Rabbit and Tar Wolf
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retold
by Eric, Tom, Tim, Jarrett, Estefan, Aaron, Bill, Tonya,
Jill, Sarah, John, Arron, Ryan, Dewayne They had a council and decided to start the digging. The rabbit announced there was enough water on the grass for him to drink. Rabbit was sitting around when the animals were digging the well. Bear, mole, and groundhog did most of the work. Possum hung onto snake with his tail and dug deeper. Turtle scooped deepest until he found a spring. All the animals who had been toiling got a drink of water. They returned the next morning to get a drink of water. All the water was gone. The rabbit had snitched the water. He snuck up in the night and stole the water out of the well. They didn't know who or what it was. Owl said, “Who, who is stealing our water?” The animals decided to make a tar wolf.
The bear took sap from the pine tree. Fox pitched in to turn the sap into tar. They found some wood. Woodpecker and beaver pecked and chewed the wolf out of the wood. Its mouth was closed. They put the wolf out in front of the well. The lizard said, “I will stand guard in the tree and watch the thief get stuck tonight.” Rabbit approached the well. He gazed at the tar wolf. The wolf didn't utter a word. It didn't move out of the way. The rabbit whacked the wolf and his paw got stuck on the pine sap.
Then rabbit kicked the tar wolf and got stuck even more. The animals came in the morning and found him stuck to the tar wolf. They finally found out who the thief was. They
all seized rabbit and yanked him away from the tar wolf.
The bear tried to kill rabbit with his big claws, but rabbit kicked
with his strong legs and bit with his little sharp teeth.
Bear let go. Rabbit ran like crazy for his life. Fox
dashed after him, but could not catch rabbit.
This story
reminded me of a tale I heard as a child, the Uncle Remus Tar
Baby story. Both stories originated in the same geographic
area. I wonder if the Cherokee legend influenced Joel Chandler
Harris, the author of Uncle Remus. What do you think?
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