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

by Joel Chandler Harris

“All this time, the father of the children, wobbly as he was, sat at the gaming-table with the three robbers. The robbers were waiting for the return of their companions, and at last they became so uneasy that they played loosely, and the man began to win his gold and silver back again. At last the robbers concluded to go in search of their companions; and the man went home, carrying with him more gold and silver than he had ever before brought away from the tavern. The robbers failed to find their companions until the next day, and the story they told was so alarming that the band concluded to leave that part of the country, at least for awhile.

“But reports and rumors of the great wealth of the poor farmer continued to travel about, and finally they came to the ears of a company of merchants, who were more cunning in their line of business than the robbers were in theirs. So these merchants journeyed to the village, and put up at the tavern. There they soon made the acquaintance of the fortunate farmer who owned the wonderful coal-black sheep and the wonderful snow-white goat.

“They talked business with him from the word go. They wanted him to put his money in all sorts of schemes that were warranted to double it in a few months. But the man said he didn’t want his money doubled. He already had as much as he wanted. He told them that if he were to sit on the street and throw away a million dollars a minute for ten years he’d be just as rich at the end of that time as he was before he threw away the first million.

“Of course, the merchants didn’t understand this. Some said the man was crazy, but the shrewder ones concluded that there must be some secret behind it all. So they set to work to find it out. They flattered him in every way. They made him rich presents for himself, his wife, and children. For the first time he began to wear fine clothes and put on airs. The shrewd merchants asked his advice about their own business, and went about telling everybody what a wise man he was. They pretended to tell him all their own business secrets.

“This, of course, pleased the man very much; and, at last, one day, when he had more wine in his head than wit, he told his merchant friends that he made all his gold and silver by shearing a black sheep and milking a white goat.

“‘Where do you keep these wonderful creatures?’ one of the merchants asked.

“‘In my stable,’ replied the man,—’in my stable night and day.’

“The greedy merchants were not long in finding out that the man kept a coal-black sheep and a snow-white-goat in his stable sure enough; and, after a good deal of persuading and flattering, they got him to consent to bring his coal-black sheep and his snow-white goat to the tavern, so that they might see for themselves how rare and valuable the animals were.

“Well, one night after his wife and children had gone to bed, the man carried the sheep and the goat to the tavern, and showed them to the merchants. They offered him immense sums of money for the animals, but he refused them all. Then they invited him to remain to a banquet which they had prepared. He wanted to carry his sheep and his goat back home, and then return to the banquet; but the merchants said the table was already spread, and he could tie his wonderful animals in the rear hall, where nobody would bother them.

“Meantime, the merchants had sent out into the country and bought a black sheep and a white goat; and while some of them were pouring wine down the man’s goozle, others were untying the wonderful black sheep and white goat, and putting in their place the animals that had been bought. When the time came for the man to go home, he was so wobbly in the legs and so befuddled in the head that he couldn’t tell the difference between a sheep and a goat. In fact, he had forgotten all about them, until one of the merchants asked him if he wasn’t going to take his rare and valuable animals back home.