The Rabbit

I awoke from a deep meditative state prepared. My dreams had given flesh to the bones of my plan. I was ready to put this trickster to the test. Reynard began to grow weary. He too, found his favorite tree and settled in for a nap. But as his eyes closed and he drifted to sleep, I whispered to the winds of change. A silent cyclone carried Reynard far above his European homeland, over the oceans, and into the new world. When he awoke, he immediately sensed that something had changed. Everything smelled different, everything looked different.

“Where on Earth could I be?” asked Reynard. Without any idea of his whereabouts, Reynard set out to explore.

He found a road nearby and a rabbit coming down the path toward him.

He called to the rabbit, “Excuse me, sir, come closer! I give you my word I will not hurt you. I just want to know where I am.”

The rabbit was apprehensive, but being a hare of hospitality, he approached and said, “Brer Fox, I will help ya. Mind now I’m no stranga to tricks. I’ve met many a fox in my day and bested all of ‘em.”

“I am no trickster," Reynard said, lying through his sharp teeth. “I promise you no harm in exchange for your help,” but his mind was already racing to find how he might make this rabbit his dinner. His aunt had a fine rabbit recipe he had been wanting to try.

“Well, Brer Fox, you’s in the New World, America. How you don’ know that I can’t ‘magine. I been a wanderer myself but I always knowed the general place I been wanderin' - you sure are strange.”

“My rabbit friend, I am indeed lost and quite hungry. Say, if I find us a nice chicken for dinner, would you be so kind as to let me use your kitchen to prepare a feast for you and I?”

“Well, I ‘spose that might be alright. Come to the river up yonder round sundown and I’ll take you to my place.”

The rabbit and Reynard parted ways and the fox began to prepare his trick. He found a nice lump of clay and shaped it so his traveler’s sack appeared to hold a chicken. He waited for the right time and met the rabbit who took him to his den.

“What a fine home you have here, Mr. Rabbit,” said Reynard.

“Why, thank you, Brer Fox, but please, Mr. Rabbit is my fatha. Call me Brer Rabbit.”

“Well, Brer Rabbit, I suppose I can do that. Say, do you have a knife I might carve this chicken with?”

Brer Rabbit grabbed his knife and took it to Reynard. “Brer Fox, let’s see this fine bird you’ve gathered. ‘Spose they’re’ll be plenty for the both of us?”

Reynard grinned. “Oh, there’ll be plenty of rabbit for me!” and at once he leapt at Brer Rabbit.

But this rabbit had known far too many foxes to fall for this old trick. He bolted out of his house before the Fox could grab him and ran as far as he could. As soon as the fox stepped out of the den, his foot got caught in the trap the rabbit had laid in the leaves. The snare wrapped around his ankle and pulled him up so he hung from a tree branch by his foot. Just as he had given up trying to escape, Judge Bear came down the road.

“Brer Fox, why do you hang from this tree?” asked Judge Bear.

“Kind bear, I am a dignitary from another land come to meet with the head of this forest.”

“I am the authority in this forest. Call me Judge Bear, Brer Fox. But you still ain’t told me why you’s in that tree.”

“Alas, Judge Bear, I don’t know either. I believe the rabbits of this forest have laid traps like this all throughout your fine forest and I, an innocent traveler, am a victim of their cruel prank.”

“Well, this is no way to treat a dignitary. Let me help you down.”

The bear released Reynard from the trap, and before his paws had touched the ground he slipped the same trap around the ankle of the bear and let him become the strung up victim. The bear began to holler and the fox hid in some nearby bushes. When Brer Rabbit returned, he was shocked to see the bear where the fox should be. He apologized vehemently and released the bear. He and Judge Bear agreed that this strange fox was a menace to their forest and should be hunted down.

I will spare you the details fair reader, but know that the fox waited until dusk, followed the rabbit home, and tried his aunt’s rabbit recipe. Full and boisterous once again, Reynard lay back in the rabbit’s bed and exclaimed,

“I, Reynard the Fox, am the greatest Trickster of all.”

And I laughed.

Reynard had bested this trickster, but his journey had only just begun.

Author’s Note: I merged two classic Brer Rabbit stories together to create this one. The first I used was “The Calamus Root,” where Brer Fox invites Brer Rabbit into his home, promising him a feast but intending for the rabbit to be the main course. Brer Rabbit escapes by claiming he can’t eat chicken without Calamus root, making it out just in time. In the second story, “Mr. Rabbit and Mr. Bear,” Brer rabbit finds himself caught in a trap, and tricks Mr. Bear into releasing him, only for the rabbit to trap the bear. I changed who the dealers and receivers were but kept the same tricks as the driving force of my plot. I attempted to replicate the dialect of Brer Rabbit to give this story an American folklore feel. I felt that the Calamus Root story was a good place to interject Reynard, but in a battle of tricksters I thought Brer Rabbit should have a counter-trick ready. As the protagonist, Reynard needed a way out, so I put him in Brer Rabbit's place for the trick from the second story. Reynard did not seem the kind that would just walk away from the scenario after being tricked himself, so I changed the ultimate fate of Brer Rabbit, who typically lives at the end of his stories.

Image Information:

Banner: Southern Landscape (Source)

Bibliography

Story Source - Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings, by Joel Chandler Harris (1881).

Selected Stories - The Calamus Root and Mr. Rabbit and Mr. Bear