did you?

"'Yes, sa, and would hab run soona, had I knowd it war comin'."

"'Why, that wasn't very creditable to your courage.'

"'Dat isn't my line, sa--cookin's my profeshun.'

"'Well, but have you no regard for your reputation?'

"'Reputation's nuffin to me by de side ob life.'

"'Do you consider your life worth more than other people's?'

"'It's worth more to me, sa.'

"'Then you must value it very highly?'

"'Yes, sa, I does, more dan all dis wuld, more dan a million ob
dollars, sa, for what would dat be wuth to a man wid de bref out ob him?
Self-preserbation am de fust law wid me.'

"'But why should you act upon a different rule from other men?'

"'Different men set different values on their lives; mine is not in de
market.'

"'But if you lost it you would have the satisfaction of knowing that you
died for your country.'

"'Dat no satisfaction when feelin's gone.'

"'Then patriotism and honor are nothing to you?'

"'Nufin whatever, sat--I regard them as among the vanities.'

"'If our soldiers were like you, traitors might have broken up the
government without resistance.'

"'Yes, sa, dar would hab been no help for it. I wouldn't put my life
in de scale 'g'inst any gobernment dat eber existed, for no gobernment
could replace de loss to me.'

"'Do you think any of your company would have missed you if you had been
killed?'

"'Maybe not, sa--a dead white man ain't much to dese sogers, let alone a
dead nigga--but I'd a missed myse'f, and dat was de p'int wid me.'

"I only tell this story," concluded the President, "in order to
illustrate the result of the tactics of some of the Union generals who
would be sadly 'missed' by themselves, if no one else, if they ever got
out of the Army."

IT ALL "DEPENDED" UPON THE EFFECT.

President Lincoln and some members of his Cabinet were with a part of
the Army some distance south of the National Capital at one time, when
Secretary of War Stanton remarked that just before he left Washington
he had received a telegram from General Mitchell, in Alabama. General
Mitchell asked instructions in regard to a certain emergency that had
arisen.

The Secretary said he did not precisely understand the emergency as
explained by General Mitchell, but had answered back, "All right; go
ahead."

"Now," he said, as he turned to Mr. Lincoln, "Mr. President, if I have
made an error in not understanding him correctly, I will have to get you
to countermand the ord