Cultural
Background Storyteller's Cabin
The Big Frog peeked out from his hiding place and said to his fellow frogs, "I don't believe it. No sir, I don't believe it."
Brer Rabbit sat down on the sand next to his friend Brer Coon and bowed his head like he was in mourning. The frogs saw this and moved in closer and closer. Brer Coon wasn't moving a muscle. Whenever a fly would land on Brer Coon's nose, Brer Rabbit would brush it off.
So all the frogs eventually hopped up on the sandbar and gathered around Brer Coon. Once they all saw that Brer Coon was dead, they started hopping up and down with excitement. Brer Rabbit turned to them and said, "You know, if I was you frogs, you know what I'd do? I'd dig a hole for this coon so deep that he'd never get out!"
The Big Frog heartily chuckled and said, "Hey, that's a good idea. How we gonna do it?"
Brer Rabbit said, "Dig the sand out from under him and let him down in the hole."
So the frogs went and got their little frog shovels. Then they came back to the sandbar and started digging a hole right around where Brer Coon was laying, with that ol' coon smack dab in the middle of it. After they had been digging a while, the Big Frog stopped everybody from digging and called up to Brer Rabbit. "Is it deep enough?" he hollered.
Brer Rabbit screamed back, "Can you get out?"
The Big Frog looked around him and shouted back, "Yes, we can! Yes, we can!"
"Then it ain't deep enough! " yelled Brer Rabbit. "You gotta dig it deeper!"
So the frogs went back to work. This time, they dug it real, real, real, real, real deep. The Big Frog stopped everyone again and said, "This hole should be deep enough by now. Let's see what that ol' rabbit has to say."
So he called up to Brer Rabbit again. "Is it deep enough?"
Brer Rabbit screamed back, "Can you get out?"
The Big Frog looked around him and shouted back, "No, we can't! No, we can't!"
Well, at this point, Brer Rabbit hollered down in the hole at his good friend, Brer Coon - "Brer Coon! Rise up and get your meat!" And that ol' Brer Coon opened up his big black eyes, saw them frogs hoppin' around and started grabbin 'em left and right!
After a while, Brer Rabbit threw a sack down in the hole, and Brer Coon bagged the frogs up, took 'em home, and they had enough Frog meet to last them a real long time. After that, Brer Coon and his family were real, real happy.
And that's how Brer Coon got his meat.
To find out where this story came from, visit the cultural background page.
Return to top
