One time —I don't know if it was in Greene County, or in Baldwin— there lived a man and a woman that was mighty poor. They ain't got no money, and they ain't had time for to save none; much as they can do for to keep body and soul together. They ain't got no farm, and they ain't got no garden patch. All they had in the round world was a little puddle duck that walked round and round all day singing the hungry song — "Quack! Quack! Give me a piece of bread!" Look like it wouldn't've took much to feed her, 'cause she was such a little bit of duck that folks called her Teenchy-Tiny Duck.
Well, one day, whiles she was paddling in the river — I don't know it it was the Oconee of the Ocmulgee — she up and found a money-purse all full of shiny gold.
No sooner did she see it than she made a tumble racket: "Somebody lost their pretty money! Pretty money! Pretty money! Who lost their pretty money?"
Brer Rabbit, on the bank, look out of his hiding place, and kind of grin, and then he wunk one eye, but he ain't say a word.
By and by a rich man come along; he had a walking-stick in his hand, and every once and awhile he'd stop and make marks in the sand, a-counting up the money what he had, and that what he done lent out; he was one of the kind what you call big rich for them days.
Well, whiles he was walking along, he hear the fuss that Teenchy-Tiny Duck's a-making, and he look close for to see what the matter. Then and there his eye lit on the money-purse, and he seed the gold a-shining through. He holler out, "That's mine! That's mine! I just now dropped it;" and with that he took the gold and slapped it in his carpet-sack.
After he done gone, Teenchy-Tiny got so mad that all she can do is to dance 'round on her two footsies. She say, "The grand rascal done took it all, an' ain't never give me nothin' for findin' it!"
Then she waddled off home and told them what done happened. The man was so mad that he want to pull all his hair out; he say, he did, "Get out of my house and lot, such as they is, and don't never come back here till you get that money what the rich man took!"
Teenchy-Tiny Duck ain't know what to do. She went back to the river bank, and sat down and cried. Brer Rabbit see her and ask her what the matter might be. She up and told him all about it, and he wiped one eye and wunk the other. Says he, "Well, whyn't you go after the man an' get the money?"
She say, "How I goin' to get the money after I find the man?"
Brer Rabbit say, says he, "There's always a way, if not two."
So off she put, a-waddling and a-quacking, "I want my pretty money! I want my pretty money!" She follered the man by the marks of the cane in the ground.
She pass by old Brer Fox, and he ask her what the matter. She up and told him. He ask her what she going to do when she find the rich man, and she say she gonna get the pretty money and take it back home.
"Shall I go with you?" says old Brer Fox, says he, and she say that nothing'll suit her better.
"I'll have to hide," says old Brer Fox; "how I gonna do it?"
"Get in my satchel," says Teenchy-Tiny.
Brer Fox say it ain't nigh big enough, and she make answer. "My satchel is a stretching satchel."
She ain't gone fare before she met old Brer Wolf. He listen at the talk about the money, and say, "Where you come from an' where you goin', and what you goin' after?"
She up and told him.
"Maybe I can help you," says he, "but I'm tired, and I can't go so far."
She says, says she, "Get in my satchel."
He say, "It ain't nigh big enough."
She say, "It's the stretching satchel; jump in."
Well, in he jumped, and after that, Teenchy-Tiny can't go so mighty fast, 'cause she got too big a load. But she waddled on, quacking about the pretty money.
By and by, whiles she was going on down the road, she come up with Uncle Ladder, taking his noon rest by the side of a tree. Uncle Ladder, he say, says he, "You must not feel so well from the way you are going on." Then Teenchy-Tiny up and told him about the bad luck she done had; she shook her head backwards and forwards, and quacked so loud, that Uncle Ladder was sorry.
He ask her it he can do anything for to help her out, and she say she expect he can do a heap to help her. Uncle Ladder says, says he, that he'd be glad if he can, but he can't walk, and he don't know how he going with her. Teenchy-Tiny say, "Just get in my satchel, and I'll tote you the best I know how." So Uncle Ladder got in the satchel, and off she started.
Well, Uncle Ladder climb in the satchel, and he had plenty of room, and Teenchy-Tiny Puddle Duck went wobbling on, quacking about the pretty money what done been took from her. Now whiles she going on, following the tracks of the rich man's walking-cane, she come right face with the best friend she'd ever had, and that was Grandpappy River.
He stop running, he did, and say, says he, "Why, what the matter? When I seed you this morning, you look like you was happy, and now, here you is in deep trouble. How can I help you? Maybe I'd better go with you; I surely would if I had legs."
Grandpappy River got in the satchel without drowning anybody, and Teenchy-Tiny Duck went on, still following the tracks that the rich man's walking-cane had made in the ground, and pretty soon, if not sooner, she come to a big Bee Hive.
Old man Drone was a-sunning hisself, and when he seed her he got to laughing and it weren't long before all the Bees had come out for to see what the trouble was all about. And when they seed her, they laugh and laugh till some ofthem fell down from the bench. But Teenchy-Tiny Puddle Duck look so solemn that they hushed up one another after while, and say, "Such a big fat satchel. Tell us what the matter is."
