hen he
was tired of huntin' fo' food or more strange things he would sit and
gloat over his treasures and play with them. And then the first thing he
knew he had a name. Yes, Suh, he had a name. He was called Miser.

"Of course Brer Miser hadn't lived ve'y long befo' he found out that
one law of the Great World was that things belonged to whoever could get
them and keep them. He saw that some thought themselves ve'y smart when
they stole from their neighbors. Brer Miser didn't like this at all. He
was ve'y, ye'y honest, was Brer Miser. Perhaps he wasn't really much
tempted, not fo' a long time anyway.

"But at last came a time when he was tempted. Quite by accident he found
one of Mr. Squirrel's storehouses. In it were some nuts different from
any he ever had seen befo'. 'Brer Squirrel won't mind if Ah taste just
one,' said he, and did it. It tasted good; it tasted ve'y good indeed.
Brer Miser began to wish he had some nuts like those. When he got home
he couldn't think of anything but how good those nuts tasted. He knew
that all he had to do was to watch until Brer Squirrel was away and
then go he'p hisself. He knew that was just what any of his neighbors
would do in his place. But Brer Miser couldn't make it seem just right
any way he looked at it. He was too honest, was Brer Miser, to do
anything like that.

"He was sitting staring at his treasures but thinking about those nuts
when an idea popped into his head, an idea that made him smile until Ah
reckons he most split his cheeks. 'Ah knows what Ah'll do,' said he.
'Ah'll just he'p mahself to some of those nuts and Ah'll leave something
of mine in place of them. That's what Ah'll do.'

"And that's what he did do. He picked out a bright shell of which he was
very fond and he left it in Brer Squirrel's storehouse to pay fo' the
nuts that he took. After that he always helped himself to anything he
wanted, but he always left something to pay fo' it. It wasn't long befo'
his neighbors found out what he was doing, and then they called him
Miser the Trade Rat. Whenever anybody found something he didn't want
hisself, he took it to the little junk shop of Miser the Trade Rat and
traded it fo' something else, or left it where Miser would find it,
knowing that Miser would leave something in its place.

"And it's been just so with Miser's family ever since. There is one Rat
who is a credit to his family instead of a disgrace," concluded Ol'
Mistah Buzzard.

III