Produced by David Edwards, Emmy and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from scans of public domain material produced by Microsoft for their Live Search Books site.) [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 represented not only a problem of large concern, but, in the watchful eyes of Hillsborough, he was the embodiment of that vague and mysterious danger that seemed to be forever lurking on the outskirts of slavery, ready to sound a shrill and ghostly signal in the impenetrable swamps, and steal forth under the midnight stars to murder, rapine, and pillage--a danger always threatening, and yet never assuming shape; intangible, and yet real; impossible, and yet not improbable. Across the serene and smiling front of safety, the pale outlines of the awful shadow of insurrection sometimes fell. With this invisible panorama as a background, it was natural that the figure of Free Joe, simple and humble as it was, should assume undue proportions. Go where he would, do what he might, he could not escape the finger of observation and the kindling eye of suspicion. His lightest words were noted, his slightest actions marked.