Iron Clad oath and not even know it."

"Pa take the Iron Clad oath!" cried Scarlett.

"Well, he'd gotten right feeble in his mind these last months and I

guess she was countin' on that. Mind you, none of us suspicioned

nothin' about it. We knew she was cookin' up somethin', but we

didn't know she was usin' your dead ma to reproach him for his

daughters bein' in rags when he could get a hundred and fifty

thousand dollars out of the Yankees."

"One hundred and fifty thousand dollars," murmured Scarlett, her

horror at the oath fading.

What a lot of money that was! And to be had for the mere signing

of an oath of allegiance to the United States government, an oath

stating that the signer had always supported the government and

never given aid and comfort to its enemies. One hundred and fifty

thousand dollars! That much money for that small a lie! Well, she

couldn't blame Suellen. Good heavens! Was that what Alex meant by

wanting to rawhide her? What the County meant by intending to cut

her? Fools, every one of them. What couldn't she do with that

much money! What couldn't any of the folks in the County do with

it! And what did so small a lie matter? After all, anything you

could get out of the Yankees was fair money, no matter how you got

it.

"Yesterday, about noon when Ashley and me were splittin' rails,

Suellen got this wagon and got your pa in it and off they went to

town without a word to anybody. Miss Melly had a notion what it

was all about but she was prayin' somethin' would change Suellen,

so she didn't say nothin' to the rest of us. She just didn't see

how Suellen could do such a thing.

"Today I heard all about what happened. That pusillanimous fellow,

Hilton, had some influence with the other Scallawags and

Republicans in town and Suellen had agreed to give them some of the

money--I don't know how much--if they'd kind of wink their eye

about Mr. O'Hara bein' a loyal Union man and play on how he was an

Irishman and didn't fight in the army and so on, and sign

recommendations. All your pa had to do was take the oath and sign

the paper and off it would go to Washington.

"They rattled off the oath real fast and he didn't say nothin' and

it went right well till she got him up to the signin' of it. And

then the old gentleman kind of come to himself for a minute and

shook his head. I don't think he knew what it was all about but he

didn't like it and Suellen always did rub him the wrong way. Well,

that just about gave her the nervous fits after all the trouble

she'd gone to. She took him out of the office and rode him up and

down the road and talked to him about your ma cryin' out of her

grave at him for lettin' her children suffer when he could provide

for them. They tell me your pa sat there in the wagon and cried

like a baby, like he always does when he hears her name. Everybody

in town saw them and Alex Fontaine went over to see what was the

matter, but Suellen gave him the rough side of her tongue and told

him to mind his own business, so he went off mad.

"I don't know where she got the notion but some time in the

afternoon she got a bottle of brandy and took Mr. O'Hara back to

the office and begun pourin' it for him. Scarlett, we haven't had

no spirits 'round Tara for a year, just a little blackberry wine

and scuppernong wine Dilcey makes, and Mr. O'Hara warn't used to

it. He got real drunk, and after Suellen had argued and nagged a

couple of hours he gave in and said Yes, he'd sign anything she

wanted. They got the oath out again and just as he was about to

put pen to paper, Suellen made her mistake. She said: 'Well, now.

I guess the Slatterys and the MacIntoshes won't be givin'

themselves airs over us!' You see, Scarlett, the Slatterys had put

in a claim for a big amount for that little shack of theirs that

the Yankees burned and Emmie's husband had got it through

Washington for them.

"They tell me that when Suellen said those names, your pa kind of

straightened up and squared his shoulders and looked at her, sharp-

like. He warn't vague no more and he said: 'Have the Slatterys

and the MacIntoshes signed somethin' like this?' and Suellen got

nervous and said Yes and No and stuttered and he shouted right

loud: 'Tell me, did that God-damned Orangeman and that God-damned

poor white sign somethin' like this?' And that feller Hilton spoke

up smooth-like and said: 'Yes sir, they did and they got a pile of

money like you'll get.'

"And then the old gentleman let out a roar like a bull. Alex

Fontaine said he heard him from down the street at the saloon. And

he said with a brogue you could cut with a butterknife: 'And were

ye afther thinkin' an O'Hara of Tara would be follyin' the dirthy

thracks of a Goddamned Orangeman and a God-damned poor white?' And

he tore the paper in two and threw it in Suellen's face and he

bellowed: 'Ye're no daughter of mine!' and he was out of the

office before you could say Jack Robinson.

"Alex said he saw him come out on the street, chargin' like a bull.

He said the old gentleman looked like his old self for the first

time since your ma died. Said he was reelin' drunk and cussin' at

the top of his lungs. Alex said he never heard such fine cussin'.

Alex's horse was standin' there and your pa climbed on it without a

by-your-leave and off he went in a cloud of dust so thick it choked

you, cussin' every breath he drew.

"Well, about sundown Ashley and me were sittin' on the front step,

lookin' down the road and mighty worried. Miss Melly was upstairs

cryin' on her bed and wouldn't tell us nothin'. Terrectly, we

heard a poundin' down the road and somebody yellin' like they was

fox huntin' and Ashley said: 'That's queer! That sounds like Mr.

O'Hara when he used to ride over to see us before the war."

"And then we seen him way down at the end of the pasture. He must

have jumped the fence right over there. And he come ridin' hell-

for-leather up the hill, singin' at the top of his voice like he

didn't have a care in the world. I didn't know your pa had such a