IN THE FLAT-WOODS. 33 



in " edication ; " but when I asked if he 

 thought the blacks were better off in slavery 

 times, he answered quickly, " I 'd rather be 

 a free man, / had." He was n't married ; 

 he had plenty to do to take care of himself. 

 We separated, he going one way and I the 

 other; but he turned to ask, with much 

 seriousness (the reader must remember that 

 this was only three months after a national 

 election), " Do you think they '11 get free 

 trade ? " " Truly," said I to myself, " ' the 

 world is too much with us.' Even in the 

 flat-woods there is no escaping the tariff ques- 

 tion." But I answered, in what was meant 

 to be a reassuring tone, " Not yet awhile. 

 Some time." " I hope not," he said, as if 

 liberty to buy and sell would be a dreadful 

 blow to a man living in a shanty in a Florida 

 pine barren! He was taking the matter 

 rather too much to heart, perhaps ; but 

 surely it was encouraging to see such a man 

 interested in broad economical questions, and 

 I realized as never before the truth of what 

 the newspapers so continually tell us, that 

 political campaigns are educational. 



