Douglass personifies the trickster in this instance, daring the other boys to do something that will be advantageous to him. This is similar to the tar baby tale, from the Uncle Remus stories, in which a rabbit that is stuck in tar, and therefore susceptible to the fox, suggests that the last thing he wants is to be thrown into a thorn bush. In fact, the rabbit feels at home in the thorns and uses them to escape, when the fox throws him into them.