Cold Mountain

In fall, Ada and Ruby harvest the apples from the orchard. They make cider, which Ruby plans to trade for beef. While she is away, Ada cuts wood. She burns a section of brush, then pauses her chores to write a letter to her cousin, Lucy, who lives in Charleston. She explains how much she has changed. Then, Ada milks the cow.

As night falls, she waits for Ruby to return. Instead, Stobrod arrives. He is not alone; he is with his friend Pangle, a young banjo player who has a mental impairment. They need to escape Teague and his “killers” (319), he explains, as they sit beside the fire. Stobrod tells the story of how Pangle found the banjo in a raid on the house of a rich man. Since they found the banjo and taught themselves to play music, Pangle and Stobrod have spent their lives drinking, sleeping, and playing music. They have “become a duo” (323).

Ruby returns. She has only a small amount of beef but it is shared among the four people. The men play while the brisket cooks. After they eat, Stobrod asks his daughter for help. He and Pangle are planning to abandon the outliers, but he needs food for himself and Pangle, as well as somewhere to stay. They may also need money. Ruby tells her father than he should be ashamed to come to her for help, especially for the same things that he never provided during her childhood. Nonetheless, she allows Ada to make the final decision.

Before Ada decides, Ruby reiterates that Stobrod was a horrible father. She recounts how she was often left alone for several months, even though she was only eight years old, because her father was busy making liquor. Ada is vague in her answer, so Stobrod and Pangle leave “with only vague hopes of compromise” (330). Later, she stares at the night sky. She thinks about the letter from Inman, reciting a line from Stobrod’s song, asking him to return to her.

Inman comes across a woman who is mourning the death of her daughter. He stops his journey and builds “a little casket” (333) for the dead girl. As Inman eats a meal with the mourning mother, the deliciousness of the food brings him to the point of tears. The woman has a photograph of her family, taken before the war. She is the only survivor.

In the following days, Inman struggles through the rain. When the storm is particularly intense, he hunkers down for the night and reads to himself from a travelogue. He remembers the area near his home by “the slope of Cold Mountain” (337). The next day, the weather clears. His journey is easier. When he stops at a spring to replenish his water supply, he looks up and sees “a trio of hanging skeletons” (338).

Inman begins to ascend the mountain. The environment is becoming increasingly familiar. One morning, he wakes and hears a bear nearby. The elderly mother bear is with her cub and, when she detects Inman’s scent, she moves to defend herself and her cub. The bear charges at Inman. He dodges and the bear crashes past him, over the ledge of a cliff. The mother bear is dead; Inman knows that the cub will not survive alone. He kills the cub and eats it, “so as not to waste the meat” (342).

The fog begins to clear, lifting Inman’s mood. He recognizes his surroundings and spots Cold Mountain in the distance. He eats the meat, noting the familiarity of the creeks and ridges.

Stobrod and Pangle have abandoned the outliers. They are hiding in a different place and they have acquired a new companion, who is identified only as a boy from Georgia of “no more than seventeen years” (346). The trio is struggling after eating a deer that was left dead too long and that was not cooked enough. Shivering from the cold, the men are barely sure of their location.

Ada and Ruby have arranged to provide supplies for the trio. They leave these supplies at a designated place on Cold Mountain; Stobrod is forbidden from visiting the farm. After collecting the supply package, the men prepare the food and set a fire. They warm themselves and drink liquor before moving to a safer spot higher up the mountain. Still stricken with diarrhea, the Georgian teen wanders into the woods. Stobrod falls asleep while talking with Pangle.

The Home Guard arrives, led by Teague. Stobrod and Pangle are grilled for information, as Teague demands to know the location of the cave where the outliers are hiding. Stobrod tries to avoid the question but Pangle is too naïve, telling Teague exactly how to reach the cave. Teague and the Home Guard soldiers sit down beside the fire. They help themselves to the food and liquor. Eventually, Teague demands music from Stobrod and Pangle. Their playing impresses Birch, who dubs them “holy men” (355). Teague is less impressed. He orders his men to shoot Stobrod and Pangle.