The Mythology & Folklore Database
Brer Rabbit was walking down the road, talking and laughing to himself, when he heard something. He stopped talking and began to hum a tune, but he didn't meet anyone. Then he stopped and listened, and he heard something holler, "Oh, Lordy! Lordy! Won't somebody come and help me?"
Brer Rabbit heard this, and he stopped and listened. It wasn't long before something or the other hollered out, "O, Lordy, Lordy! Please, somebody, come and help me."
Brer Rabbit, he hoisted up his ears, he did, and he answered back, "Who are you, anyhow, and what in the name of goodness is the matter?"
"Please, somebody, run here!"
Brer Rabbit, he took and stood on three legs to make sure of getting a good start if there was any need of it, and he hollered back, "Whereabouts are you, and how come you are there?"
"Do, please, somebody, run here and help a poor miserable creature. I'm down here in the big gully under this here big rock."
Old Brer Rabbit crept down to the big gully and looked in, and who in the name of goodness do you suspect he saw down there? -- Nobody in the round world but that there old Brer Wolf was down there in the big gully. And, bless gracious, on top of him was a great big rock. And if you want to know the reason that the great big rock hadn't totally killed Brer Wolf, then you'll have to ask someone who knows more about it than what I do, because it looks to me like it should have smashed him flat.
Yet there he was, and not only had he not been killed, but he had strength enough left to make folks a mile off hear him hollering. And he was hollering so lonesome that it made Brer Rabbit feel might sorry, and no sooner was he feeling sorry, than he held his coattails out of the way and slid down the bank in order to see what he could do.
When he got down there, Brer Wolf asked him, please, sir, couldn't he help him remove that there rock. And Brer Rabbit allowed he suspected he could. And with that, Brer Wolf hollered and told him for mercy's sake, wouldn't he hurry and do it. With that, Brer Rabbit took hold of the rock and humped himself, and it wasn't long before he got some purchase on it, and bless your soul, he lifted it up, just like someone at log-rolling.
It turned out that Brer Wolf wasn't hurt much, and when he found this out, he took and grabbed Brer Rabbit by the nap of the neck and the small of the back.
Brer Rabbit, he kicked and squealed, but it didn't do any manner of good, because the more he kicked, the tighter Brer Wolf clamped him, and he squeezed him so hard that Brer Rabbit was afraid he was going to cut off his breath.
Brer Rabbit, he allowed, "Well then, Brer Wolf! Is this here the way you thank folks for saving your life?"
Brer Wolf grinned big, and then he up and allowed, "I'll thank you, Brer Rabbit, and then I'll make fresh meat out of you."
Brer Rabbit allowed, he did, "If you talk that way, Brer Wolf, I'll never do you another good turn as long as I live."
Brer Wolf, he grinned some more, and allowed, "That you won't, Brer Rabbit. That you won't. You won't do me any more good turns until you are dead."
Brer Rabbit, he sort of studied to himself, he did, and then he allowed, "Where I come from, Brer Wolf, it's against the law for folks to kill those that have done them a good turn, and I suspect it's against the law around here as well."
Brer Wolf said he wasn't right sure about that. Brer Rabbit said he was willing to leave the whole case with Brer Terrapin, and Brer Wolf said he was agreeable.
With that, they put out, they did, and made their way to where old Brer Terrapin was staying. When they got there, Brer Wolf, he took and told his side, and then Brer Rabbit, he took and told his side. Old Brer Terrapin put on his spectacles and cleared up his throat, and then he allowed, "Something is mixed up in this here dispute, and before I can take any side, you'll just have to take me to see the place where Brer Wolf was when Brer Rabbit found him," he said.
Sure enough, they took old Brer Terrapin down the big road until they came to the big gully, and then they took him to where Brer Wolf got caught under the big rock. Old Brer Terrapin, he walked around, he did, and poked at the place with the end of his cane. By and by he shook his head, he did, and he allowed, "I hate mightily to put you gents to so much trouble, yet there are no two ways about it. I'll have to see just how Brer Wolf was caught, and just how the rock was lying on top of him," he said. "The older folks get, the more trouble they are," he said, "and I am ripening just like a persimmon that's been struck with the frost," he said.
Then Brer Wolf, he took and lay down where he was when Brer Rabbit found him, and the others, they up and rolled the rock on top of him, and there he was. Brer Terrapin, he walked all around and looked at him. Then he sat down, he did, and made marks in the sand with his cane like he was studying about something or the other.
By and by Brer Wolf, he opened up, "Ow, Brer Terrapin! This here rock is getting mighty heavy!"
Brer Terrapin, he marked in the sand, and studied, and studied.
Brer Wolf hollered, "Ow, Brer Terrapin! This here rock is mashing the breath out of me."
Brer Terrapin, he reared back, he did, and he allowed, "Brer Rabbit, you were in the wrong. You didn't have any business to come along and bother Brer Wolf when he wasn't bothering you. He was tending to his own business, and you ought to have been tending to yours."
This made Brer Rabbit look ashamed of himself, but Brer Terrapin talked right along, "When you were going down this here road this morning, you surely must have been going somewhere. If you were going somewhere, you had better be going on. Brer Wolf, he wasn't going anywhere then, and he's not going anywhere now. You found him under that rock, and you should leave him under that rock."
And bless gracious, those creatures walked off from there and left old Brer Wolf under that there rock.