[Original]
Ralph was very fond of running into old “Aunt Judah's” cabin, for her “pones” were especially toothsome. The old negress was not handsome—her black skin was shriveled and seamed with age; she was nearly blind, but she was an admirable cook.
“Massa,” she said to Ralph one day, when she had filled his knapsack with smoking hot pone and luscious sweet potatoes, whose pulp was as golden as the sunflower's petals,—“I'se been pondering in my own min' and I kaint see what you all is fighting 'bout. Clar to goodness I kaint.”
[Original]
“We are fighting to make the Southerners come back into the Union.”
“De Union? What you mean by dat?”
“The Union—the States. There are thirty-five States, and how many slabes does he own?”
“None at all. We don't have slaves up North.”