"Yes, I hev, and instead of leaving yo' all the money I promised yo', I've willed yo' a pair o' my shoestrings."
"I don' believe yo' hev done any sech thing, Sairy Ann!" protested the other woman.
"I don't care whether yo' believe it or not. That's jest exactly what I hev done. I hev set it down pertic'lar,—'To my oldest sister, 'Liza, I give, bequeath and leave and likewise devise one pair of shoestrings.'"
"Well, I'd rather hev a pair of shoestrings and be loyal to my State than I would to hev all your money and be a Yank."
"Of course, you would, 'Liza," snapped Sairy Ann. "That's because yo' don't know no mo'. If yo' knew mo', yo' wouldn't talk sech nonsense."
Whether or not the woman's argument was deemed sufficient, at all events the conversation abruptly ceased when the visiting man said, "Now, I hev come fo' yo' yere, 'Liza, and I don't intend to stay very long. You hev got to make up your mind right sma't whether yo' 're goin' to come with me, or whether yo' 're going to stay here with your sister."
"That's right," sobbed Eliza. "That's right. First Sairy Ann picks on me and then my own husband he picks on me, too. I'm jest distracted. I don't want to stay and I don't want to go."
"Yo' 're as bad as McClellan," broke in her husband. "I've come ten miles out o' my way just toe get yo' and take yo' home, if yo' don't want toe stay yere. If yo' think yo' 'll be safer along with these Yankee sympathizers, why jes' say so and stay yere. It doesn't matter very much toe me either way. The only Yanks I can put up with are Jim and Sairy Ann, and I wouldn't put up with them very long if we all weren't members of the same family."
"I expect to be shot by the secesh, anyway," broke in Sairy Ann, "and I hope yo' 'll go because I don't want to get shot by any o' my folks."
"We're goin' toe go," said the man.