth.

      The book was mine, but now you have made it yours, both sap and pith. Take it, therefore, my dear Frost, and believe me, faithfully yours,

      Joel Chandler Harris

      INTRODUCTION

      I am advised by my publishers that this book is to be included in their catalogue of humorous publications, and this friendly warning gives me an opportunity to say that however humorous it may be in effect, its intention is perfectly serious; and, even if it were otherwise, it seems to me that a volume written wholly in dialect must have its solemn, not to say melancholy, features. With respect to the Folk-Lore scenes, my purpose has been to preserve the legends themselves in their original simplicity, and to wed them permanently to the quaint dialect--if, indeed, it can be called a dialect--through the medium of which they have become a part of the domestic history of every Southern family; and I have endeavored to give to the whole a genuine flavor of the old plantation.

      Each legend has its variants, but in every instance I have retained that particular version which seemed to me to be the most characteristic, and have given it without embellishment and without exaggeration.

      J. C. H.

      CONTENTS

      Uncle Remus Part 1 Chapters I-IX

      I. Uncle Remus initiates the Little Boy

      II. The Wonderful Tar-Baby Story

      III. Why Mr. Possum loves Peace

      IV. How Mr. Rabbit was too sharp for Mr. Fox

      V. Mr. Rabbit grossly deceives Mr. Fox

      VI. Mr. Fox is again victimized

      VII. Mr. Fox is outdone by Mr. Buzzard

      VIII. Miss Cow falls a Victim to Mr. Rabbit

      IX. Mr. Terrapin appears upon the Scene

      Uncle Remus Part 2 Chapters X-XX

      X. Mr. Wolf makes a Failure

      XI. Mr. Fox tackles Old Man Tarrypin

      XII. The Awful Fate of Mr. Wolf

      XIII. Mr. Fox goes a-hunting, but Mr. Rabbit bags the Game

      XIV. Old Mr. Rabbit, he's a Good Fisherman

      XV. Mr. Rabbit nibbles up the Butter

      XVI. Mr. Rabbit finds his Match at last

      XVII. The Fate of Mr. Jack Sparrow

      XVIII. How Mr. Rabbit saved his Meat

      XIX. Mr. Rabbit meets his Match again

      XX. A Story about the Little Rabbits

      Uncle Remus Part 3 Chapters XI-XXVIII

      XXI. Mr. Rabbit and Mr. Bear

      XXII. Mr. Bear catches Old Mr. Bull-Frog

      XXIII. How Mr. Rabbit lost his Fine Bushy Tail

      XXIV. Mr. Terrapin shows his Strength

      XXV Why Mr. Possum has no Hair on his Tail

      XXVI. The End of Mr. Bear

      XXVII. How Mr. Rabbit succeeded in raising a Dust.

      XXVIII. The Sad Fate of Mr. Fox

      Uncle Remus stories

      'Oh, ma! oh, ma! I seed Mr. Fox a comin'!'

      Chapter I. UNCLE REMUS INITIATES THE LITTLE BOY

      One evening recently, the lady whom Uncle Remus calls Miss Sally missed her little seven-year-old. Making search for him through the house and through the yard, she heard the sound of voices in the old man's cabin, and, looking through the window, saw the child sitting by Uncle Remus. His head rested against the old man's arm, and he was gazing with an expression of the most intense interest into the rough, weather-beaten face, that beamed so kindly upon him. This is what Miss Sally heard:

      "Bimeby, one day, atter Brer Fox bin doin' all dat he could fer ter ketch Brer Rabbit, en Brer Rabbit bein doin' all he could fer ter keep 'im fum it, Brer Fox say to hisse'f dat he'd put up a game on Brer Rabbit, en he ain't mo'n got de wuds out'n his mouf twel Brer Rabbit came a lopin' up de big road, lookin' des ez plump, en ez fat, en ez sassy ez a Moggin hoss in a barley-patch.

      "'Hol' on dar, Brer Rabbit,' sez Brer Fox, sezee.

      "'I ain't got time, Brer Fox,' sez Brer Rabbit, sezee, sorter mendin' his licks.

      "'I wanter have some confab wid you, Brer Rabbit,' sez Brer Fox, sezee.

      "'All right, Brer Fox, but you better holler fum whar you stan'. I'm monstus full er fleas dis mawnin',' sez Brer Rabbit, sezee.

      "'I seed Brer B'ar yistdiddy, 'sez Brer Fox, sezee, 'en he sorter rake me over de coals kaze you en me ain't make frens

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