[Gone with the Wind] Back to the beginning

When Scarlett and Dilsey parted at the door, she thanked the woman who had always done things in silence and never complained.

"It's so kind of you, Dilsey," she said sincerely, "I'm so glad to have you to help me."

Dilcey became thinner and thinner, and the Indian blood on her face became more distinct.The cheekbones are high and the nose is aquiline, and the bronzed skin is bright and lustrous.She wore a faded calico dress and had an admiring look on her face.

"How can you be like those heartless niggers, Miss Scarlett. Mr. O'Hara kindly bought me and my little girl, and Mrs. O'Hara has been so kind to us. I can never do anything about it." Pay back. My family’s Pork is black, and he always has an inexplicable air, even Prissy. But I am an Indian, and the Indians will repay their kindness and never regret it.”

"And you have brains." Scarlett praised, but couldn't help complaining, "They always think that nothing has changed! Even if it changes, it is temporary, but they don't know that nothing will come back."

Dilsey didn't answer this question, but just said goodbye to the lady.Scarlett nodded, took Mammy's tattered and faded sun hat from the hook on the back porch, and buttoned it on her head.At that moment, she thought of the charming green hat that Rhett gave her, and she was very energetic in that hat-she went crazy when she brought the supplies back, and she took it back in a daze.Now she was staying in the cabin with all kinds of supplies——Scarlett couldn't help showing a wry smile.

She picked up another large oak basket and walked down the back steps.

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In the middle of the ruined cotton fields is the red dirt road leading to the river, without a tree for shade, and the sun burns your feet.Dust flew up and rushed towards him.The deeply rutted road, leaving traces of marching.The green cotton plants were hacked and trampled, which was horrible.With a heavy heart Scarlett walked down the red dirt road, through the cedar forest, around the Slattery house, and along the river bank at the bottom of the hill in search of the log bridge.The damn Yankees burned the bridge, and she had to go a long way around.Scarlett crossed the bridge and climbed a full half mile in the sun to Twelve Oaks.

That majestic building with white columns once stood in the agreement, how majestic and majestic, but now there are only ruins and scorched earth.Despite her mental preparations, Scarlett went in after a daze.

"Merry would be so sad if she saw it." Scarlett passed by the garden that the Wilkes girls had carefully tended, feeling depressed and uncomfortable.

However, despite this, she still had enough energy.Today's Scarlett O'Hara is no longer the girl who was hungry and crazy in her previous life and only relied on a burst of courage. She understands that what Polk said is not unreasonable, so she is always careful and careful, and holds the basket hidden in the basket with one hand at all times. In the hand|gun.The Yankees came, but they couldn't take all the niggers.A person might pop up somewhere—maybe someone who greeted her warmly, but it's more likely that someone was starving and red-eyed and desperate.Scarlett must always be careful.

But today, the goddess of luck still favored her, and the Twelve Oaks Manor was empty and quiet, with no one inhabited.Ignoring a trace of desolation in her heart, Scarlett unceremoniously began to sweep the places where there was most likely to be food based on her own experience.She passed the ashes of smoked curbs, barns, and chicken coops, picked up a few barely visible leaves from the vegetable field that had been run over by carts and horses, and then took the road to the row of pink and white huts of the black slaves .She guessed there would be some overlooked food here.

Finally, God gave me face.Here the radishes and cabbages are wilted from lack of water, but they are still alive.Lima beans and kidney beans are edible, although they are yellow.Scarlett breathed a sigh of relief, and started digging with her still delicate fingers without hesitation.Tara can eat something good tonight. Vegetable soup seasoned with salted lard is more satisfying than sweet potatoes.The fingers she dug were blistered and red, trembling non-stop, and slowly filled most of the basket.

Here she fell, here she fell, shaking with hunger.In the end she threw everything away, swearing to God that whatever she did, she would never go hungry—and she did, and she did.But she also lost too much.

Scarlett ran her fingers over the blackened stone, and again she pictured the Twelve Oaks in her mind—recalling her grandeur and glory, her grace and grace.That hard-to-disguise grace seems to be gone forever, but it still remains in people's souls.Just like Ellen and Melanie.And she was determined not to abandon it—at least not to completely cut herself off from these things, because she found that they were also a part of herself.

Scarlett exhaled lightly, put on the basket and set off on the return journey.

