tail, en needer do his chilluns."
XXVIII. THE END OF MR. BEAR
THE next time the little boy sought Uncle Remus out, he found the
old man unusually cheerful and good-humoured. His rheumatism
had ceased to trouble him, and he was even disposed to be
boisterous. He was singing when the little boy got near the
cabin, and the child paused on the outside to listen to the
vigorous but mellow voice of the old man, as it rose and fell
with the burden of the curiously plaintive song--a senseless
affair so far as the words were concerned, but sung to a melody
almost thrilling in its sweetness:
"Han' me down my walkin'-cane
(Hey my Lily! go down de road!),
Yo' true lover gone down de lane
(Hey my Lily! go down de road!)."
The quick ear of Uncle Remus, however, had detected the
presence of the little boy, and he allowed his song to run into a
recitation of nonsense, of which the following, if it be rapidly
spoken, will give a faint idea:
"Ole M'er Jackson, fines' confraction, fell down sta'rs fer to
git satisfaction; big Bill Fray, he rule de day, eve'ything he
call fer come one, two by three. Gwine 'long one day, met Johnny
Huby, ax him grine nine yards er steel fer me, tole me w'ich he
couldn't; den I hist 'im over Hickerson Dickerson's barn-doors;
knock 'im ninety-nine miles under water, w'en he rise, he rise in
Pike straddle un a hanspike, en I lef' 'im dar smokin' er de
hornpipe, Juba reda seda breda. Aunt Kate at de gate; I want to
eat, she fry de meat en gimme skin, w'ich I fling it back agin.
Juba!"
All this, rattled off at a rapid rate and with apparent
seriousness, was calculated to puzzle the little boy, and he
slipped into his accustomed seat with an expression of awed
bewilderment upon his face.
"Hit's all des dat away, honey," continued the old man, with the
air of one who had just given an important piece of information.
"En w'en you bin cas'n shadders long ez de ole nigger, den you'll
fine out who's w'ich, en w'ich's who."
The little boy made no response. He was in thorough sympathy
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