Story: In the Briar Patch
Book: “Tales from Guilford County, North Carolina” in The Journal of American Folklore, volume 30
Author(s): Elsie Clews Parsons
Storyteller: Lulu Young
Published: 1917
Internet Archive link.

Notes: Lightly edited for eye-dialect and paragraphing.

The Farmer, Mr. Rabbit, and Spring Water

Once the farmer had a spring of very good water. Every morning he’d go to the spring, he would find it muddy. He had studied all day long some plan to catch Mr. Rabbit. Mr. Rabbit would come every morning and wash his face in the spring before the farmer could get there. So he made up his mind to play a trick on him. He made a tar baby and sat it near the spring.

The next morning bright and early Mr. Rabbit came down about the spring. He seen the tar baby, and he did not like the looks of him. But he thought he would speak. So he said, “Good morning!” and the tar baby did not say a word. And again he said, “Good morning!” and the tar baby did not speak. And he walked up close to it, and he said, “If you don’t speak to me, I will smack you in the spring.” The tar baby yet hadn’t spoken. And he said, “I will teach you some manners if you have not got any.” And he drawed back his front paw and smacked the tar baby. and it stuck there. and he drawed back his other one and smacked him. And he said, “If you don’t turn me a-loose, I will kick you into the spring.” And he drawed back and kicked the tar baby with all his might. Both feet stuck there. “If you don’t turn me a-loose, I will bite you.” And he bit the tar baby.

It was not very long before the farmer come down to see how his plan had worked out. He seen Mr. Rabbit stuck there fast. “Oh, yes! You’re the one what has been a-muddling my spring. I’m going to eat you for my dinner.”

Mr. Rabbit begin to beg the farmer to let him a-loose, but he would not do it. Now home he go. More harder the rabbit begged the farmer. He passed by a briar-thicket, and the rabbit said to the farmer, “You can roast me, you can skin me alive, but please don’t throw me in the briar-thicket!”

The farmer thought that would be the best way to get shed of him, Mr. Rabbit, was to throw him in the briar-patch, so he throwed him as far as he could. Just betime Mr. Rabbit touched the ground, he kicked up his heel and commenced saying, “I was bred and born in this briar-patch.”

Photo of rabbit by RPM at Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/rpmarks/52380961503