The Horse's Stable

When Scarlett learned from Pork that the taxes on Tara were three hundred dollars, she was astounded. "It might as well be three million," she mused. "But we've just got to raise it, that's all."

"Yas'm...how?" asked Pork.

"I'll go ask Mr. Ashley," she said.

"He ain' got no t'ree hun'red dollahs, Miss Scarlett," said Pork.

"I can ask him if I want to, can't I?" asked Scarlett irritated.

"Askin' ain' gittin'," muttered Pork as she left.

Scarlett found him outside splitting rails. "Ashley, the Yankees want three hundred dollars more in taxes! What shall we do? Ashley, what's to become of us?" she asked.

"What do you think happens to people when their civilization breaks up? Those who have brains and courage come through all right. Those who haven't are winnowed out! You've come to me for help and I've no help to give you..." he spoke with a defeated tone. "Scarlett, I-I'm a coward."

"You, Ashley? A coward? What are you afraid of?" she asked puzzled.

"Oh, mosty of life becoming too real for me, I suppose. Not that I mind splitting rails. But I do mind very much losing the beauty of that-the life that I loved. If the war hadn't come I'd have spent my life happily buried at Twelve Oaks. But the war did come...I saw my boyhood friends blown to bit. I saw men crumple up in agony when I shot them...And now I find myself in a world which to me is worse than death...a world in which there's no place for me." He looked up with admiration at Scarlett. "Oh, I can never make you understand because you don't know the meaning of fear. You never mind facing realities and you never want to escape from them as I do."

"Escape? Oh, Ashley, you're wrong! The South is dead! The Yankees and the carpetbaggers have got it and there's nothing left for us! Oh, Ashley let's run away! We could go to Mexico. You know you don't love Melanie. You told me you loved me that day at Twelve Oaks. And, anyway-Melanie can't-Dr. Meade told me she couldn't ever have anymore children. And I could give you-" rambled Scarlett. "Could you honestly say you don't love me? Take me away! There's nothing to keep us here!"

"Nothing. Nothing- except honor," he said quitely.

Scarlett and Ashley fell into an embarce. "You do love me! You do love me! Say it-" she cried when she pulled away from him.

"We won't do this, I tell you we won't do it! It won't happen again! I'll take Melanie and the baby and go!" he protested.

Oblivious to what he was saying she continued laughing, "You love me! Say it! Say it! You love me! You love me! You love me! Say it! Say it!"

"All right, I'll say it! I love your courage and stubbornness! I love them so much that a moment ago I could have forgotten the best wife a man ever had! But, Scarlett! I'm not going to forget her!

As what he said sunk in, she said, "Then there's nothing left for me. Nothing to fight for. Nothing to live for."

"Yes, there is something. Something you love better than me, though you may not know it. Tara!" he said, scoping a hanful of moist earth into her hands.

"Yes-I still have this... You needn't go. I won't have you starve simply because i threw myself at your head. It won't happen again," she said walking away.

Scarlett and Ashley's talk

When she reached the front porch a carriage pulled out, and out stepped the O'Hara's old overseer, Jonas Wilkerson with Emmy Slattery. When the started coming up the steps Scarlett said, "Stop! Get off those steps, you trashy wench! Get off this land!"

"You can't speak that way to my wife," said Wilkerson.

"Wife! High time you made her your wife! Who baptized your other brats after you killed my mother," raged Scarlett.

"We came out here to pay a friendly call and talk a little business with old friends.."

"Friends? When were we ever friends with the likes of you?"

"Still high-and-mighty, ain't you? Well, I know all about you. I know your father's turned idiot-You can't pay your taxes and I come out here to offer to buy the place fro you. Emmy had a hankering to live here."

Scarlett still had the piece of dirt in her hand. She flung it into Wilerson's face and said, "That's all of Tara you'll ever get!"

As they loaded into their carriage Wilkerson said, "We'll be back."

Gerald had been watching the whole scene. He grabbed his horse and said, "I show you who the owner of Tara is!"

With great speed he chased the Wilkersons down the road, but tried to cut them off at the fence by jumping it. The horse jumped the fence but then stumbled against the ditch on the other side, throwing Gerald to his death.

