After witnessing Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox getting along, the woodland animals decide to stop fighting at the start of the novel. One scorching day, a large number of animals, including Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox, Brer Bear, and Brer Coon, get together to clear some space for maize planting. In the fall, they all look forward to eating roasted corn.

Brer Rabbit knows he can’t let the others believe he’s sluggish, but he soon grows weary of the hard work. He pretends to assist by carrying brambles and weeds that others take out in order to maintain appearances. After some time, Brer Rabbit screams loudly, saying that his hand has been pierced by a thorn. He uses this as a pretext and leaves, feigning to examine his hand while surreptitiously searching for a shaded place to take a sleep.

A well is discovered by Brer Rabbit while investigating. It has a pulley system with two buckets connected to a rope; when one bucket descends, the other rises. The bucket is the ideal spot for Brer Rabbit to relax. He enters one bucket, but as soon as he does, it rapidly descends. He continues to descend until the bucket splatters into the well’s bottom water.

Brer Rabbit knows he’s in trouble when he gets to the bottom. Any abrupt movement might topple him into the water, and he is unable to get out of the bucket. Even worse, he doesn’t know how to return to the top. He’s sitting there contemplating when Brer Fox shows there.

Suspecting that the cunning rabbit was up to something, Brer Fox had followed Brer Rabbit. During the process, he had witnessed Brer Rabbit get into the well bucket and steal away. This odd behavior seems fishy to Brer Fox. He believes that something significant, such as gold or a buried treasure, must have been discovered at the bottom of the well by Brer Rabbit.

Brer Fox shouts, peering into the well, “Hey, Brer Rabbit! How come you’re down there?” Brer Rabbit, who is renowned for his rapid thinking, devises a cunning deception. “Oh, I’m just fishing,” he responds. In order to surprise everyone with dinner, I hoped to catch some fish.

“Are there really a lot of fish down there?” inquires Brer Fox, curious. With a cunning response, Brer Rabbit asks, “Are there stars in the sky? I can’t catch them all by myself since there are so many fish here. Would you mind coming down to assist me?

Brer Fox wonders how he can go to the bottom of the well since he is thrilled at the prospect of catching a lot of fish. He is instructed to climb into the second bucket by Brer Rabbit. When Brer Rabbit accomplishes this, his bucket rises and Brer Fox’s bucket falls due to his weight. A brief rhyme is cheekily sung by Brer Rabbit as the two buckets pass one another:

“Goodbye, Brer Fox, take care of your clothes,
For this is the way the world goes;
Some goes up and some goes down,
You’ll get to the bottom all safe and sound.”

As Brer Fox hits the water at the bottom with a loud splash, Brer Rabbit reaches the top and leaps out of the bucket. Brer Fox jumped into the well, muddying their drinking water, and Brer Rabbit hurried back to the other animals, laughing to himself.

To explore, the animals dash to the well. Using the rope, they retrieve Brer Fox, who is trapped at the bottom. After he leaves, the other animals chastise him for contaminating the water. Brer Fox is too ashamed to disclose the truth. He remains silent while the animals reprimand him.

Brer Rabbit continues to look at Brer Fox and grin to himself as the gang returns to their task. Knowing that he has been outwitted once more, Brer Fox manages to fake a faint, dry smile despite being duped.

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