Scarlett's visit to the Fontaines had heartened her more than she realized.Just the knowledge that she had neighbors,that some of the family friends and old homes had survived,drove out the terrible loss and alone feeling which had oppressed her in her first weeks at Tara.And the Fontaines and Tarletons,whose plantations had not been in the path of the army,were most generous in sharing what little they had.It was the tradition of the County that neighbor helped neighbor and they refused to accept a penny from Scarlett,telling her that she would do the same for them and she could pay them back,in kind,next year when Tara was again producing.
Scarlett now had food for her household,she had a horse,she had the money and jewelry taken from the Yankee straggler,and the greatest need was new clothing.She knew it would be risky business sending Pork south to buy clothes,when the horse might be captured by either Yankees or Confederates.But,at least,she had the money with which to buy the clothes,a horse and wagon for the trip,and perhaps Pork could make the trip without getting caught.Yes,the worst was over.
Every morning when Scarlett arose she thanked God for the pale-blue sky and the warm sun,for each day of good weather put off the inevitable time when warm clothing would be needed.And each warm day saw more and more cotton piling up in the empty slave quarters,the only storage place left on the plantation.There was more cotton in the fields than she or Pork had estimated,probably four bales,and soon the cabins would be full.
Scarlett had not intended to do any cotton picking herself,even after Grandma Fontaine's last remark.It was unthinkable that she,an O'Hara lady,now the mistress of Tara,should work in the fields.It put her on the same level with the snarly haired Mrs.Slattery and Emmie.She had intended that the negroes should do the field work,while she and the convalescent girls attended to the house,but here she was confronted with a caste feeling even stronger than her own.Pork,Mammy and Prissy set up outcries at the idea of working in the fields.They reiterated that they were house niggers,not field hands.Mammy,in particular,declared vehemently that she had never been a yard nigger.She had been born in the Robillard great house,not in the quarters,and had been raised in Ole Miss'bedroom,sleeping on a pallet at the foot of the bed.Dilcey alone said nothing and she fixed her Prissy with an unwinking eye that made her squirm.
Scarlett refused to listen to the protests and drove them all into the cotton rows.But Mammy and Pork worked so slowly and with so many lamentations that Scarlett sent Mammy back to the kitchen to cook and Pork to the woods and the river with snares for rabbits and possums and lines for fish.Cotton picking was beneath Pork's dignity but hunting and fishing were not.
Scarlett next had tried her sisters and Melanie in the fields,but that had worked no better.Melanie had picked neatly,quickly and willingly for an hour in the hot sun and then fainted quietly and had to stay in bed for a week.Suellen,sullen and tearful,pretended to faint too,but came back to consciousness spitting like an angry cat when Scarlett poured a gourdful of water in her face.Finally she refused point-blank.
“I won't work in the fields like a darky!You can't make me.What if any of our friends ever heard about it?What if—if Mr.Kennedy ever knew?Oh,if Mother knew about this—”
“You just mention Mother's name once more,Suellen O'Hara,and I'll slap you flat,”cried Scarlett.“Mother worked harder than any darky on this place and you know it,Miss Fine Airs!”
“She did not!At least,not in the fields.And you can't make me.I'll tell Papa on you and he won't make me work!”
“Don't you dare go bothering Pa with any of our troubles!”cried Scarlett,distracted between indignation at her sister and fear for Gerald.
“I'll help you,Sissy,”interposed Carreen docilely.“I'll work for Sue and me too.She isn't well yet and she shouldn't be out in the sun.”
Scarlett said gratefully:“Thank you,Sugarbaby,”but looked worriedly at her younger sister.Carreen,who had always been as delicately pink and white as the orchard blossoms that are scattered by the spring wind,was no longer pink but still conveyed in her sweet thoughtful face a blossomlike quality.She had been silent,a little dazed since she came back to consciousness and found Ellen gone,Scarlett a termagant,the world changed and unceasing labor the order of the new day.It was not in Carreen's delicate nature to adjust herself to change.She simply could not comprehend what had happened and she went about Tara like a sleepwalker,doing exactly what she was told.She looked,and was,frail but she was willing,obedient and obliging.When she was not doing Scarlett's bidding,her Rosary beads were always in her hands and her lips moving in prayers for her mother and for Brent Tarleton.It did not occur to Scarlett that Carreen had taken Brent's death so seriously and that her grief was unhealed.To Scarlett,Carreen was still “baby sister,”far too young to have had a really serious love affair.
Scarlett,standing in the sun in the cotton rows,her back breaking from the eternal bending and her hands roughened by the dry bolls,wished she had a sister who combined Suellen's energy and strength with Carreen's sweet disposition.For Carreen picked diligently and earnestly.But,after she had labored for an hour it was obvious that she,and not Suellen,was the one not yet well enough for such work.So Scarlett sent Carreen back to the house too.
There remained with her now in the long rows only Dilcey and Prissy.Prissy picked lazily,spasmodically,complaining of her feet,her back,her internal miseries,her complete weariness,until her mother took a cotton stalk to her and whipped her until she screamed.After that she worked a little better,taking care to stay far from her mother's reach.