"Oh, Mammy! Mammy!" said Scarlett entering the parlor.

"You been brave so long, Miss Scarlett. You jes' gotter go on bein' brave. Think 'bout yo' Pa like he useter be," said Mammy, laying a consoling hand on her shoulder.

"I can't think about Pa. I can't think about anything but that three hundred dollars!"she said, moving away toward the window.

"Ain's no good thinkin' 'bout dat, Miss Scarlett. Ain' nobody got dat much money," mumbled Mammy. "Nobody but Yankees and Scalawags got dat much money now."

Scarlett stopped still in her tracks and frowned and then said, "Rhett."

"Who dat? A Yankee?" asked Mammy suspiciously.

"Be quiet," said Scarlett, almost frightened by her own idea.

She walked toward the mirror and stared at herself, pinching her cheeks. " I'm so thin and so pale, Mammy. And I haven't got any clothes!"

Suddenly she straightened up as she caught a glimpse of the green portieres hanging at the windows. She swung around abruptly and with sudden brisk decision, walked to them.

"Scoot up to the attic and get Ma's old box of dress patterns, Mammy," said Scarlett exitedly. "You're going to make me a new dress."

"Not outta Miss Ellen's po'teers! Not while Ah got bref in mah body!" responded Mammy.

"Great balls of fire! They're my portieres now!" she said jerking down portiers and draping the matirial over her shoulder. "I'm going to Atlanta for that three hundred dollars, and I've got to go looking like a queen."

Mammy making Scarlett a new dres

Rhett was sitting in the jail playing cards with the soldiers. "You know it's a pity we couldn't have fought the war out in a poker game. You'd have done better than General Grant, with far less effort"

The corporal of guards walked in and said, "Sir, there's a lady here to see Captain Butler. Says she's his sister. This one's got her mammy with her."

"I'd like to see this one, Major, without her mammy. Let's see, my losses for the afternoon come to what? Three hundred and forty? My debts do mount up, don't they, Major?" asked Rhett, buttering up the man.

"Scarlett, my dear little sister!" cried Rhett when he saw her. It's all right, Corporal. My sister has brougt me no files or saws."

"Can I really kiss you now?" he asked her when the corporal left.

"On the forehead, like a good brother," she said demurely. "Oh, Rhett! I was so distressed when I heard you were in jail. I simply couldn't sleep for thinking...It's not true they're going to hang you?"

"Would you be sorry?"

"Oh, Rhett!" she said as if she couldn't stand the thought.

"Well, don't worry-yet. The Yankess have trumped up some charges against me but what they're really after is my money. They seem to think I made off with the Confederate treasury," he explained.

"Well-well, did you?" she asked, almost giving away her purpose.

"What a leading question! But let's not talk about sordid things like money!...How good of you to come see me! And how pretty you look. Thank heaven you're not in rags. I'm tired of seeing women in rags. Turn around."

She turned flirtatiously and then said, "I've been doing very well. Everybody's doing well at Tara...Only I got so bored, I just thought I'd treat myself to a visit to town."

"You're a heartless creature, but that's part of your charm. You know you've got more charm than the law allows," he said drawing lbeside her.

Rhett telling Scarlettt she's a heartless creature

"Now, I didn't come her to talk silly about me, Rhett. I came because I was so miserable at the thought of you in trouble. Oh, I know I was mad at you the night you left me on the road to Tara, and I still haven't forgiven you....Well, I must admit I might not be alive now, only for you. But when I think of myself with not a care in the world, and you here in this horrid jail...And not even a human jail, Rhett, a horse jail! Listen to me trying to make jokes, when I really want to cry. In a minute I shall cry!" she said with fake tears glazing her eyes.  

"Scarlett, can it be possible that you've grown a women's heart?"

"I have, Rhett. I know I have."

"Well, it's worth being in jail just to hear you say that. It's well worth it..." he said reaching for her hands impulsively. Suddenly he said, "You can drop the moonlight and magnolia, Scarlett. What have you been doing with your hands? You've been working with them like a field hand! Why did you lie to me, and what are you really up to? Another minute and I'd almost have believed you cared for me-" he said dropping her hands.

