The Project Gutenberg EBook of Free Joe and Other Georgian Sketches, by
Joel Chandler Harris

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Title: Free Joe and Other Georgian Sketches

Author: Joel Chandler Harris

Release Date: February 2, 2010 [EBook #31160]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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[Illustration: Cover]

[Illustration: "Den I tell him 'bout de man down dar in de gully"

--_Free Joe_]

FREE JOE

AND

OTHER GEORGIAN SKETCHES

BY

JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS

AUTHOR OF "UNCLE REMUS," ETC., ETC.

_ILLUSTRATED_

P. F. COLLIER & SON
NEW YORK

Copyright 1887 by
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
_Free Joe_

CONTENTS

PAGE

FREE JOE 3

LITTLE COMPTON 30

AUNT FOUNTAIN'S PRISONER 98

TROUBLE ON LOST MOUNTAIN 133

AZALIA 183

FREE JOE AND THE REST OF THE WORLD

THE name of Free Joe strikes humorously upon the ear of memory. It is
impossible to say why, for he was the humblest, the simplest, and the
most serious of all God's living creatures, sadly lacking in all those
elements that suggest the humorous. It is certain, moreover, that in
1850 the sober-minded citizens of the little Georgian village of
Hillsborough were not inclined to take a humorous view of Free Joe, and
neither his name nor his presence provoked a smile. He was a black atom,
drifting hither and thither without an owner, blown about by all the
winds of circumstance, and given over to shiftlessness.

The problems of one generation are the paradoxes of a succeeding one,
particularly if war, or some such incident, intervenes to clarify the
atmosphere and strengthen the understanding. Thus, in 1850, Free Joe
represe