2. _Of Br'er Rabbit (With much spirit and humour--lightly)._ This opens with a roguish and catching tune which is brilliantly worked out with much variety, droll humour, and masterly skill. The piece has, of course, an affinity with _From Uncle Remus (Woodland Sketches, Op. 51_), since Br'er Rabbit is Uncle Remus' chief hero; but the maturity and masterly handling of the material in _Of Br'er Rabbit_ is unquestionably finer than anything in the earlier piece. MacDowell had much affection for his _Br'er Rabbit_ creation, and it is certainly one of the most delightful of all his brighter compositions; the humour is so droll and so characteristic of himself.
3. _Of Salamanders (As delicately as possible)._ This is a fanciful, intricate piece, but very delicate in effect. It is technically difficult to play, requiring an absolute control of finger work. It was rather a favourite with the composer. 4. _A Haunted House (Mysteriously)._ This is one of the most imaginative and realistic of MacDowell's smaller pianoforte pieces. It opens _very dark and sombre_, developing into a wild and eerie _fortissimo_. The middle section requires swiftness of finger work to suggest the nervous expectancy aroused by the preceding mysteriousness. The ghost-like effect returns, then gradually recedes again into impenetrable gloom.
6. _By Smouldering Embers (Musingly)._ This opens with a quiet, tender theme after the style of _An Old Love Story_. The piece is quite short, but displays a mastery both of harmony and counterpoint. The music is grave and deep, but very tender. The little middle section stands out in its almost passionate, but sonorous and controlled emotion. Toward the end, the music becomes very moving and subdued, dying away with careful and sensitive tone reduction. The impression left by this piece, and by the _Fireside Tales_ as a whole, is that the composer was conscious of a heavy responsibility in his work; that he felt, as Elgar has explained, that "the creative artist suffers in creating, or in contemplating the unending influence of his creation ... for even the highest ecstacy of 'Making' is mixed with the consciousness of the sombre dignity of the eternity of the artist's responsibility."