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Scarlett and Dilsey's harvest could be called "abundant", and everyone surrounded the radishes, cabbages, lima beans, corn and string beans in amazement, as if they had seen so many delicious things for the first time in their lives.Scarlett brought back cornmeal, which was said to have been dug out from under a large flagstone in Twelve Oaks, which was even more surprising.Under such circumstances, Scarlett agreed to Mammy's idea of ​​cooking a pot of vegetable soup for everyone.It's really that everyone is so hungry that there is nothing to do.Everyone was beaming, and described vividly, "Put a drop of lard in it... Tsk tsk, the taste is so delicious! It's delicious and delicious!"

However, after this extravagant meal, life is still passable.

In the following days, Tara was so silent, as if isolated from the world.People are too tired and hungry to say anything more.I was exhausted from working every day, running around looking for food, barely making ends meet.The world is cruel and ruthless, and the only way to survive is to struggle desperately—this is what Scarlett conveys to everyone.

Tara!Tara is everything!Tara is the capital of everyone's life!Scarlett kept driving the idea so deeply that all had to give and do everything they could to help Tara rebuild.But no one can take the lead, everything depends on oneself!

She secretly took out the food stored in the cabin to help Tara in secret, keeping Tara in a state of urgency but not despair.She directed the black slaves to open up an additional section of field next to the three acres of land by the river, in order to prevent the Yankees from destroying the original place too conspicuously.She ordered Polk to catch fish and birds, and asked Big Sam to build a new pigsty in the swamp to bring the newly caught pigs there.These strict requirements make Tara run at high speed, and also make her relationship with everyone tense again.

"I don't care about that," Scarlett said to Merry. "I just wish Tara well."

However, Mei Li has won the sincere favor of everyone.Her gentle fortitude and kind heart make everyone want to get close to her, she cares about everyone, and she dispels people's complaints with soft words.Scarlett couldn't do this, but she did feel a little uncomfortable-she was the one who kept everyone alive, but it was a pity that people would always love Melanie more.Although she knew it was not Mei Li's fault.

"Honey, I totally understand your heart." Mei Li said, "I'm so sorry I can't help you more."

Scarlett smiled at her and was about to say something more.Suddenly the stairs creaked and Karin's teary head poked out from above.

"Holy Virgin Mary!" she cried excitedly, "Scarlett, come and see, Mommy is awake!"

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The effect of Ellen's waking up on Tara's morale is obvious - at least after hearing the news, the smiles on the faces of the black and white people are absolutely unadulterated, and they are a little more motivated when they work , sweet potatoes don't seem to be so difficult to swallow.

Scarlett couldn't help wondering secretly how the affinity between Mom and Meili had such a magical power.Now, although she realizes that she should and cannot give up those parts of her that belong to the south, she is still ignorant about how to do it.Ellen and Merry may have been the epitome of the Southern spirit, but they had nothing to do with her.

What Scarlett wanted was to figure out which path she really wanted to take and how to do those things well.What she used to do has been proved to be not perfect, at least in this life, she is absolutely unwilling to pay the price of losing her love again.The southern way of handling must not be copied in full in the face of the new world, and how to find a balance between the old tradition and the new world is probably the most difficult.What's more--perhaps even in her eyes, the softened and southernized approach is still intolerable among conservatives.

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The long slumber revived Ellen, and of course the milk Scarlett fed with care probably played a big role.In short, this time Ellen is indeed recovering.In less than three days, she was able to get out of bed to be a director.So of course, Ellen discovered the change in Tara.

This gentle woman didn't make unnecessary moves immediately, but observed the situation carefully and prudently.When she found out that all these changes came from her daughter Scarlett O'Hara, one can imagine the shock.

Ellen, however, refrained from direct retaliation—though her daughter's behavior was simply unorthodox.She appeases the black slaves, takes care of her family, organizes the production, and observes the world turned upside down while she is sleeping.She did not take any drastic measures, but took back the housekeeping right from Scarlett gently but firmly.Tara's mistress had recovered, and Scarlett could say nothing if she wanted to.In fact, because they have different ideas from Ellen, they have issued different instructions on the same matter no less than several times.

Scarlett and Ellen both knew that sooner or later a conversation would come.But Scarlett refused to face the problem so quickly—she was anxious and tired.Life was enough to drain all her energy.She knew that she would either persuade Ellen, or become a heretic in the eyes of her mother, and Scarlett obviously lacked confidence in the former.She didn't know what to say--even if she could hire convicts and yell at niggers, she just couldn't yell at Ellen O'Hara, "The world has changed, your way doesn't work! Honesty Kindness can no longer protect us from the law!"

What she hadn't expected was the way the conversation would unfold in such an abrupt way.