By Joel Chandler Harris.
NIGHTS WITH UNCLE REMUS. Mythsand Legends of the Old Plantation. Illustrated.12mo, $1.50; paper, 50 cents.
MINGO, and other Sketches in Black andWhite. 16mo, $1.25; paper, 50 cents.
BALAAM AND HIS MASTER, and otherSketches and Stories. 16mo, $1.25.
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO.
Boston and New York.
BALAAM AND HIS MASTER
AND OTHER SKETCHES AND
STORIES
BY
JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS
AUTHOR OF “UNCLE REMUS, HIS SONGS AND HIS SAYINGS,” “FREE
JOE,” “DADDY JAKE, THE RUNAWAY,” ETC.
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
The Riverside Press, Cambridge
1891
Copyright, 1891,
By JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS.
All rights reserved.
The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A.
Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Co.
CONTENTS.
| PAGE | |
| Balaam and His Master | 7 |
| A Conscript’s Christmas | 45 |
| Ananias | 112 |
| Where’s Duncan? | 149 |
| Mom Bi | 170 |
| The Old Bascom Place | 192 |
BALAAM AND HIS MASTER.
What fantastic tricks are played by fateor circumstance! Here is a horrible warthat shall redeem a nation, that shall restorecivilization, that shall establish Christianity.Here is a university of slavery that shalllead the savage to citizenship. Here is aconflagration that shall rebuild a city.Here is the stroke of a pen that shall changethe destinies of many peoples. Here is thebundle of fagots that shall light the fires ofliberty. As in great things, so in small.Tragedy drags comedy across the stage, andhard upon the heels of the hero tread theheavy villain and the painted clown.
What a preface to write before the nameof Billville!
Years ago, when one of the ex-Virgini