Little Mr. Thimblefinger and His Queer Country

by Joel Chandler Harris

MR. RABBIT BANDAGING BROTHER LION’S PAW

“Well, when his mother saw him she was very sorry. But when he told her what the matter was she was vexed. ‘Aha!’ said she, ‘how often have I told you about meddling with somebody else’s business! How often have I told you about sticking your nose into things that don’t concern you! I’m not sorry for you one bit, because if you had obeyed me you wouldn’t be coming home now with your hand mashed all to flinders. But, no! daddy-like, you’ve got to go and get yourself into trouble with Mr. Man, and now you see what has come of it. I’m not feeling at all well myself, but now I’ve got to go to work and make a whole parcel of poultices and tie your hand up and nurse you—and I declare somebody ought to be nursing me this very minute.’

“That was what Brother Lion’s mother said,” continued Mr. Rabbit, “but Brother Lion didn’t say anything. He just lay on the sheepskin pallet she made him and studied how he would be revenged on Mr. Man. After a while his hand got well, but still he said very little about the matter. The more he thought about the way he had been treated, the madder he got. He gnashed his teeth together and waved his long tail about until it looked like a snake. Finally he sent word to all his kin—his uncles and his cousins—to meet him somewhere in the woods and hold a convention to consider how they should catch the great monster, Mr. Man, who had caused a log of wood to mash Brother Lion’s hand.

“Well, it wasn’t long before the uncles and cousins began to arrive. They came from far and near, and they seemed to be very ferocious. They shook their manes and showed their tushes. They went off in the woods and held their convention, and Brother Lion laid his complaint before them. He told them what kind of treatment he had received from Mr. Man, and asked them if they would help to get his revenge. He made quite a speech, and when he sat down, his uncles and cousins were very much excited. They roared and howled. They said they were ready to tear Mr. Man limb from limb. They declared they were ready to go where he was, and gnaw him and claw him on account of the scandalous way he had treated their blood-kin.

“But when Brother Lion’s mother heard what they proposed to do she shut her eyes and shook her head from side to side, and told the uncles and the cousins that they had better go back home, all of them. She said that before they got through with Mr. Man they’d wish they had never been born. But go they would and go they did.

“So they started out soon one morning, and traveled night and day for nearly a week. They were getting very tired and hungry, and some of the younger blood-cousins wanted to stop and rest, and some wanted to turn around and go back home. But one morning while they were going through the woods, feeling a little shaky in head and limb, they suddenly came in sight of Mr. Man. He was cutting down trees and splitting them into timber. He had his coat off, and seemed to be very busy.

“But he was not so busy that he didn’t hear Mr. Lion and his uncles and blood-cousins sneaking through the woods over the dry leaves, and he wasn’t so busy that he couldn’t see them moving about among the trees. He was very much astonished. He wondered where so many of the Lion family came from, and what they were doing there, but he didn’t stop to ask any questions. He dropped his axe and climbed a tree.

“Brother Lion and his uncles and his blood-cousins were very much pleased when they saw Mr. Man climb the tree. ‘We have him now,’ said Brother Lion, and the rest licked their jaws and smiled. Then they gathered around the tree and sat on their haunches and watched Mr. Man. This didn’t do any good, for Mr. Man sat on a limb and swung his legs, just as contentedly as if he was sitting in his rocking-chair at home.