It was her gentle hardihood which irritated Scarlett more than the

nagging whining voices of the others. She could--and did--shout

them down with bitter sarcasm but before Melanie's unselfishness

she was helpless, helpless and resentful. Gerald, the negroes and

Wade clung to Melanie now, because even in her weakness she was

kind and sympathetic, and these days Scarlett was neither.

Wade especially haunted Melanie's room. There was something wrong

with Wade, but just what it was Scarlett had no time to discover.

She took Mammy's word that the little boy had worms and dosed him

with the mixture of dried herbs and bark which Ellen always used to

worm the pickaninnies. But the vermifuge only made the child look

paler. These days Scarlett hardly thought of Wade as a person. He

was only another worry, another mouth to feed. Some day when the

present emergency was over, she would play with him, tell him

stories and teach him his A B C's but now she did not have the time

or the soul or the inclination. And, because he always seemed

underfoot when she was most weary and worried, she often spoke

sharply to him.

It annoyed her that her quick reprimands brought such acute fright

to his round eyes, for he looked so simple minded when he was

frightened. She did not realize that the little boy lived shoulder

to shoulder with terror too great for an adult to comprehend. Fear

lived with Wade, fear that shook his soul and made him wake

screaming in the night. Any unexpected noise or sharp word set him

to trembling, for in his mind noises and harsh words were

inextricably mixed with Yankees and he was more afraid of Yankees

than of Prissy's hants.

Until the thunders of the siege began, he had never known anything

but a happy, placid, quiet life. Even though his mother paid him

little attention, he had known nothing but petting and kind words

until the night when he was jerked from slumber to find the sky

aflame and the air deafening with explosions. In that night and

the day which followed, he had been slapped by his mother for the

first time and had heard her voice raised at him in harsh words.

Life in the pleasant brick house on Peachtree Street, the only life

he knew, had vanished that night and he would never recover from

Its loss. In the flight from Atlanta, he had understood nothing

except that the Yankees were after him and now he still lived in

fear that the Yankees would catch him and cut him to pieces.

Whenever Scarlett raised her voice in reproof, he went weak with

fright as his vague childish memory brought up the horrors of the

first time she had ever done it. Now, Yankees and a cross voice

were linked forever in his mind and he was afraid of his mother.

Scarlett could not help noticing that the child was beginning to

avoid her and, in the rare moments when her unending duties gave

her time to think about it, it bothered her a great deal. It was

even worse than having him at her skirts all the time and she was

offended that his refuge was Melanie's bed where he played quietly

at games Melanie suggested or listened to stories she told. Wade

adored "Auntee" who had a gentle voice, who always smiled and who

never said: "Hush, Wade! You give me a headache" or "Stop

fidgeting, Wade, for Heaven's sake!"

Scarlett had neither the time nor the impulse to pet him but it

made her jealous to see Melanie do it. When she found him one day

standing on his head in Melanie's bed and saw him collapse on her,

she slapped him.

"Don't you know better than to jiggle Auntee like that when she's

sick? Now, trot right out in the yard and play, and don't come in

here again."

But Melanie reached out a weak arm and drew the wailing child to

her.

"There, there, Wade. You didn't mean to jiggle me, did you? He

doesn't bother me, Scarlett. Do let him stay with me. Let me take

care of him. It's the only thing I can do till I get well, and

you've got your hands full enough without having to watch him."

"Don't be a goose, Melly," said Scarlett shortly. "You aren't

getting well like you should and having Wade fall on your stomach

won't help you. Now, Wade, if I ever catch you on Auntee's bed

again, I'll wear you out. And stop sniffling. You are always

sniffling. Try to be a little man."

Wade flew sobbing to hide himself under the house. Melanie bit her

lip and tears came to her eyes, and Mammy standing in the hall, a

witness to the scene, scowled and breathed hard. But no one talked

back to Scarlett these days. They were all afraid of her sharp

tongue, all afraid of the new person who walked in her body.

Scarlett reigned supreme at Tara now and, like others suddenly

elevated to authority, all the bullying instincts in her nature

rose to the surface. It was not that she was basically unkind. It

was because she was so frightened and unsure of herself she was

harsh lest others learn her inadequacies and refuse her authority.

Besides, there was some pleasure in shouting at people and knowing

they were afraid. Scarlett found that it relieved her overwrought

nerves. She was not blind to the fact that her personality was

changing. Sometimes when her curt orders made Pork stick out his

under lip and Mammy mutter: "Some folks rides mighty high dese

days," she wondered where her good manners had gone. All the

courtesy, all the gentleness Ellen had striven to instill in her

had fallen away from her as quickly as leaves fall from trees in

the first chill wind of autumn.

Time and again, Ellen had said: "Be firm but be gentle with