Читать книгу Gone with the Wind / Унесённые ветром. Уровень 3 - Маргарет Митчелл - Страница 7

The train carried Scarlett northward. Scarlett stood on the lower step of the train, a pale pretty figure in her black mourning dress.

«This is Miss Scarlett, isn’ it? I am Peter, Miss Pitty’s coachman. Don’t step down in that mud», the coachman ordered severely.

Scarlett looked at Prissy and sighed. Prissy was not the best of nurses. Where are the fat old arms of Mammy? But Mammy was at Tara. Wade’s face went purple with his squalling, Scarlett snapped crossly:

«Give him that sugar-tit[9] in your pocket, Priss. I know he’s hungry, but I can’t do anything about that now».

Atlanta was humming like a beehive. In Atlanta, there were machine factories which were manufacturing war materials. Trains roared in and out of the town at all hours.

«I’ll like it here[10]», thought Scarlett. «It’s so alive and exciting!»

Scarlett’s eye was caught by a figure on the sidewalk in a brightly colored dress. She saw a tall handsome woman with a bold face and a mass of red hair.

«Uncle Peter, who is she?» Scarlett whispered.

«Her name is Belle Watling», said Uncle Peter. «Miss Scarlett, you’ll see a lot of strange folks in this town».

As they passed a green house, a little black girl on the front steps cried, «She has come!», and Dr. Meade and his wife and little thirteen-year-old Phil emerged. After shaking her hand, the doctor announced Scarlett’s work in a hospital committee.

«What are hospital committees?» Scarlett asked.

«We have nursing committees for different hospitals», Mrs. Meade said. «We nurse the men and help the doctors and make bandages and clothes».

The carriage slipped and slid down the muddy road and Scarlett leaned back on the cushions and smiled. Atlanta was very pleasant.

Scarlett saw the red brick and slate roof of Miss Pittypat’s house. It was almost the last house on the north side of town.

Scarlett came to Atlanta with no idea as to how long she was going to remain. But Aunt Pitty and Melanie began a campaign to induce her to make her home permanently with them. They loved her so much.

Uncle Henry liked Scarlett immediately.

«When Wade Hampton comes of age, he’s going to be a rich young man», Uncle Henry said. Scarlett smiled but said nothing. She missed Tara. She realized what Gerald had meant when he said that the love of the land was in her blood. «If only Ashley wasn’t married!»

Scarlett could not escape her duty because she was on both Mrs. Meade’s and Mrs. Merriwether’s committees. That meant four mornings a week in the stinking hospital. Every matron, old or young, in Atlanta nursed.

Certainly there was nothing romantic about nursing. To her, it meant groans, delirium, death and smells. The hospitals were filled with dirty, bewhiskered, verminous men who smelled terribly.

Melanie she was gentle, sympathetic and cheerful, and the men in the hospitals called her an angel of mercy. Scarlett did not like nursing at all! But in spite of these discomforts, Atlanta pleased her very well.