C014. Mr. Fox and the Frogs

14. Mr. Fox and the Deceitful Frogs. Text Source: Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings by Joel Chandler Harris. Online at Project Gutenberg. I have removed the frame material and standardized the spelling; click here for the original spelling plus all notes to the story.

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MR. FOX and the FROGS

I-doom-er-ker-kum-mer-ker!
I-doom-er-ker-kum-mer-ker! 
I-doom-er-ker-kum mer-ker!

That's Terrapin talk, that is. When you get old as me—when you see what I sees, and hear what I hears—the critters that you can't talk with'll be mighty scarce—they will that. Why, there's a old gray rat, and time after time he comes out when you all done gone to bed and sets up there in the corner and dozes, and me and him talks by the hour; and what that old rat don't know ain't down in the spelling book. Just now, I was fetching into my mind what Brer Terrapin say to Brer Fox when he turn him loose in the branch. That what he said — I-doom-er-ker-kum-mer-ker! 

Brer Terrapin was at the bottom of the pond, and he talk back, he did, in bubbles— I-doom-er-ker-kum-mer-ker! 

Brer Fox, he ain't saying nothing.

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But Brer Bull-Frog, sitting on the bank, he hear Brer Terrapin, he did, and he holler back:
Jug-er-rum-kum-dum! 
Jug-er-rum-kum-dum!

Then Brer Frog holler out:
Knee-deep! 
Knee-deep!

Then old Brer Bull-Frog, he holler back:
Don'-you-ber-lieve-'im! 
Don't-you-ber-lieve-'im!

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Then the bubbles come up from Brer Terrapin:
I-doom-er-ker-kum- mer-ker!

Then Brer Frog sing out:
Wade in! 
Wade in!

Then old Brer Bull-Frog talk through his hoarseness:
There-you'll-find-your-brother!
There-you'll-find-your-brother!

Sure enough, Brer Fox look over the bank, he did, and there was another Fox looking at him out of the water.

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Then he reached out for to shake hands, and in he went, heels over head, and Brer Terrapin bubble out:
I-doom-er-ker-kum-mer-ker!

Brer Fox weren't exactly drownded; he did manage for to scramble out, but a little more and the Mud Turtle would've got him, and then he'd've been made ash and world without end.

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