chair in front of the wide hearth. The child went and stood
beside him, leaning his head against the old negro's shoulder, and the
two--old age and youth, one living in the Past and the other looking
forward only to the Future--gazed into the bed of glowing embers
illuminated by a thin, flickering flame. Probably they saw nothing
there, each being busy with his own simple thoughts; but their shadows,
enlarged out of all proportion, and looking over their shoulders from
the wall behind them, must have seen something, for, clinging together,
they kept up a most incessant pantomime; and Plato's horn, which sounded
again to call the negroes to supper after their journey, though it
aroused Uncle Remus and the child from the contemplation of the fire,
had no perceptible effect upon the Shadows.

"Dar go de vittles!" said Uncle Remus, straightening himself. "Dey tells
me dat dem ar niggers on de River place got appetite same ez a mule. Let
'lone de vittles w'at dey gits from Mars John, dey eats oodles en oodles
er fish. Ole man Plato say dat de nigger on de River place w'at ain't
got a fish-baskit in de river er some intruss[85] in a fish-trap ain't no
'count w'atsomever."

Here Uncle Remus suddenly slapped himself upon the leg, and laughed
uproariously; and when the little boy asked him what the matter was, he
cried out:--

"Well, sir! Ef I ain't de fergittenest ole nigger twix' dis en
Phillimerdelphy! Yer 't is mos' Chris'mus en I ain't tell you 'bout how
Brer Rabbit do Brer Fox w'ence dey bofe un um live on de river. I dunner
w'at de name er sense gittin' de marter 'long wid me."

Of course the little boy wanted to know all about it, and Uncle Remus
proceeded:--

"One time Brer Fox en Brer Rabbit live de on river. Atter dey bin livin'
dar so long a time, Brer Fox 'low dat he got a mighty hankerin' atter
sump'n' 'sides fresh meat, en he say he b'leeve he make 'im a fish-trap.
Brer Rabbit say he wish Brer Fox mighty well, but he ain't honin' atter
fish hisse'f, en ef he is he ain't got no time fer ter make no
fish-trap.

"No marter fer dat, Brer Fox, he tuck'n got 'im out some timber, he did,
en he wuk nights fer ter make dat trap. Den w'en he git it done, he
tuck'n hunt 'im a good place fer ter set it, en de way he sweat over dat
ar trap wuz a sin--dat 't wuz.

"Yit atter so long a time, he got 'er sot, en den he tuck'n wash he face
en han's en go home. All de time he 'uz fixin' un it up, Brer Rabbit 'uz
settin' on