NEGRO TALES [Illustration: Joseph S. Cotter _Frontispiece._] NEGRO TALES By JOSEPH S. COTTER NEW YORK THE COSMOPOLITAN PRESS 1912 COPYRIGHT, 1912, BY THE COSMOPOLITAN PRESS CONTENTS PAGE The Author 7 Caleb 9 Rodney 23 Tesney, The Deceived 35 Regnan's Anniversary 50 "Kotchin' De Nines" 62 A Town Sketch 67 The Stump of a Cigar 74 A Rustic Comedy 81 The Jackal and the Lion 103 The King's Shoes 110 How Mr. Rabbit Secures a Pretty Wife and Rich Father-in-Law 127 The Little Boy and Mister Dark 133 Observation 138 The Boy and the Ideal 141 The Negro and the Automobile 144 Faith in the White Folks 146 The Cane and the Umbrella 148 THE AUTHOR The Author is one of a race that has given scarcely anything of literature to the world. His modest tender of some Christmas verses to me led to an inquiry which revealed his story of unpretentious but earnest and conscientious toil. He is wholly self-taught in English literature and composition. The obstacles which he has surmounted were undreamed of by Burns and other sons of song who struggled up from poverty, obscurity, and ignorance to glory.