 "Suppose we get down to the truth," he continued. "You want something from me! And you want it badly enough to put on quite a show in your velvets! What is it? Money?"

"I want three hundred dollars to pay the taxes on Tara," she blurted out.

"What collateral are you offering?" he asked.

"My earbobs?"

"Not interested."

"Mortage on Tara"

"What would I do with a farm?"

"You once said you loved me..." she said with a deep breath. "If you still love me, Rhett-"

"You haven't forgotten I'm not a marrying man," he said.

"No. I haven't forgotten," said Scarlett.

"You're not worth three hundred dollars, Scarlett. You'll never mean anything but misery to any man."

Rhett and Scarlett's long conversation

"I won't let Tara go while there is a breath in my body," she said breaking out. "Oh, Rhett, won't you please give me the money!"

Her fury grew as he told her that he wouldn't be able to touch the money. "The Yankees'd be on me like a duck on a June bug...So you see, my dear, you've abased yourself to no purpose."

She started beating him with her fists. "You knew waht I was going to say before I started. You knew you wouldn't lend me the money and yet-and yet you let me go on."

"I enjoyed hearing what you had to say...Cheer up. You can come to my hanging. And I'll remember you in my will."

"I'll come to your hanging," said Scarlett at the door. "The only thing I'm afraid of is that they may not hang you in time to pay the taxes on Tara!"

Scarlett telling Rhett that she'll come to his hanging

As Scarlett and Mammy trudged through the suggestive comments of Yankees, Negros, and Carpettbaggers they heard a familiar voice which said, "Surely it can't be Miss Scarlett? I didn't know you were in Atlanta."

Scarlett saw Frank Kennedy looking up at her. "Didn't Miss Suellen tell you about my store?"

"Did she? I don't remember. Have you a store?"

Frank gestured proudly to the store behind him. "I don't suppose it looks like much to a lady. But I can't help being proud of it."

With a new respect she glanced at him and said, "You're not making money?"

"I can't complain. In fact, I'm mighty encouraged. Folks tell me I'm just a born merchant. It won't be long now before Miss Suellen and I can marry. I've cleared a thousand dollars already," he bragged.

Scarlett's eyes caught sight of the lumber mill outside. "And lumber too," she said. "Frank, would you like to drive me out to my Aunt Pitty's?" she asked femininly.

Once they were outside in the carriage, Frank said, "Will you tell me all the news? All the news of Miss Suellen?"

Scarlett looked at Frank with  a guilty glance and then turned away. "What's the matter, Miss Scarlett? Miss Suellen's not ill, is she?

"Oh, no! No! Oh, I thought she'd surely written you. Well, she's going to marry on of the county boys next month! She got tired of wating, was afraid she'd be an old maid. Oh, I'm sorry to be the one to tell you! Oh, it's cold and I left my muff at home. Would you-would you mind if I put my hand in your pocket?"

Frank was stunned and started the carriage in a trance, unaware of the strange glance that Mammy was giving him from the back of the carriage.

Scarlett's cleverly devised plot worked perfectly. With Suellen out of the way, it was only a matter of time before she and Frank Kennedy were married and Frank wrote her a check for $300 to pay the taxes on Tara.

While talking this over with Ashley, he said, "You wouldn't have let me do anything dishonorable. But you'd sell yourself in marriage to a man you didn't love."

Scarlett's conversation with Ashley

When Ashley announced that he was moving to New York to accept a bank position, Scarlett started crying. Melanie ran into the room and said, "Scarlett, Scarlett! What is it?"

Scarlett explained how she wanted Ashley to come to Atlanta to help her start her lumber business.

"How can you refuse her, Ashley, after all she's done for us? How unchivalrous of you!" exclaimed Melanie.

"All right, Melanie...I'll go to Atlanta...I can't fight the both of you..." he said. 

This was the final defeat for Ashley Wilkes, whose world at ended at Appomatox Court House when the Confederacy had surrendered. His only hopes of building a world that resembled his at all were taking Melanie and Beau and starting all over. He had no hope left of ever being able to face the new world.

Onward...