“Didn't the colonial authorities never catch the rabbit, Uncle Remus?” asked the little boy the next evening.
“They come mighty nigh it, sho's you born — those darned colonial authorities. One day atter Brer Rabbit escaped again, those colonial authorities went ter wuk en got 'em some barbed wire and erected it from coast to coast of Orstralia in a contrapshun w'at they call a fence, en they wait nearby to see what Brer Rabbit think of it.
“En they didn't hatter wait long, nudder, kaze bimeby here come Brer Rabbit pacin' through the desert — shuffly, wuffly, wuffly, shuffly — dez es sassy ez a dead wombat. Colonial authorities, they lay low. Brer Rabbit come staggerin' 'long twel he spy de fence, en den he fotch up on his behime legs like he wuz 'stonished. De barbed fence, it sot dar, it did, en colonial authorities, they lay low.
“'Mawnin'!' sez Brer Rabbit, sezee.
“Fence ain't sayin' nuthin', en colonial authorities they lay low.
“'How duz yo' sym'tums seem ter segashuate' sez Brer Rabbit, sezee.
“Colonial authorities wink their eyes slow, en lay low, en de fence, it ain't sayin' nuthin'.
“'How you come on, den? Is you deaf?' sez Brer Rabbit, sezee.
“Fence stay still, en colonial authorities, they lay low.
“You er stuck up, dat's w'at you is,” says Brer Rabbit, sezee, “'en I'm gwine ter kyore you, dat's w'at I'm a gwine ter do,” sezee.
“But the colonial authorities no longer can resist makin' themselves known, so they sa'ntered fort', lookin' dez ez innercent ez wunner yo' mammy's mockin'-birds.
“'Of corse dat fence is stuck up,' sez de civil servant 'sponsible for preventin' miscegenation in dis region of Orstralia, 'it wouldn't be much of a fence otherwise, would it?' sezee.”
Here Uncle Remus paused, and lit his opium pipe.
“Did the colonial authorities arrest the rabbit and take him back to the orphanage so he could be trained to do domestic work in the houses of the white settlers?” asked the little boy to whom the story had been told.
“Did they do dat? My backside, they did! They aimed a shotgun at der rabbit's head en blew out 'is brains. Now I hear Miss Sally callin'. She be wantin' you to scrub en clean en do other dirty work or else she send you right back there. You better run 'long.”
¶ Rabbits breed like hot cakes.