Mr. Rabbit at Home / A sequel to Little Mr. Thimblefinger and his Queer Country

by Joel Chandler Harris

“‘Since we are to have a sort of holiday together, maybe you won’t mind telling me your name.’

“‘Why, of course not,’ replied the young man. ‘My name is Smat.’

“The Man in the Moon scratched his head and then laughed. ‘It is a queer name,’ he said; ‘but I see no objection to it. I suppose it just happened so.’

“‘Now, I can’t tell you anything about that,’ replied Smat. ‘I was too young when the name was given to take any part in the performance. They seized me, and named me at a time when I had to take any name that they chose to give me. They named me Smat, and that was the end of it so far as I was concerned. They never asked me how I liked it, but just slapped the name in my face, as you may say, and left it there.’

“‘Well,’ said the Man in the Moon, ‘they’ll put another letter in the name when you get back home. Instead of calling you Smat, they’ll say you are Smart, and there’s some consolation in that.’

“‘Not much as I can see,’ remarked Smat. ‘It’s all in your mouth, and what is in your mouth is pretty much all wind and water, if you try to spit it out. What I want now is to get my father and my brother out of the trouble that my mischief has plunged them in. Please help me. They ought to be at home right now. There’s the corn to grind, and the cows are waiting to be milked, and the grain is to be gathered. Times are pretty hard at our house when everybody is away.’

“‘Very well,’ said the Man in the Moon. He had hanging by his side the horn of the new Moon, and on this he blew a loud blast. Immediately there was a roaring noise in the woods, and very soon there swarmed about them a company of little men, all bearing the tiniest and the prettiest lanterns that were ever seen. It was not night, but their lanterns were blazing, and as they marched around the Man in the Moon in regular order, it seemed as though the light of their lanterns had quenched that of the sun, so that Smat saw the woods in a different light altogether. He had not moved, but he seemed to be in another country entirely. The trees had changed, and the ground itself. He was no longer sitting on a log by the side of the big road, but was now standing on his feet in a strange country, as it seemed to him.

“He had risen from his seat on the log when the little men with their lanterns began marching around, but otherwise he had not moved. And yet here he was in a country that was new to him. He rubbed his eyes in a dazed way, and when he opened them again, another change had taken place. Neither he nor the Man in the Moon had made any movement away from the big road and the log that was lying by the side of it, but now they were down in a wide valley, that stretched as far as the eye could see, between two high mountain ranges.

“‘Now, then,’ said the Man in the Moon, ‘you must be set up in business. On the side of the mountain yonder is the palace of King Stuff, and somewhere not far away you will find your father and your brother, and perhaps some one else.’

“He then called to the leaders of the little men with the lanterns, and gave each one a task to do. Their names were Drift and Sift, Glimmer and Gleam, and Shimmer and Sheen. These six leaders waved their lanterns about, called their followers about them, and at once began to build a house.”