light, he did, en went out, en dar wuz his brer des a waller'n on
de groun' en squirmin' 'roun', kaze de salt on de skin wuz
stingin' wuss'n ef he had his britches lineded wid yallerjackets.
By nex' mawnin' he got so he could sorter shuffle long, but he
gun up cunjun, en ef dere wuz enny mo' witches in dat settlement
dey kep' mighty close, en dat nigger he ain't skunt hisse'f no
mo' not endurin' er my 'membunce."
The result of this was that Uncle Remus had to take the little
boy by the hand and go with him to the "big house," which the old
man was not loath to do; and, when the child went to bed, he lay
awake a long time expecting an unseemly visitation from some
mysterious source. It soothed him, however, to hear the strong,
musical voice of his sable patron, not very far away, tenderly
contending with a lusty tune; and to this accompaniment the
little boy dropped asleep:
"Hit's eighteen hunder'd, forty-en-eight,
Christ done made dat crooked way straight--
En I don't wanter stay here no longer;
Hit's eighteen hunder'd, forty-en-nine,
Christ done turn dat water inter wine--
En I don't wanter stay here no longer."
XXXII. "JACKY-MY-LANTERN" *1
UPON his next visit to Uncle Remus, the little boy was
exceedingly anxious to know more about witches, but the old man
prudently refrained from exciting the youngster's imagination any
further in that direction. Uncle Remus had a board across his
lap, and, armed with a mallet and a shoe-knife, was engaged in
making shoe-pegs.
"W'iles I wuz crossin' de branch des now," he said, endeavoring
to change the subject, "I come up wid a Jacky-my-lantern, en she
wuz bu'nin' wuss'n a bunch er lightnin'-bugs, mon. I know'd she
wuz a fixin' fer ter lead me inter dat quogmire down in de swamp,
en I steer'd cle'r an' er. Yasser. I did dat. You ain't never
seed no Jacky-my-lanterns, is you, honey?"
The little boy never had, but he had heard of them, and he wanted
to know what they were, and thereupon Uncle Remus proceeded to
tell him.
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