Stiffly, Scarlett climbed down from the seat, each movement of agony of aching muscles. Prissy was not the only one who was "sceered" of cows. Scarlett had always feared them, even the mildest cow seemed sinister to her, but this was no time to truckle to small fears when great ones crowded so thick upon her. Fortunately the cow was gentle. In its pain it had sought human companionship and help and it made no threatening gesture as she looped one end of the torn petticoat about its horns. She tied the other end to the back of the wagon, as securely as her awkward fingers would permit. Then, as she started back toward the driver's seat, a vast weariness assailed her and she swayed dizzily. She clutched the side of the wagon to keep from falling.
Melanie opened her eyes and, seeing Scarlett standing beside her, whispered: "Dear-- are we home?"
Home! Hot tears came to Scarlett's eyes at the word. Home. Melanie did not know there was no home and that they were alone in a mad and desolate world.
"Not yet," she said, as gently as the constriction of her throat would permit, "but we will be, soon. I've just found a cow and soon well have some milk for you and the baby."
"Poor baby," whispered Melanie, her hand creeping feebly toward the child and falling short.
Climbing back into the wagon required all the strength Scarlett could muster, but at last it was done and she picked up the lines. The horse stood with head drooping dejectedly and refused to start. Scarlett laid on the whip mercilessly. She hoped God would forgive her for hurting a tired animal. If He didn't she was sorry. After all, Tara lay just ahead, and after the next quarter of a mile, the horse could drop in the shafts if he liked.
Finally he started slowly, the wagon creaking and the cow lowing mournfully at every step. The pained animal's voice rasped on Scarlett's nerves until she was tempted to stop and untie the beast. What good would the cow do them anyway if there should be no one at Tara? She couldn't milk her and, even if she could, the animal would probably kick anyone
who touched her sore udder. But she had the cow and she might as well keep her. There was little else she had in this world now.
Scarlett's eyes grew misty when, at last, they reached the bottom of a gentle incline, for just over the rise lay Tara! Then her heart sank. The decrepit animal would never pull the hill. The slope had always seemed so slight, so gradual, in days when she galloped up it on her fleet-footed mare. It did not seem possible it could have grown so steep since she saw it last. The horse would never make it with the heavy load.
Wearily she dismounted and took the animal by the bridle.
"Get out, Prissy," she commanded, "and take Wade. Either carry him or make him walk. Lay the baby by Miss Melanie."
Wade broke into sobs and whimperings from which Scarlett could only distinguish: "Dark-- dark -- Wade fwightened!"
"Miss Scarlett, Ah kain walk. Mah feets done blistered an' dey's thoo mah shoes, an' Wade an' me doan weigh so much an'-- "
"Get out! Get out before I pull you out! And if I do, I'm going to leave you right here, in the dark by yourself. Quick, now!"
Prissy moaned, peering at the dark trees that closed about them on both sides of the road-- trees which might reach out and clutch her if she left the shelter of the wagon. But she laid the baby beside Melanie, scrambled to the ground and, reaching up, lifted Wade out. The little boy sobbed, shrinking close to his nurse.
"Make him hush. I can't stand it," said Scarlett, taking the horse by the bridle and pulling him to a reluctant start. "Be a little man, Wade, and stop crying or I will come over there and slap you."
Why had God invented children, she thought savagely as she turned her ankle cruelly on the dark road-- useless, crying nuisances they were, always demanding care, always in the way. In her exhaustion, there was no room for compassion for the frightened child, trotting by Prissy's side, dragging at her hand and sniffling -- only a weariness that she had borne him, only a tired wonder that she had ever married Charles Hamilton.
"Miss Scarlett" whispered Prissy, clutching her mistress' arm, "doan le's go ter Tara. Dey's not dar. Dey's all done gone. Maybe dey daid-- Maw an' all'm."
The echo of her own thoughts infuriated her and Scarlett shook off the pinching fingers.
"Then give me Wade's hand. You can sit right down here and stay."
"No'm! No'm!"
Then hush!"
How slowly the horse moved! The moisture from his slobbering mouth dripped down upon her hand. Through her mind ran a few words of the song she had once sung with Rhett-- she could not recall the rest:
"Just a few more days for to tote the weary load--"
"Just a few more steps," hummed her brain, over and over, "just a few more steps for to tote the weary load."
Then they topped the rise and before them lay the oaks of Tara, a towering dark mass against the darkening sky. Scarlett looked hastily to see if there was a light anywhere. There was none.
"They are gone!" said her heart, like cold lead in her breast. "Gone!"
She turned the horse's head into the driveway, and the cedars, meeting over their heads, cast them into midnight blackness. Peering up the long tunnel of darkness, straining her eyes, she saw ahead-- or did she see? Were her tired eyes playing her tricks? -- the white bricks of Tara blurred and indistinct Home! Home! The dear white walls, the windows with the fluttering curtains, the wide verandas -- were they all there ahead of her, in the gloom? Or did the darkness mercifully conceal such a horror as the Macintosh house?
The avenue seemed miles long and the horse, pulling stubbornly at her hand, plopped slower and slower. Eagerly her eyes searched the darkness. The roof seemed to be intact Could it be-- could it be -- ? No, it wasn't possible. War stopped for nothing, not even Tara, built to last five hundred years. It could not have passed over Tara.
Then the shadowy outline did take form. She pulled the horse forward faster. The white walls did show there through the darkness. And untarnished by smoke. Tara had escaped! Home! She dropped the bridle and ran the last few steps, leaped forward with an urge to clutch the walls themselves in her arms. Then she saw a form, shadowy in the dimness, emerging from the blackness of the front veranda and standing at the top of the steps. Tara was not deserted. Someone was home!