"Wus dat you spoke,
Or a fence rail broke?"
Br'er Rabbit say to de Jay
[50]W'en you don't speak sof',
Yō' baits comes off;
An' de fish jes swim away.
[50] The last three lines of the rhyme was a superstition current among antebellum Negroes.
STILL WATER RUNS DEEP
Dat still water, it run deep.
Dat shaller water prattle.
Dat tongue, hung in a holler head,
Jes roll 'round an' rattle.
DON'T TELL ALL YOU KNOW
Keep dis in min', an' all 'll go right;
As on yō' way you goes;
Be shore you knows 'bout all you tells,
But don't tell all you knows.
[51]JACK AND DINAH WANT FREEDOM
Ole Aunt Dinah, she's jes lak me.
She wuk so hard dat she want to be free.
But, you know, Aunt Dinah's gittin' sorter ole;
An' she's feared to go to Canada, caze it's so cōl'.
Dar wus ole Uncle Jack, he want to git free.
He find de way Norf by de moss on de tree.
He cross dat [52]river a-floatin' in a tub.
Dem [53]Patterollers give 'im a mighty close rub.