Scarlett first stop of the carriage was at Twelve Oaks. The house that had once stood so proudly had been burned down, with only the bottom portion of the stairs remaining.  Melanie leaned over the side of the carriage only to see a crudely written sign that symbolized her uncles grave.

"Oh, Ashley, Ashley! I'm glad you're not here to see this," she muttered vehemently. "The Yankees! The dirty Yankees!"

Scarlett heard footsteps and turned around frightened, only to find a swollen cow beside her. "Prissy! Prissy! Come tie up this cow!"

"We don' need no cow, Miss Scarlett. We'll be hom soon, and ah's skeered o' cows!" whined Prissy.

"Tear up your petticoat and tie her on to the back of the wagon! We need milk for the baby- and we don't know what we'll find when we get home," she said, with the realization that she had voiced her unknown fears.

When they reached Tara, every where was dark and Scarlett was in a hurry to get home. "Hurry! Move, you brute!" she lashed at the horse.

The horse fell down dead in his tracks as Scarlett jumped from the carriage. "I can't see the house! Is it there? I can't see the house! Have they burned it?" she asked with rising terror.

As the clouds cleared from the sky and the moon appeared, Scarlett saw the house. "It's all right! It's all right! They haven't burned it! It's still there!" she cried and started running across the lawn screaming, "Mother!" When she reached the door she banged hysterically on it. "Mother! I'm home. Mother, let me in! It's me-Scarlett!"

A changed Gerald opened the door. All the play and humor was gone from this terribly changed face. Scarlett stared at him in curiosity for several seconds and then threw herself forward, clinging to him. "Oh-oh, Pa! I'm home...I'm home...'

"Katie-Katie Scarlett?" he said in a confused tone.

Mammy appeared behind him in the hallway. "Honey-honey chile-" she said in Scarlett's gripping embrace.

"Oh, Mammy, I'm so-so-Where's Mother?" she asked suddenly.

" Why...Miss Suellen and Miss Careen-dey was sick wid de typhoid. Dey had it bad but dey's doing all right now...jus' week lak li'l kittens....Well, Miss Ellen...she went down to nuss day Emmy Slattery, dat white trash...an' she tuk down wid it, too. An' las' night she-"

Scarlett drew away from Mammy's embarce and stared at her blankly. When she spoke, the word was long and drawn out, with a curious effect of wonder. "Mother!..."

She repeated it as she ran from the office to Mammy. "Mother!"

Mammy's eyes strayed toward the parlor door where a candle was lit. Scarlett walked in as if in a trance. When she saw her Mother's dead body she screamed, strangled and prolonged and then threw herself on her knees, and sobbed beside her mother's body.

When Scarlett emerged from the room the grief that she had suffered could not be expressed through tears. "What'd you do with Miss Melly?" she asked Mammy. "Don' you worry yo' pretty haid 'bout Miss Melly, chile. Ah done slapped her in bed a'ready, 'long wid de baby."

Scarlett nodded and said, "Better put that cow I brought into the barn, Pork."

"Dere ain' no barn no mo', Miss Scarlett. De Yankees done buhned it fo' fiahwood. Dey camped all aroun' de place," he said with a downcast tone.

"Yankees...in Tara!" asked Scarlett with disbelief. "I'm starving, Pork. Get me something to eat," she said.

"Dere ain' notin' to eat, honey. Dey tuck it all," replied Mammy.

"Don't tell me more about what 'they' did," she said.

"Der's some radishes and turnips in the garden. We been eatin' dem de las' few days," remembered Mammy.

Scarlett went to talk to her father, and found him pouring over worthless Confederate bonds. "Oh, Pa, what are we going to do with no money-nothing to eat," she said dismayed.

"We must ask your mother. That's it!...We must ask Mrs. O'Hara," he said as though he had made an important discovery. "Yes-Mrs. O'Hara will know what's to be done. Now don't be botherin' me. Go out for a ride. I'm busy," he said.

"Oh, Pa," said Scarlett in a hushed voice. "Don't worry about anyting. Katie Scarlett's home. You needn't worry."

The voices of complaints followed Scarlett out into the garden where the turnips were growing. She was tired of hearing needy voices and questions that she couldn't answer. She stooped down to pick a radish and hungrily stuffed it in her mouth. Then she retched and fell into the ground, sobbing miserably.

Scarlett stood up with her fist clenched toward the air. This was a new Katie Scarlett O'Hara, a more mature and determined one, yet one whose heart was hardened because of the agony that she was preparing to face. "As God as my witness....As God as my witness.. They're not going to lick me!...I'm going to live through this and when it's over I'll never be hungry again...No, nor any of my folks! if I have to lie-steal-cheat-or kill! As God as my witness, I'll never be hungry again!"

