Cold Mountain

In fall, Ruby and Ada build a new fence with the help of Ralph, Ruby’s horse. Ruby will soon take a trip to Swangers to trade some items, so they prepare for the journey. In the barn, Ruby finds an old animal trap. She wants to use it to find out what has been stealing from the corncrib. They set the trap but, Ada insists, they place sacking over the teeth of the trap, just in case a human is caught.

Ruby prepares to depart. She suggests that Ada should make a scarecrow, as crows are already picking at the winter garden. Ada enthusiastically plans to make the scarecrow out of one of her old dresses. She will combine the mauve dress with her old straw hat. The result pleases Ada and she sketches the scarecrow to memorialize the moment in her journal.

When Ruby returns, she has swapped apples for cabbages. She also has a letter for Ada, presumably from Inman. Ada decides not to read the letter right away. When she does sit down and read it repeatedly, she is unsure what to do. The letter (the same letter written in the opening chapter) reveals Inman’s plans to desert. The letter describes the horror of war.

For the rest of the day, Ada entertains herself by playing a game with Ruby. They each compete to give each other hairstyles; the loser of the game is given the evening’s chores. Ada wins so, as Ruby performs the chores, she reads the letter again. In the letter, Inman compares himself to a portrait made just before he left. He no longer resembles that man, he tells Ada, “in either form or spirit” (236). She studies the portrait in question and reminisces.

Ada thinks about the time before Inman left for the war. They had a long conversation, held while walking around the farm. Inman told the story of Shining Rocks, a legend he heard from an elderly Cherokee woman when he was young. One day, the legend says, an outsider came to Kanuga. The outsider told the villagers that he was from a village of his own, one hidden behind the Shining Rocks of Cold Mountain. This village, he said, was a paradise. The people of Kanuga were invited to this peaceful village, but only if they were able to spend seven days fasting in their town house. The villagers attempted the fast. Every one of them went without food, except for one. The man who broke the fast was discovered, thus denying them all the chance to go to the idyllic village. Eventually, the entire village was taken and they were “driven away into exile” (242).

Ada tried to react glibly to this story, making her feel that she and Inman have struggled to properly say goodbye. She asked her father to take her shopping but, after she returned, she visited Inman’s empty room to apologize to him. Inman was surprised. They shared a more emotional goodbye, sealed with a kiss. They did not know that they would be separated for more than “mere months” (249). By now, years have passed.

Inman has been walking for nearly 10 days, avoiding Teague and the Home Guard. He sees the mountains at last, but trekking through the cold and the rain is difficult. One night, he sleeps inside a hollow tree. Without a fire and without food, he is “fuddled and wayless” (253).

An old woman finds Inman and takes pity on him, so she invites him to her home. She lives in a caravan and farms goats. As she tends to the fire, she slaughters a goat and prepares its meat. Inman joins her, eating the goat. They talk and their conversation becomes friendly and familiar. For 26 years, the woman explains, she has lived in the same place, raising goats, but she is adamant that she can “leave any time” (261). She also sells medicines and tracts. She refuses any money for the meal, so Inman offers to buy a tract from her. He buys a pamphlet about healthy diets.

When the woman inquires about Inman’s wounds, she asks whether he believes the war to have been a worthy cause. Inman, sensing that the woman is kind, tells her everything. She offers to heal his wounds using her healing techniques, offering lozenges and salves. For the rest of the evening, Inman talks to the woman. He speaks about Ada and how much he loves her, wishing that they had married before he left for the war. The woman speaks about her solitary life and the journals she writes. She has interesting stories about her experiences.

That night, Inman sleeps under her caravan. The following day, he stays with her. He falls asleep surrounded by the goats and wakes up to find the woman gone. When she returns, he bids her farewell and departs with her words of warning: She tells him, “[W]atch yourself” (272). She gifts him a drawing of a carrion flower plant.

Armed with her shotgun, Ruby goes to the trap set near the corncrib and finds a man. She is surprised to find that the man is Stobrod, her father. By now, he has grown old. Ruby mocks her father for stealing her corn to run “a batch of liquor” (274) but sets him free, nonetheless.

She offers him breakfast and he reveals that he and a group of men (those not involved in the war, named outliers) live in a cave nearby. They hunt and drink alcohol. Ruby sends her father away and then spends the day with Ada. They talk together as they take in the farm. Deciding to take their dinner outside, they prepare a large meal. When they sit down to eat, however, Stobrod returns. He wishes to eat with them. Ruby does her best to continue her conversation with Ada while ignoring her father. They speak about the war.

After the food, Stobrod produces a fiddle. He explains that the fiddle is made with the rattles of real rattlesnakes and he “fashioned it himself during the months of living fugitive” (279). He tells a story about how he learned to play the instrument when a father asked for someone to play music for his badly wounded daughter to ease her pain. Stobrod played music for the dying girl and he has been obsessed with music ever since, giving him a new purpose in life. He plays for Ada and Ruby, who cannot deny that he is a powerful performer. Ruby refuses to acknowledge her father’s talent, but Ada praises the way in which he has discovered music as a possible “path to redemption” (286).