“You kin gimme denial,” Uncle Remus continued after a little pause, “but des ez sho’ ez you er settin’ dar, w’en Brer B’ar slick’d up en flew down dat rock, he break off he tail right smick-smack-smoove, en mo’n dat, w’en he make his disappear’nce up de big road, Brer Rabbit holler out: 

“’Brer B’ar!—­O Brer B’ar!  I year tell dat flaxseed poultices is mighty good fer so’ places!’

“Yit Brer B’ar ain’t look back.”

IX

THE ORIGIN OF RUBIES

There was a certain king who died leaving four sons behind him with his queen.  The queen was passionately fond of the youngest of the princes.  She gave him the best robes, the best horses, the best food, and the best furniture.  The other three princes became exceedingly jealous of their youngest brother, and, conspiring against him and their mother, made them live in a separate house, and took possession of the estate.  Owing to overindulgence, the youngest prince had become very wilful.  He never listened to any one, not even to his mother, but had his own way in everything.  One day he went with his mother to bathe in the river.  A large boat was riding there at anchor.  None of the boatmen were in it.  The prince went into the boat, and told his mother to come into it.  His mother besought him to get down from the boat, as it did not belong to him.  But the prince said, “No, mother I am not coming down; I mean to go on a voyage, and if you wish to come with me, then delay not but come up at once, or I shall be off in a trice.”  The queen besought the prince to do no such thing, but to come down instantly.  But the prince gave no heed to what she said, and began to take up the anchor.  The queen went up into the boat in great haste; and the moment she was on board the boat started, and falling into the current passed on swiftly like an arrow.  The boat went on and on till it reached the sea.  After it had gone many furlongs into the open sea, the boat came near a whirlpool where the prince saw a great many rubies of monstrous size floating on the waters.  Such large rubies no one had ever seen, each being in value equal to the wealth of seven kings.  The prince caught hold of half-a-dozen of those rubies, and put them on board.  His mother said, “Darling, don’t take up those red balls; they must belong to somebody who has been shipwrecked, and we may be taken up as thieves.”  At the repeated entreaties of his mother, the prince threw them into the sea, keeping only one tied up in his clothes.  The boat then drifted toward the coast, and the queen and the prince arrived at a certain port where they landed.