过了一些时候，命运之手和一手扑克牌两相结合，给了他一个他后来取名为塔拉的农场，同时让他从海滨适移到北佐治亚的丘陵地区来了。 　

　　It was in a saloon in Savannah, on a hot night in spring, when the chance conversation of a stranger sitting near by made Gerald prick up his ears. The stranger, a native of Savannah, had just returned after twelve years in the inland country. He had been one of the winners in the landlottery conducted by the State to divide up the vast area in middle Georgia, ceded by the Indians the year before Gerald came to America. He had gone up there and established a plantation; but, now the house had burned down , he was tired of the “ accursed place” and would be most happy to get it off his hands.

　　那是一个很暖的春天夜晚，在萨凡纳的一家酒店，邻座的一位生客的偶尔谈话引起灰拉尔德的侧耳细听。那位生客是萨凡纳本地人，在内地居住了十二年之后刚刚回来。他是从一位圣·在州里举办的抽彩分配土地时的一个获奖者。原来杰拉尔德来到美洲前一年，印第安人放弃了佐治亚中部广大的一起土地，佐治亚州当局便以这种方式进行分配。他迁徙到了那里，并建立了一个农场，但是现在他的房子因失火被烧掉了，他对那个可诅咒的"地方"，已感到厌烦，因此很乐意将它脱手。

　　Gerald, his mind never free of the thought of owning a plantation of his own, arranged an introduction, and his interest grew as the stranger told how the northern section of the state was filling up with newcomers from the Carolinas and Virginia. Gerald had lived in Savannah long enough to acquire a viewpoint of the Coast—that all of the rest of the state was backwoods , with an Indian lurking in every thicket.

　　杰拉尔德心里一直没有放弃那个念头，想拥有一个自己的农场，于是经过介绍，他同那个陌生人谈起来，而当对方告诉他，那个州的北部已经从卡罗来纳的弗吉尼亚涌进了大批大批的新人时，他的兴趣就更大了。杰拉尔德在萨凡纳已住了很久，了解了海滨人的观点，即认为这个州的其余部分都是嬷嬷的森林地带，每个灌木丛中都潜伏着印第安人。