Gone with the Wind(excerpt)
If the educational equipment which Gerald brought to America was scant，he did not even know it.Nor would he have cared if he had been told.His mother had taught him to read and to write in a clear hand.He was adept at ciphering.And there his book knowledge stopped.The only Latin he knew was the responses of the Mass and the only history was the manifold wrongs of Ireland.He knew no poetry save that of Moore and no music except the songs of Ireland that had come down through the years.While he entertained the liveliest respect for those who had more book learning than he，he never felt his own lack.And what need had he of these things in a new country where the most ignorant of bogtrotters had made great fortunes in this country which asked only that a man be strong and unafraid of work?
He liked the South，and he soon became，in his own opinion，a Southerner.There was much about the South and Southerners that he would never comprehend；but，with the wholeheartedness that was his nature，he adopted its ideas and customs，as he understood them，for his own—poker and horse racing，redhot politics and the code duello，States' Rights and damnation to all Yankees，slavery and King Cotton，contempt for white trash and exaggerated courtesy to women.He even learned to chew tobacco.There was no need for him to acquire a good head for whisky；he had been born with one.
But Gerald remained Gerald.His habits of living and his ideas changed，but his manners he would not change，even had he been able to change them.He admired the drawling elegance of the wealthy rice and cotton planters，who rode into Savannah from their mosshung kingdoms，mounted on thoroughbred horses and followed by the carriages of their equally elegant ladies and the wagons of their slaves.But Gerald could never attain elegance.Their lazy，blurred voices fell pleasantly on his ears，but his own brisk brogue clung to his tongue.He liked the casual grace with which they conducted affairs of importance，risking a fortune，a plantation or a slave on the turn of a card and writing off their losses with careless good humor and no more ado than when they scattered pennies to pickaninnies.,飘(节选)
