DE PINT WID OLE PETE.
Upon the hurricane deck of one of our gunboats, an elderly looking darkey, with a very philosophical and retrospective cast of countenance, squatted on his bundle, toasting his shins against the chimney, and apparently plunged into a state of profound meditation. Finding, upon inquiry, that he belonged to the Ninth Illinois, one of the most gallantly behaved and heavy losing regiments at the Fort Donelson battle, I began to interrogate him upon the subject.
"Were you in the fight?"
"Had a little taste of it, sa."
"Stood your ground, did you?"
"No, sa, I runs."
"Run at the first fire, did you?"
"Yes, sa; and would hab run soona, had I know'd it was comin'."
"Why, that wasn't very creditable to your courage."
"Massa, dat isn't my line, sa; cookin's my profeshun."
"Well, but have you no regard for your reputation?"
"Yah, yah! reputation's nuffin to me by de side ob life."
"Do you consider your life worth more than other people's?"
"It is worth more to me, sa."
"Then you must value it very highly?"
"Yes, sa, I does; more dan all dis world, more dan a million ob dollars, sa; for what would dat be wuth to a man wid the bref out ob him? Self-preserbation am de fust law wid me."
"But why should you act upon a different rule from other men?"
"Because different men set different values upon deir lives; mine is not in the market."
"But if you lost it, you would have the satisfaction of knowing that you died for your country."
"What satisfaction would dat be to me when de power ob feelin' was gone?"
"Then patriotism and honor are nothing to you?"
"Nuffin whatever, sa; I regard them as among the vanities."
"If our soldiers were like you, traitors might have broken up the government without resistance."
"Yes, sa; dar would hab been no help for it."
"Do you think any of your company would have missed you, if you had been killed?"
"Maybe not, sa; a dead white man ain't much to dese sogers, let alone a dead nigga; but I'd a missed myself, and dat was de pint wid me."