Brer fox was coming from town one evening when he saw Brer Turtle. He thought this was as good a time as any to grab Brer Rabbit's best friend.
He was close to home so he ran, got a sack, and ran back, knowing Brer Turtle wouldn't have covered more than two or three feet of ground..
Brer Fox
didn't even say how-do like the animals usually did, but just reached down, grabbed Brer Turtle, and flung him in the sack. Brer Turtle squalled and kicked and screamed. Brer Fox tied a knot in the sack and headed for home.
Brer Rabbit was lurking around Brer Fox's watermelon patch, wondering how he was going to get one, when he heard Brer Fox coming, singing like he'd just discovered happiness. Brer Rabbit jumped into a ditch and hid.
"I wonder what's in that sack Brer Fox got slung over his shoulder?" Brer Rabbit wondered. He wondered and he wondered and he wondered, and the more he wondered, the more he didn't know. He knew this much: Brer Fox had absolutely no business walking up the road singing and carrying something which nobody but him knew what it was.
Brer Rabbit went up to his house and yelled, "Hey, Brer Fox! Brer Fox! Come quick! They carrying off watermelons and tromping on your vines like it's a holiday or something! I tried to get'em out, but they ain't gon' pay a little man like me no mind. You better hurry!"
Brer fox dashed out. Brer Rabbit chuckled and went inside. He looked around until he saw the sack in the corner. He picked it up and felt it.
"Let me alone!" came a voice from inside. "Turn me loose! You hear me?"
Brer Rabbit dropped the sack and jumped back. Then he laughed. "Only one man in the world can make a fuss like that and that's Brer Turtle."
"Brer Rabbit? That you?"
"It was when I got up this morning."
"Get me out of here. I got dust in my throat and grit in my eye and I can't breathe none too good either. Get me out, Brer Rabbit."
"Tell me one thing, Brer Turtle. I can figure out how you got in the sack, but I can't for the life of me figure how you managed to tie a knot in it after you was inside."
Brer Turtle wasn't in the mood for none of Brer Rabbit's joking. "If you don't get me out of this sack, I'll tell your wife about all the time you spend with Miz Meadows and the girls."
Brer Rabbit untied the sack in a hurry. He carried Brer Turtle out to the woods and looked around for a while.
"What you looking for, Brer Rabbit?"
"There it is!" Brer Rabbit exclaimed.
He took a hornet's nest down from a tree and stuffed the opening with leaves. then he took the nest to Brer Fox's house and put it in the sack. He tied the sack tightly, then picked it up, flung it at the wall, dropped it on the floor, and swund it over his head a couple of times to get the hornets stirred up good. Then he put the sack back in the corner and ran to the woods where Brer Turtle was hiding.
A few minutes later Brer Fox came up the road, and he was angry! He stormed in the house. Brer Rabbit and Brer Turtle waited. All of a sudden they heard chairs falling, dishes breaking, the table turning over. It sounded like a bunch of cows was loose in the house.
Brer Fox came tearing through the door--and he hadn't even stopped to open it. The hornets were on him like a second skin.
Yes, that was one day Brer Fox found out what pain and suffering is all about!
