Gone with the Wind Page #7

SCARLETT:

Where are the other servants Mammie?

MAMMIE:

Miss Scarlett, there's only just me and Paul left.

The others moved off during the war and ran away.

PRISSY:

I can't take care of that baby and sick folks too.

I've only got two hands.

SERVANT:

Who's going to milk that cow, Miss Scarlett? We's

house workers.

(Exhausted and hungry as Scarlett is, she goes out

to the open field, digging out the leftover radishes

in the ground, swallowing.)

SCARLETT:

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 all over, I'll never be hungry again.

No, nor any of my folk. If I have to lie, steal,

cheat, or kill, as God as my witness, I'll never be

hungry again.

Chapter 7 Ashley Back Home

(Home from their lost adventure came the battered

Cavaliers. Grimly they came hobbling back to the

desolation that had once been a land of grace and

plenty. And with them came another invader, more

cruel and vicious than any they had fought, the

Carpetbagger.)

SERVANT:

Katie Scarlett! It's over! It's over! It's all over,

the war! We surrendered!

CORRINE:

It's not possible.

SUE ELLEN:

Why did we ever fight?

MELANIE:

Ashely will be coming home.

SCARLETT:

Yes, Ashely will be coming home. We'll plant more

cotton. Cotton ought to go sky-high next year.

MELANIE:

Scarlett, what seems to be the trouble with Mr.

Kennedy?

SCARLETT:

More trouble than he guesses. He's finally asked for

Sue Ellen's hand.

MELANIE:

Oh, I'm so glad.

SCARLETT:

It's a pity he can't marry her now. At least be one

less mouth to feed.

(Scarlett, Melanie and Mammie stand in front of the

door. A figure appears in the distance.)

SCARLETT:

Oh another one. I hope this one isn't hungry.

MAMMIE:

Oh, he'll be hungry

SCARLETT:

I'll tell Prissy to get an extra plate.

(It's Ashley! Melanie opens her arms, running to

him.)

MELANIE:

Ashley! Ashley!

MAMMIE:

Miss Scarlett! Don't spoil it. Miss Scarlett.

SCARLETT:

Turn me loose, you fool, turn me loose! It's Ashley.

MAMMIE:

He's her husband.

(Several days passed. One day, a servant comes to

Scarlett.)

SERVANT:

Miss Scarlett Ma'am...

SCARLETT:

High time you got back. Did you get the horse shod?

SERVANT:

Yes'm, he shod all right. Miss Scarlett Ma'am.

SCARLETT:

Fine thing when a horse can get shoes and humans

can't. Here stir the soup.

SERVANT:

Miss Scarlett Ma'am, I've got to know how much money

have you got left? In gold.

SCARLETT:

Ten dollars. Why?

SERVANT:

That won't be enough.

SCARLETT:

What in Heaven's name are you talking about?

SERVANT:

Well, Miss Scarlett, I see that old no-account white

trash, Wilkenson, that used to be Mister Jerry's

overseer here. He's a regular Yankee now, and he was

making a brag, that his carpetbagger friends done run

the taxes way up sky-high on Tara.

SCARLETT:

How much more do we gotta pay?

SERVANT:

I heard the tax man say three hundred dollars.

SCARLETT:

Three hundred... Oh, my, just as well be three

million. Well, we gotta raise it, that's all.

SERVANT:

Yes'm. How?

SCARLETT:

I'll go ask Mr. Ashley.

SERVANT:

Oh, he ain't got no three hundred dollars. Miss

Scarlett.

SCARLETT:

Well, I can ask him if I want to, can't I?

SERVANT:

Asking ain't getting.

(The Farm. Ashley is chopping wood.)

SCARLETT:

Ashely...

ASHLEY:

They say Abe Lincoln got his start splitting rails.

Just think what heights I may climb to once I get the

knack.

SCARLETT:

Ashely. The Yankees want three hundred dollars more

in taxes. What shall we do? Ashley, what's to become

of us?

ASHLEY:

What do you think becomes of people when their

civilization breaks up? Those who have brains and

courage come through all right. Those who haven't are

winnowed out.

SCARLETT:

For Heaven's sake Ashley Wilkes. Don't stand there

talking nonsense at me when it's us who are being

winnowed out.

ASHLEY:

You're right, Scarlett. Here I am talking tummy-rot

about civilization, when your Tara's in danger. You

come to me for help and I have no help to give you.

Oh, Scarlett, I'm a coward.

SCARLETT:

You, Ashley, a coward? What are you afraid of?

ASHLEY:

Oh, mostly 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, that life 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 bits. I saw men

crumple3 up in agony when I shot them. And now I find

myself in a world which for me is worse than death. A

world in which there is no place for me. 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.

SCARLETT:

Escape? Oh, Ashley you're wrong. I do want to escape,

too. I'm so very tired of it all. I've struggled for

food and for money and I've weeded and hoed and

picked cotton until I can't stand it another minute.

I tell you, Ashley, the South is dead, it's dead. The

Yankees and the carpetbaggers have got it and there's

nothing left for us. Oh, Ashley, let's run away. We'd

go to Mexico. They want officers in the Mexican army,

we could be so happy there. Ashley I'd work for you,

I'd do anything for you. 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 any more children. And I could

give you...

ASHLEY:

Can't we ever forget that day at Twelve Oaks?

SCARLETT:

Just think I could ever forget it, have you forgotten

it? Can you honestly say you don't love me?

ASHLEY:

No, I ...I don't love you.

SCARLETT:

It's a lie.

ASHLEY:

Even if it is a lie, do you think that I could go off

and leave Melanie and the baby? Break Melanie's

heart? Scarlett, are you mad? You couldn't leave your

father and the girls.

SCARLETT:

I could leave them, I'm sick of them, I'm tired of

them...

ASHLEY:

Yes, you sick and tired, that's why you're talking

this way. You've carried the load for all of us. But

from now on, I'm going to be more help to you, I

promise. SCARLETT

There's only one way you can help me. Take me away.

There's nothing to keep us here. ASHLEY

Nothing...nothing except honor. Please Scarlett,

please dear, you mustn't cry. Please, my brave dear,

you mustn't...

SCARLETT:

You do love me, you do love me...

ASHLEY:

No don't, don't!

SCARLETT:

You love me!

ASHLEY:

We won't do this, I tell you, we won't do it. It

won't happen again, I'm going to take Melanie and the

baby and go.

SCARLETT:

Just say that you love me.

ASHLEY:

All right, I'll say it. I love your courage and your

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.

SCARLETT:

Then there's nothing left for me. Nothing to fight

for. Nothing to live for.

ASHLEY:

Yes, there is something. Something you love better

than me, though you may not know it, Tara.

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