Bre’r Rabbit Counts Peanuts and Meets the Sticky Baby: An American Folktale

Brer Rabbit lives in the Briar Patch, and so cannot have a garden. He remedies this by taking from everyone else's garden. He loves peanuts and goes into Sister Fox's patch and eats a bunch, until he hears her coming. She then builds a fence, but he digs under. Then she makes a rope trap and while she's home, Brer Rabbit steps into the rope trap and is now hanging upside down. He can't get out but when he hears Brer Bear coming; he thinks up a trick. He pretends to be counting the peanuts and tells Brer Bear that he is getting paid by Sister Fox to count all the peanuts in the patch.

Brer Bear begs Brer Rabbit to let him have the job and offers to pre-pay him. Brer Rabbit takes Brer Bear's money and has the bear help him out of the trap and steps in himself. Brer Rabbit helps himself to some peanuts and then heads back into the briar patch. When Sister Fox arrives, Brer Bear asks to get paid. Sister Fox lets Brer Bear know he was tricked and begins to think up a plan to trick Brer Rabbit.

Sister Fox knows Brer rabbit always enjoys talking to newcomers, so she gets a doll baby and covers it with glue. Then she ties it to a fence post at the corner of her peanuts patch. She and Brer Bear hide behind a tree and wait. Brer Rabbit comes along and greets the sticky baby. It does not answer and after a number of attempts to talk, Brer Rabbit tries shaking hands with the baby and gets stuck. He grabs the baby's shoulder with his other hand and gets even more stuck. He kicks and head bumps the baby and becomes completed stuck.

Sister Fox comes out and Brer Bear brings a cooking pot. They are about to throw him in the boiling water when the tricky rabbit begs to be thrown in, claiming that he was afraid they would throw him in the briar patch where he would really be hurt. They decide to throw him in the briar patch, where he is free.