The difference between the dialect of the legends and that of the
character--sketches, slight as it is, marks the modifications
which the speech of the negro has undergone even where education
has played in deed, save in the no part reforming it. Indeed,
save in the remote country districts, the dialect of the legends
has nearly disappeared. I am perfectly well aware that the
character sketches are without permanent interest, but they are
embodied here for the purpose of presenting a phase of negro
character wholly distinct from that which I have endeavored to
preserve in the legends. Only in this shape, and with all the
local allusions, would it be possible to adequately represent the
shrewd observations, the curious retorts, the homely thrusts, the
quaint comments, and the humorous philosophy of the race of which
Uncle Remus is the type.

If the reader not familiar with plantation life will imagine that
the myth--stories of Uncle Remus are told night after night to a
little boy by an old negro who appears to be venerable enough to
have lived during the period which he describes--who has nothing
but pleasant memories of the discipline of slavery--and who has
all the prejudices of caste and pride of family that were the
natural results of the system; if the reader can imagine all
this, he will find little difficulty in appreciating and
sympathizing with the air of affectionate superiority which Uncle
Remus assumes as he proceeds to unfold the mysteries of
plantation lore to a little child who is the product of that
practical reconstruction which has been going on to some extent
since the war in spite of the politicians. Uncle Remus describes
that reconstruction in his Story of the War, and I may as well
add here for the benefit of the curious that that story is almost