Chapter 25

Scarlett had never before, in her wildest dreams imagined the outrageous possibility of explaining her financial books to a black workman. But she found herself in engaged in that demeaning obligation once too often that month. Every time she summoned her field-hands and showed them the new machinery and tools that they could rent from her, she found old man Elijah, lumbering along to her little office and asking to see the sum of debts. He was a slow man, patient and thoughtful. And he insisted on seeing Scarlett's books to every last meticulous detail. The first time he came to the house, Scarlett was filled with righteous indignation. Whoever heard of a wealthy landowner explaining tedious financial transactions to an illiterate farmer?

But, Elijah was not illiterate, pointed out Will, carefully. Through sensible, persuasive arguments Will finally convinced Scarlett that it was better that she explained the calculation of debts for they could avoid unnecessary trouble later that fall. With so many confusing labor laws and sharecropping rules, they needed the cooperation of the workers to ensure a smooth, profitable harvest. And so Scarlett, swallowing her pride and anger, sat down almost every week during that crucial planting season, explaining her books to Elijah.

When Scarlett snapped that the man was illiterate, she didn't mean that he couldn't read and write, for she had already seen proof of his abilities during the first day when the land was being sectioned. What she meant was that Elijah wouldn't understand balancing and certain calculations of interest which Scarlett herself found foreign and muddling. But he demanded to see it all and he didn't care if it took all day. There was a formidable workmen crowd backing Elijah and Scarlett could not afford to offend them.

Meanwhile the house-servants found these meetings extremely novel and interesting. Even Mammy, who usually looked down on the employment status of poor field-hands. She abandoned her rigid ideas upon seeing the old black man discussing and asking questions of Scarlett as if he was on equal footing with her, and gave him grudging respect.

But as Scarlett rightly suspected, the more Elijah came to know of her purchases and rates, the more he began to question and negotiate for the welfare of the workers. Scarlett found this the most maddening of all. He acted as their advocate and his arguments were always annoyingly slow and dull - like a blunt knife that works slowly but with enough pressure, makes a small cut. And every meagre adjustment of prices was conveyed across Tara's workers as a small sign of victory.

Normally Scarlett would have kicked up the most awful tantrum for the humiliations she was forced to undergo. But two main reasons kept her lips tightly pursed to a thin line. Firstly, the planation owners indulging in sharecropping were often visited by Yankee authorities who demanded complete transparency in the treatment of the workers. Scarlett had no trouble with the officers, for she could easily appear charming and innocent whenever she chose to be. But as the days wore on, her once-friendly neighbors began spreading the most insinuous rumors of her dealings at Tara. And quite often these rumors reached Yankee ears. While Scarlett was careful to buy the best of machinery, horses and carts, she did cut her costs on other purchases such as food, medicines, clothing and shacks. She bought some poor quality lumber for she felt it was good enough for the workers and the vegetables and fruits that she bought were the gleanings from the common market. She charged well for these commodities for she knew that the blacks couldn't argue in these trifling things. But it did reveal her poor character and once news spread that Ellen O Hara's wealthy eldest daughter was charging such and such for items that could be parted for free, the neighbors wrinkled their noses in shock and disapproval. Very few called on her and the most terrible rumors came to Will and Suellen's ears.

The very fact that Scarlett was extremely wealthy from Captain Butler's fortunes gave the neighbors reason to hate her stringency. She was wealthy enough to hire a hundred field-hands, then she must be generous enough to provide well for them. That was their argument. But Scarlett equally argued that if she provided the best food and the best clothing, these blacks who have been forced into labor for vagrancy charges would exploit her kind nature and turn fat and lazy. No one could refute her on this standpoint and so she remained obstinate and determined as ever and the neighbors continued to hold her in contempt. It did not help matters when two of the babies of the black families died in the night of malnutrition. This could be due to several reasons for the babies and children of the field-workers were already thin and listless. But in the light of everything Scarlett had done, this added to her many sins.

Secondly, Aunt Pitty in the best of intentions had unwittingly conveyed to Scarlett the interesting news that Mr. Rogers was framing tariffs for the cotton farming industry. How convenient that the man should be living in her former house! When Scarlett realized the magnitude of this opportunity, she rode to Atlanta wearing the finest of clothes and paid a very cordial visit to the Yankee family. She portrayed a vivid picture of her vision for the restoration of her father's plantation and how some leniency in the tariffs would do her a world of good. Flattering with delicacy had been a strong forte for Scarlett and she soon succeeded in her efforts.

So, by appealing to a Yankee politician, Scarlett ostracized herself once again from Atlanta society.

"Miss Scarlett" asked Cobbs one day he led a horse from the fields. "Why is this cart chopped up so severely?" He was pointing of course to the damage done by a poor white farmer the week Scarlett raised her prices. Scarlett related the unsavory incident but in a detached way for it seemed a thing of the past. But evidently Cobbs did not think so.

One evening, as Scarlett was wearing her sun bonnet and supervising the ploughing, she saw Cobbs and Cotton perched ridiculously on a thick-legged mule and riding full-speed down the gravel, waving their hats and hooping for all they were worth.

As they came nearer, Cobbs yelled out, "We took this mule from him,Miss Scarlett. The trash farmer who hacked up your cart. We tracked down that fellow and we roughed him up a bit and he gave us this mule. It's ours now!"

Their shining eyes, gleaming-white teeth and sweat flushed faces, beaming with loyalty and enthusiasm stirred a warmth of feeling in Scarlett's heart. Of all the field-hands she owned, she began to like these three the best.

Although Mr. Westley no longer visited Tara, Henry Westley did. He rode sullenly and morosely down Tara's path, once every week to make sure that the field-hands weren't giving Scarlett any trouble. Cobbs, Cotton and Boy were extremely attentive to his requests although he seemed to ignore them entirely. When Scarlett asked about this, Cobbs shrugged off her concerns. He mentioned in passing that the old gentleman and his son never got along well as far as he could remember and he didn't know exactly why.

Scarlett despised Henry Westley. He seemed to lack both character and emotion for he was always cross and always as stoic as a rock. But there was one curious incident that made Scarlett rethink this conclusion.

She was travelling up to Pine grove in her carriage one morning and at first she did not recognize young Mr. Westley at all. But there he was , on his horse as always and he looked as if he was arguing long and hard with a black field-worker. Scarlett had seen gentlemen argue before but there was something strange about this sight. It seemed to her as if Mr. Westley wanted to leave and every time he would nudge his horse forward, the black man would yell something and he would come back again to argue with him. This exchange was hardly a banter for Mr. Henry Westley's face was as dark as a thundercloud. He shook his fists and bent low on his horse to look at the field-worker in the eye. But just as he calmed down, his opponent would say something and the fight would begin all over again. Scarlett leaned back into her carriage, not wanting to be spotted by the young man. She found the entire scene to be very odd.

Why should the words of a black field-hand bother Mr. Westley so?

It was the first time she saw him display any emotion and it made her feel extremely queer.