Uncle Remus disdained to make any reply, but Daddy Jack chuckled and patted himself on the knee as he cried:—
"Come 'long, lilly gal! come 'long! I no mad. I fall down dey fer laff. Come 'long, lilly gal, come 'long."
'Tildy went on laughing loudly and talking to herself. After awhile Uncle Remus said:—
"Honey, I 'speck Miss Sally lookin' und' de bed en axin' whar you is. You better leak out fum yer now, en by dis time termorrer night I'll git Brer Jack all primed up, en he'll whirl in en tell you a tale."
Daddy Jack nodded assent, and the little boy ran laughing to the "big house."
XXVI
WHY THE ALLIGATOR'S BACK IS ROUGH
The night after the violent flirtation between Daddy Jack and 'Tildy, the latter coaxed and bribed the little boy to wait until she had finished her work about the house. After she had set things to rights in the dining-room and elsewhere, she took the child by the hand, and together they went to Uncle Remus's cabin. The old man was making a door-mat of shucks and grass and white-oak splits, and Daddy Jack was dozing in the corner.
"W'at I tell you, Brer Jack?" said Uncle Remus, as 'Tildy came in. "Dat gal atter you, mon!"