64 EARS 



the face. It can fold them down backwards when 

 the danger is a terrier and the decks are cleared for 

 action, but that is another story. Contrast Brer 

 Rabbit as he comes " lopin' up de big road." His 

 ears are turning every way scouting for danger, not 

 always in unison, but independently ; but when he 



is at rest they are set to alarm 

 from the flank and rear. 



But when he " tear out the 

 house like the dogs wuz atter 

 him," then they point straight 

 back. He was made to be 

 eaten, and he knows it. So it 

 is with the whole tribe of deer, 

 ^j\ J and even with the horse, pam- 

 C> pered and cared for and un- 

 acquainted with danger ; his 

 • ft i ears are a weathercock regis- 



tear out the house hke tering the drift of all his petty 

 hopes and fears. I see the 

 left ear go forward and prepare 

 for a desperate shy at that wheelbarrow. He knows 

 a wheelbarrow familiarly — there is one in his stall 

 all day — but I am taking him a road he does not 

 want to go, and so the hypocrite is going to pretend 

 that barrow is of a dangerous sort. I prepare to apply 

 a counter-irritant : he sees it with the corner of his 

 eye, and both ears turn back like a tuning-fork. 



The size and quality of the ear serve to show 

 how far the owner depends on it. You will never 



THE DOGS WUZ ATTER 



HIM." 



