the longest and sharpest thorns and in cuttin' the branches on which
they grew. These he carried to his house and piled them around it and on
it until it had become a great pile with sharp thorns stickin' out in
every direction, and the hungriest of the big people of the forest
passed it at a respectful distance.

"When Brer Rat had all the thorns he needed and more, he began to
collect other things and added these to his pile. Yo' see, he had found
that it was great fun to collect things; to find the queerest things he
could and bring them home and look at them and wonder about them. So
little by little his house became a sort of junk shop, the very first
one in all the Great World. Bright stones and shells, bones, anything
that caught his bright eyes and pleased them, he brought home. When he
was tired of huntin' fo' food or more strange things he would sit and
gloat over his treasures and play with them. And then the first thing he
knew he had a name. Yes, Suh, he had a name. He was called Miser.

"Of course Brer Miser hadn't lived ve'y long befo' he found out that
one law of the Great World was that things belonged to whoever could get
them and keep them. He saw that some thought themselves ve'y smart when
they stole from their neighbors. Brer Miser didn't like this at all. He
was ve'y, ye'y honest, was Brer Miser. Perhaps he wasn't really much
tempted, not fo' a long time anyway.

"But at last came a time when he was tempted. Quite by accident he found
one of Mr. Squirrel's storehouses. In it were some nuts different from
any he ever had seen befo'. 'Brer Squirrel won't mind if Ah taste just
one,' said he, and did it. It tasted good; it tasted ve'y good indeed.
Brer Miser began to wish he had some nuts like those. When he got home
he couldn't think of anything but how good those nuts tasted. He knew