"The government has sent me to buy your crib of corn, sir."
"The government! I don't understand you, sir," Old Master declared, frowning at the man's clothes.
"The Confederate government," the man said.
"Indeed! I didn't know that such a government existed. You may return, sir, and tell the Confederate government to go back to h—, where it belongs."
The man smiled, touched his cap with a military salute and withdrew. He had been a neighbor, but now he was a stranger.
"Guilford," said Mr. Clem, "nearly everybody was surprised when the news went out that you were for the Union. You are so strongly a Southerner and have always tried so hard to justify slavery that—"
"Sir, with me my country is my first consideration," Old Master broke in.
"But I can't, for the life of me, understand why you should deliberately turn your back on your own interests," said Old Miss. "The South is more your country than the North is, and yet you turn against the South."
"Madam, the whole country, the traditions of the American people are mine. And I don't believe that the government will interfere with slavery, but if it should, I say, let it go ahead. The first consideration is to save the country."