Sherman. The bravest and most honorable man I ever saw! So young to command. (Turns to leave L.U.E., meets Hez. entering.)
Hezekiah. Hold on there, you old gunpowder guzzler, you come here and give me the password or I’ll blow you out er water. I will, by jingo!
Sherman. (To rear centre slowly.) Atlanta.
Hezekiah. (Scratching head and thinking.) I’ll be darned ter Moses ef I don’t think that is the password arter all. My memory wants joggin, wuss ’n Ike Acorn’s cabbages that was planted in a sandbank coz ’twas easy hoin’.
Sherman. Are you on the regular picket tonight?
Hezekiah. I’ll be darned if ye hain’t got me. I bin catawaulin round here all day ter get a pop at some er them Johnnies, and Barney brings out the provender.
Sherman. Do you know the general-in-chief, sir?
Hezekiah. Well, I should think I ought ter. He and I have drinked over a barrel together since this rumpus come up.
Sherman. How do you like the service, sir?
Hezekiah. Now you’ve hit me where I bile over. When the fightin’ fust commenced, I thought I wan’t no great shakes er gettin’ shot for thirteen dollars a month, till one day one er them bumbshells come along and peeled the whole hind eend of my trowsers off. That made me madder than a kicked hornet. I just got a bead on my old shooter, and I let her sliver right into um. I shouldn’t wonder if I killed thirty or forty er them darn skunks. I had four fingers and a half in that gun.