194 Next to the Ground 



nodded. The Lord meantime had made the 

 moon and set it up by the fence. It was 

 gilded all over, and the gilt not dry. Brer 

 Fox thought it looked good enough to eat, 

 so he slid past Brer Rabbit, and licked and 

 licked the new moon, until he made the 

 dark places still visible over the face of it. 

 Just as he was about to bite the edge of it, 

 the Lord turned around, saw what he was 

 doing, and in anger flung his trowel spang at 

 Brer Rabbit. It hit him in the mouth, and 

 cut his lip in two. By way of punishment, 

 the Lord decreed that the cut should mark 

 all later rabbits — also that Brer Fox, who 

 seems to have a knack of escaping his deserts, 

 should be entitled to eat Brer Rabbit — 

 whenever he could catch him. 



If the big snow of all big snows had never 

 come. Little Mose might never have had time 

 to remember the tale. Then, if ever, witch- 

 work, whose polite and bookish name is 

 enchantment, touches the farmlands. Big 

 snows are not a winter commonplace round 

 about White Oaks. Indeed, in that latitude, 

 winter is truly a season of vagary, — sometimes 

 so mild and open flowers bloom all through 

 it, early blossoms lapping over upon linger- 

 ing remnant late ones, — other times, so sav- 

 agely cold even navigable waters freeze hard 

 enough for teams to be driven across them. 



