Now, just
confess you are glad of the drubbing our boys gave 'em this morning."
"No, I'm not glad;" said Roberta, her eyes were filling with tears and her
lips quivering, "I'm just as sorry as I can be."
"Well, then, I'll tell you what I expect the trouble is. You've got a
sweetheart among them; and if I was you, I'd trade him off for a Union
sweetheart right away."
"I don't want any sweetheart at all; but if I wanted one I wouldn't have a
Yankee." Her eyes flashed and her cheeks crimsoned.
"Why not?" continued her tormentor. "They are lots nicer than the rebels;
have more to eat, and wear better clothes. Besides, didn't the rebels
steal your mamma's best horses, the last time they passed this way, and
leave her nothing but two starved, broken-down nags in their place? Didn't
they, now?"
"Yes," the child was reluctantly forced to admit. Suddenly her face
brightened; she almost trembled with eagerness. "Who stole my mamma's
negroes, I wonder; every one of them but Mam' Sarah, and Aunt Judy, and
Uncle Squire, and Polly and Dilsy--every one; who did that?"
That sally provoked such a peal of laughter and put everybody in such a
good humor, possibly the search was not prosecuted as vigorously as it
might have been otherwise.
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