Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/239

 Folk- Lore S crap-Book. 227

was cheese. The weight was more than the first man could stand, so he thought he would lighten up by letting go his hold long enough to rest his hands, being perfectly ignorant of what would happen if he did so. Of course they all fell pell-mell into the river, and stirred up the water so much that, when they did manage to crawl out, they could not see the reflection of the moon. Then they all declared that the last fellow had stolen the cheese and gone. To see whether they were all there, after every one had denied taking the cheese, they thought that they should be counted, so the very cleverest one of all stood the rest in a row and began to count. Instead of counting from one to ten and including himself either as first or last, he only said, ' Me myself, one, two, three,' etc., and the consequence was that he only counted nine. He repeated this for some time, and getting tired of it, and calling in a slow way to find out the thief, they all got little twigs, and, forming themselves in a row, each one stuck a hole in the ground with his twig. After this was done, they took turns to count the holes, and at last really saw that all ten were still there. As to where the cheese went, they never could tell, and they lamented for weeks afterward over the lost piece of green cheese."

"The Irishmen and the Watermelon. — Two Irishmen were walk- ing along one day, and they came across a wagon-load of watermelons. Neither one had ever seen a watermelon before, and they inquired of some negroes, who were working near by, what they were, and what they were good for. The negroes answered their questions very politely, and then, as it was their dinner hour, sat down in the shade to eat. The Irishmen concluded to buy a melon and see how they liked it. They went a little distance and cut the melon, but, taking pity on the poor negroes, decided to share it with them. 'Faith!' they said, 'guts is good enough for naygurs.' So they cut the heart out of the melon and gave it away, and ate the rind themselves."

"The Irishmen and the Deer. — There seem to be several stories that might be placed under this title, all alike in recording the Irishman's non-success in the hunt, but varying widely in detail. They may be roughly classified into stories in which the Irishman shoots the wrong thing, as a cow or a mule, and those in which he simply fails to take any steps to secure the right thing when it goes by him. To the latter class belong the following : —

"(1.) Some men went hunting, and they put an Irishman on the stand where the deer would pass, and went off in other directions. Pretty soon the deer passed directly by the stand, and the Irishman stood and looked at him. The others came in at noon, and they all asked the Irishman why he did not shoot the deer when it passed so near. The Irishman said, ' Why, it was no use ; if he kept on as fast as he was going, he 'd kill him- self anyway.'

" (2.) Once upon a time some Irishmen went out deer-hunting. As a rule, a deer will have a certain path along which he will run whenever he is chased. The first time he is chased he generally gets by, because no one knows his path, but the next time some one is apt to be on the watch in

�� �