The Project Gutenberg EBook of Mingo, by Joel Chandler Harris

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: Mingo
And Other Sketches in Black and White

Author: Joel Chandler Harris

Release Date: October 28, 2006 [EBook #19648]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MINGO ***

Produced by Michael Gray

MINGO
AND OTHER SKETCHES IN BLACK AND WHITE

BY
JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS
"UNCLE REMUS"

_Author's Edition_

EDINBURGH
DAVID DOUGLAS, CASTLE STREET
1899

EDINBURGH: PRINTED BY T. AND A. CONSTABLE FOR DAVID DOUGLAS
LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL AND CO.

CONTENTS.

MINGO: A SKETCH OF LIFE IN MIDDLE GEORGIA
AT TEAGUE POTEET'S: A SKETCH OF THE HOG MOUNTAIN RANGE
A PIECE OF LAND
BLUE DAVE

MINGO: A SKETCH OF LIFE IN MIDDLE GEORGIA

I.

IN 1876, circumstances, partly accidental and partly sentimental, led
me to revisit Crooked Creek Church, near the little village of
Rockville, in Middle Georgia. I was amazed at the changes which a few
brief years had wrought. The ancient oaks ranged roundabout remained
the same, but upon everything else time had laid its hand right
heavily. Even the building seemed to have shrunk: the pulpit was less
massive and imposing, the darkness beyond the rafters less mysterious.
The preacher had grown grey, and feebleness had taken the place of that
physical vigour which was the distinguishing feature of his
interpretations of the larger problems of theology. People I had never
seen sat in the places of those I had known so well. There were only
traces here and there of the old congregation, whose austere simplicity
had made so deep an impression upon my youthful mind The blooming girls
of 1860 had grown into careworn matrons, and the young men had
developed in their features the strenuous uncertainty and misery of the
period of desolation and disaster through which they had passed.
Anxiety had so ground itself into their lives that a stranger to the
manner might well have been pardoned for giving a sinister
interpretation to these pitiable manifestations of hopelessness and
unsuccess.

I had known the venerable preacher intimately in the past; but his
eyes, wandering vaguely over the co