The Story of the Great Flood

The animals were arguing with each other, so Lion called an assembly. The animals made speeches, accusing each other of this and that.
Elephant, meanwhile, trampled a Crawfish to death. The other Crawfishes got mad, but nobody listened to their complaint, except for Mud-Turtle and Spring-Lizard. All the other animals kept on making speeches.
So the Crawfishes and the Mud-Turtle and the Spring-Lizard bored holes in the ground till water came squirting out.
The water kept pouring forth, and more and more, rising higher and higher till all the animals drowned, just because the big animals disrespected the little ones.

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Inspired by: Uncle Remus: His Songs and Sayings by Joel Chandler Harris: The Story of the Deluge.
Notes: This story is a distinctively African American variant on a traditional African story about the animals raising up water from underground; see Baer's notes here.

(illustration by A. T. Elwes)

Possum and Raccoon Fight the Dog

Possum and Raccoon were out walking when they heard Dog howling.
"Don't be scared," Possum said. "I'll stand by you!"
"And I'll stand by you too!" said Raccoon.
But when Dog came bounding up, Possum keeled over. Dog sniffed at Possum and left him for dead, so Raccoon fought Dog all by himself.
Dog finally ran off, and when the coast was clear, Possum got back up.
Raccoon was mad. "You coward!" he said.
"I wasn't scared," said Possum. "I'm just terribly ticklish, and Dog tickled my ribs. I was paralyzed by tickles."
It's true: just tickle a Possum and see!

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Inspired by: Uncle Remus: His Songs and Sayings by Joel Chandler Harris: Possum Loves Peace.

Notes: There is a tantalizing similarity between this story and the Aesop's fable about the two men and the bear. Since this story doesn't have any other African or African American parallels, it could be an Aesop-inspired story in the Brer Rabbit universe.

(illustration by A. B. Frost)