Didn't the fox ever catch the rabbit, Uncle Remus?" asked the little boy the next evening.
"He came mighty near it, honey, sure as you're born - Brer Fox did. One day after Brer Rabbit fooled him with that calamus root, Brer Fox went to work and got him some tar, and mixed it with some turpentine, and fixed up a contraption that he called a Tar-Baby, and he took this here Tar-Baby and he set her in the big road, and then he lay off in the bushes to see what the news was goin' to be. And he didn't have to wait long, neither, 'cause by and by here come Brer Rabbit pacin' down the road - lippity-clippity, clippity-lippity - just as sassy as a jay-bird. Brer Fox, he lay low. Brer Rabbit came prancin' along until he spied the Tar-Baby, and then he fetched up on his behind legs like he was astonished. The Tar-Baby, she sat there, she did, and Brer Fox, he lay low.