Old Man Coyote nodded, and Ol' Mistah Buzzard scratched his bald head
gently as if trying to stir up his memory. Peter Rabbit almost squealed
aloud in his impatience while he waited for Ol' Mistah Buzzard to go on.

"When Ol' Mother Nature made Brer Trade Rat in the beginning and turned
him loose in the Great World, he was just plain Mistah Rat and nothing
more, same as his no 'count cousin, Robber the Brown Rat," continued Ol'
Mistah Buzzard. "He had to win a name for hisself same as ev'ybody else.
He had mighty sharp wits, had this Mistah Rat, and directly he found he
had to shift for hisself he began to study and study and study what he
gwine to do to live well and be happy. He watched his neighbors to see
what they did, and it didn't take him long to find out that if he would
be respected he must have a home. Those without homes were mostly no
'count folks, same as they are today.

"So Brer Rat made a nest close to the trunk of a tree on the edge of the
Green Forest, a soft, warm nest, and in collectin' the stuff to make it
of he learned the joy of bein' busy. Person'ly, yo' understand, Ah
thinks he was all wrong. Ah never am so happy as when Ah can take a
sun-bath with nothin' to do. But Brer Rat was never so happy as when he
was busy, and when he got that li'l nest finished time began to hang
heavy on his hands. Yes, Suh, it cert'nly did. Just because he didn't
have anything else to do he began to add a little more to his house. One
day he stepped on a thorn. 'Ouch!' cried Brer Rat, and then right away
forgot the pain in a new idea. He would cover his house with thorns,
leavin' just a little secret entrance for hisself! Then he would be
safe, wholly safe from his big neighbors, some of whom had begun to look
at him with such a hungry look in their eyes that they made him right
smart uncomfortable. So he spent his time, did Brer Rat, in huntin' for