that all he had to do was to watch until Brer Squirrel was away and
then go he'p hisself. He knew that was just what any of his neighbors
would do in his place. But Brer Miser couldn't make it seem just right
any way he looked at it. He was too honest, was Brer Miser, to do
anything like that.

"He was sitting staring at his treasures but thinking about those nuts
when an idea popped into his head, an idea that made him smile until Ah
reckons he most split his cheeks. 'Ah knows what Ah'll do,' said he.
'Ah'll just he'p mahself to some of those nuts and Ah'll leave something
of mine in place of them. That's what Ah'll do.'

"And that's what he did do. He picked out a bright shell of which he was
very fond and he left it in Brer Squirrel's storehouse to pay fo' the
nuts that he took. After that he always helped himself to anything he
wanted, but he always left something to pay fo' it. It wasn't long befo'
his neighbors found out what he was doing, and then they called him
Miser the Trade Rat. Whenever anybody found something he didn't want
hisself, he took it to the little junk shop of Miser the Trade Rat and
traded it fo' something else, or left it where Miser would find it,
knowing that Miser would leave something in its place.

"And it's been just so with Miser's family ever since. There is one Rat
who is a credit to his family instead of a disgrace," concluded Ol'
Mistah Buzzard.




III