"Hit's wuth mo' to me, sah!"
"Then you must value it very highly."
"Yas, sah, I does,—mo'n all dis wuld! Mo' dan a million o' dollars, sah. What would dat be wuth to a man wid de bref out o' 'im? Self-perserbashun is de fust law wid me, sah!"
"But why should you act upon a different rule from other men?"
"'Cause diffunt man set diffunt value 'pon his life. Mine ain't in de market."
"Well, if all soldiers were like you, traitors might have broken up the government without resistance."
"Dat's so! Dar wouldn't 'a' been no hep fer it. But I don't put my life in de scale against no gubberment on dis yearth. No gubberment gwine pay me ef I loss mehsef."
"Well, do you think you would have been much missed if you had been killed?"
"Maybe not, sah! A daid white man ain' much use to dese yere sogers, let alone a daid niggah; but I'd a missed mehsef pow'ful, an' dat's de pint wid me."