She sat down and told them all about her troubles, and it look like they get bigger and worser the more she talk about them. The Bees said they'd be more than glad for to help her out if they know'd how, and they ask if they can't go with her. "Get in my satchel," says she, and, sure enough, in they swarmed.
She went on, sometimes a-waddling and sometimes a-toddling, and long about night, she come to the place where the rich man live at. She crept under the gate, and went up to the big house hollering for her pretty money.
The rich man he hear her, and he know'd just exactly what she come for. He laugh, he did, and make some of the black men put her in the hen-house along with the geese and the turkeys, and told the cook for to have her for dinner the next day. So said, so done. Into the hen-house she went, and time she get in there the other fowls begun to make a mighty racket; I expect they must've catch a whiff of Brer Fox.
Anyhow, they got after her, dark as it was, they got after her, and pecked on her and beat her with their wings, and she had to call on Brer Fox for to come out of the satchel and see what he can do to settle the dispute.
Well, out he come, and mighty glad of the chance. All the fowls quit their disputing and when the cook come out the next morning for to get Teenchy-Tiny, she sure did open her eyes. The ground was strewed with dead chickens, and turkeys, and gooses, 'cause Brer Fox sure had done his work well.
The cook was so astonished that she run to the big house without taking time for to pull the hen-house door shut. Teenchy-Tiny Duck marched out with her fat satchel and went 'round to the front, quacking and squalling, "Pretty money! Give me back my pretty money!"
The rich man's wife, when the cook got through telling her tale, up and say, "Don't give her her money back, we'll sure have bad luck!"
But the man just laugh, and he laughed every time he hear Teenchy-Tiny Duck holler. And she kept it up all day long. Sometimes she'd set down and rest, but the most of the time, she was toting her big satchel about over the place, and hollering to the man for to give her back her pretty money what she found.
Night come as night will, and the rich man made them take the Duck and put her in the stable along with the mules and hosses.
He say, "We'll see what she'll holler in the mornin'." No sooner said than done, and Teenchy-Tiny Duck was so scared that she call to Brer Wolf, that if he don't come and help her, she surely will be trampled under the critters' foots.
He say, "We'll see what she'll holler in the mornin'." No sooner said than done, and Teenchy-Tiny Duck was so scared that she call to Brer Wolf, that if he don't come and help her, she surely will be trampled under the critters' foots.
Well, Brer Wolf ain't need no second telling; he work so hard and he work so fast, that when the plough-hands and the wagon drivers come for to get their teams the next morning, they find them all stretched out stiff.
When this word went out, the rich man's old woman beg and beg him for to give the money back to Teenchy-Tiny Duck. But the man was too mad to listen. So he went out in the yard, and tell his men for to fling her in the well.
All this time, and whiles they was toting her off, Teenchy-Tiny Duck keep on squalling an quacking, "Pretty money!"
They flung her in the well, and as she fell, she holler to the Ladder for come help her. The Ladder got out of the satchel and kind of stretched itself, 'cause it had been mightily cramped in there. It stretched itself till it got to the top, and Teenchy-Tiny Duck climbed it rung by rung, and come out, and she come a-hollering for her pretty money.
You may well believe that them there men and all the balance was mightily astonished. But the rich man got madder than he was before. He stomped his foots and pulled his hair, and just vow that he ain't going to turn the money loose. He run out, he did, and told them to heat the baking oven red-hot and put her in. And all that time Teenchy-Tiny was marching up and down squalling and quacking for her pretty money.
They got the oven mighty hot, and the rich man told them for to fling her in. They was scared but they had to do what their master told um. Time they done it, Teenchy-Tiny Duck call for old friend, the River, and he bust out of the satchel and squelched the fire, and Teenchy-Tiny come marching out, hollering louder than ever for her pretty money.
And still the rich man won't turn the money loose, no matter how much his wife beg him. He say he'll attend to the job hisself; and that night, when everubody but him had done gone to bed, he took his walking-cane, and went out and got Teenchy-Tiny Duck, and was just in the act of beating her plum to death, when she called on the Bees for to come and help her. They come swarming out, and the way they treat that rich man was enough for to make you smile of cry, whichever way your mind might lean. He couldn't run fast enough for to get the money, and when he got it, he hand it to Teenchy-Tiny Duck, and told her to go on about her business, and pester him no more.
She waddled off down the road, and she took all her friends back where they joined her — the Bees to the Hive, the Ladder to the wall, and the River to its bed. Brer Wolf and Brer Fox allow that they can walk faster than she could tote them.
Her master and mistress got the money that ain't belong to them, and it look like they ought of be happy, but they weren't; they know'd they was spending that that weren't theirs. But they feed Teenchy-Tiny Duck till she got so fat and sassy that she won't associate with nobody but the family that they calls Muscovy; you know what I mean.
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