Gone with the Wind / Унесённые ветром

”

“Not going to be any war!” cried the twins indignantly.

Scarlett made a mouth of bored impatience.

“If you say �war’ just once more, I’ll go in the house and shut the door. I’ve never gotten so tired of any one word in my life as �war,’ unless it’s �secession.’ Pa talks war morning, noon and night, and all the gentlemen who come to see him shout about Fort Sumter[5 - Форт Самтер, штат Южная Каролина. Его взятие южанами послужило формальным предлогом для начала Гражданской войны в США (1861-1865 гг.

)] and States’ Rights and Abe Lincoln and their old Troop[6 - Старая гвардия] till I get so bored I could scream! And I’m mighty glad Georgia waited till after Christmas before it seceded or it would have ruined the Christmas parties, too. If you say �war’ again, I’ll go in the house.”

The boys apologized for boring her. Indeed, war was men’s business, not ladies’.

Then Scarlett went back with interest to their immediate situation.

“What did your mother say about you two being expelled again?”

The boys looked uncomfortable. “Well,” said Stuart, “she hasn’t had a chance to say anything yet. Tom and us left home early this morning before she got up.”

“Do you suppose she’ll hit Boyd?” Scarlett, like the rest of the County, could never get used to the way small Mrs. Tarleton bullied her grown sons and occasionally whipped them.

Beatrice Tarleton was a busy woman, having on her hands not only a large cotton plantation, a hundred negroes and eight children, but the largest horse-breeding farm in the state as well. She was hot-tempered, and while no one was permitted to whip a horse or a slave, she felt that a lick now and then didn’t do the boys any harm.

“Of course she won’t hit Boyd. Ma ought to stop licking us! We’re nineteen and Tom’s twenty-one, and she acts like we’re six years old.”

“Will your mother ride her new horse to the Wilkes barbecue tomorrow?”

“She wants to, but Pa says he’s too dangerous.

And, anyway, the girls won’t let her. They want to see her going to one party at least like a lady, riding in the carriage.”

“I hope it doesn’t rain tomorrow,” said Scarlett. “There’s nothing worse than a barbecue turned into an indoor picnic.”

“Oh, it’ll be clear tomorrow,” said Stuart. “Look at that sunset.