How Mr. Rabbit Was Too Sharp for Mr. Fox (Story Source)

Brer Fox was sitting around his house one day thinking of ways to trap ol' Brer Rabbit. He was going through everything he could think of from traps and snares, to riddles and games, but try as he might, Brer Fox just couldn't think of the perfect way to trap Brer Rabbit.

Out of nowhere, Brer Fox came up with the idea to create a tar baby that would trap ol' Brer Rabbit.

The tar baby was very sticky so Brer Fox had to be careful to not get stuck to it himself, but after a little while he finally had the tar baby in the perfect spot to get Brer Rabbit. The tar baby was set up on the side of the road heading into town, and it was positioned to hide its face from anyone passing by. Brer Fox knew it was only a matter of time until Brer Rabbit came on down the road heading for home.

Just as Brer Fox thought, Brer Rabbit came strolling on down the road and stopped once he got to the little tar baby.

"Why are you sitting on the side of the road young sir?," asked Brer Rabbit.

The tar baby stayed sitting in the same spot.

"Um excuse me, it is very rude to ignore someone, young man," said Brer Rabbit with a bit of annoyance.

The tar baby still did not move from its spot.

"Now you listen here!" yelled Brer Rabbit. "Who do you think you are? I am trying to help you and you won't even look up at me. Well, let's have a look at who you are."

And with that Brer Rabbit grabbed the tar baby's shoulder to look at his face and his hand became stuck.

"Unhand me you scoundrel," cried Brer Rabbit as he put his other hand on the tar baby.

This hand became just as stuck so he tried to kick the tar baby off of him but to no avail. He was as stuck as they come.

At this moment Brer Fox, who had been watching the whole ordeal, comes strolling out of the brush and begins laughing at Brer Rabbit.

"I am gonna have so much fun cooking you up Mr. Brer Rabbit," said Brer Fox.

"Why would you wanna cook me up?," asked Brer Rabbit. "It would be such a bother to gather the wood for a fire. Do whatever you want to me, Brer Fox, but please just don't throw me in the briar patch."

"You make a good point. I won't cook you but I think I'll just hang you," said Brer Fox.

"You can hang me if you want to drag me to a tree since there isn't one in sight," said Brer Rabbit. "Do whatever you want to me, Brer Fox, but please just don't throw me in the briar patch."

"Why must you keep pointing out flaws in my plan?," yelled an angry Brer Fox. "You are the fool. I caught you because I am smarter than you. And because I am smarter than you, I will do the one thing you dread the most."

With that, Brer Fox hurled Brer Rabbit into the briar patch and the tar baby went flying off of him.

As Brer Rabbit landed, he bounced right back up and laughed at Brer Fox.

"You fool, I was born in a briar patch!" yelled Brer Rabbit. "I have outsmarted you once again you dumb fox."

With that Brer Rabbit ran off and lived to fight another day.

This is a retelling of the two stories "The Tar Baby" and "How Mr. Rabbit was too smart for Mr. Fox". I really liked the way that these two stories are told and did not want to change much of the storyline. The Brer Rabbit stories are rich with tradition in the Deep South and I wanted to be sure and do this story justice by staying as true to the original as I could. I did however want to change the way that they speak in the original Brer Rabbit stories because it can get a little confusing to follow along with the broken up speech. This story made quite an impression on me as well so I was able to write the story almost entirely from memory which was a neat way for me to see which parts of the story stuck out to me the most. The interaction with the tar baby seemed to stick out to me because when I reread the original story that part was more accurate then the later part involving Brer Fox. All in all, this was a very fun story to write and I hope you enjoyed it.