Scarlett's Vow

"Oh, my back's near broken...Look at my hands! Mother said you could always tell a lady by her hands, "whined Suellen with a sob.

"I guess things like hands and ladies don't matter so much any more...You rest, Sue. You're not well yet and I can pick cotton for the both of us," said Careen sweetly.

"Scarlett's hateful-making us work in the fields like-" she drowned her words out with sobbing.

"Too bad about that," said Scarlett appearing from behind her. "Now get back to work! I can't do everything at Tara all by myself."

"What do I care about Tara! I hate Tara" cried Suellen.

Glancing at her in rage for a moment, Scarlett slapped her with all her might. "Don't you dare to say you hate Tara again! That's the same as hating Pa and Ma!"

 When she walked toward Gerald wearily he said, "Katie Scarlettt, there's something I must speak to you about."

"Yes, Pa. What is it?"

"I've been talking with Prissy and Mammy, and I don't like the way you're treating them. You must be firm with inferiors but you must be gentle with them-especially darkies," he scolded.

"Yes, Pa, I know, but I'm not asking them to do anything I'm not doing myself," she said patiently.

"Nevertheless, Katie Scarlett, I don't like it...I shall speak to Mrs. O'Hara about it."

Scarlett walked into the house, only to be met by a barefooted Melanie who was leaning against the wall for support. "You're all working so hard...I can't lie in bed doing nothing..."

"Go on back upstairs. You're as weak as a newborn colt. Stop being noble Melanie Wilkes. I've got enough on my hands without making yourself sick so you'll never be any use," reprimanded Scarlett roughly.

"Oh, I-I didn't think of it that way," said Melanie, hurt but contrite.

She went back up the stairs. Suddenly, Scarlett heard the sound of horses' hooves. Looking outside she saw a Yankee cavalryman. She was frozen with fear, but the ran upstairs and grabbed the revolover which Rhett had given her on McDonough Road.

The Yankee caught her coming down the stairs. He had Ellen's sewing box in her hand. "Y'all alone, little lady?" he asked grinning. "Y'aint ver friendly, are you? Y'got anything else besides these earbobs?"

With fury Scarlett said, "You Yankees have been here before."

"What've you got hidden behind your hand?" he asked and started up toward her. Scarlett pulled the gun out and pulled the trigger. With a large boom the bullet went straight into the Yankee's head and he tumbled down the stairs. Then Scarlett noticed that Melanie was standing on the top of the stairs with Charles' naked saber.

From outside came the voices of her sisters. "Scarlett! Scarlett!"

"Don't be scared, chickens. Your big sister was trying to clean her revolver and it went off and nearly scared her to death," she lied with teasing gaity.

"What a cool lier you are, Melly," said Scarlett with admiration. "I could bury him in the arbor, where the ground is soft, but-but how will I get him out of here?" 

"We'll both take a leg and drag him," suggested Melanie. "Scarlett, do you think it would be dishonest if we went through his haversack?"

Together they searched him. "Oh, Melly, look-look!" said Scarlett, when she discovered masses of bills and gold pieces. "Do you realize this means we'll have something to eat?"

Scarlett started dragging the man outside when she realized that his blood was leaking on the floor. "Give me your nightgown, Mely. I'll wad it around his head. I won't look at you. If I had a petticoat or pantalettes, I'd use them."

After she wrapped the man's head she said, "Well, I guess I've done murder. Oh, I won't think of that now. I'll think about it tomorrow."

Scarlett putting the murder out of her mind

The wounded men poored into Tara. "The whole Confed'rut army got de ssame troubles-crawlin' cloe's an' dynest'ry,"grumbled Mammy.\

Melanie talked with the men that passed. "Were you in Cobb's Legion?" she asked one man who was playing with her son, Beau. "Then you must know my husband, Major Wilkes!"

"Oh yes, ma'am...he was captured at Spottsylvainia, I think," informed the soldier.

Melanie and Scarlett stood on the porch of Tara and watched another soldier walk toward the house. "Oh, another one! I hope this one isn't hungry."

"He'll be hongry," said Mammy.

Suddenly Melanie clutched her hand to her throat and flew off of the porch. "Ashley!" she cried.

Although unrecognizable from afar Melanie and Ashley flew into each other's arms. Scarlett started to run to them, but Mammy held her back. "He's her husban', ain' he," she said quitely.

Onward...