Cold Mountain: Chapter 14 Summary & Analysis

Ada and Ruby spend most of the fall working with apples. This requires them to plant seeds, pick apples, carry heavy bags of fruit, etc. The work is tiring, but easier than what Ada was doing in the summer. Ada gets a strong sense of accomplishment when she cuts down dying trees for firewood—though her sense of accomplishment shrinks when she realizes that she’ll have to do it all over again in just a few days.

Inside the house, Ada pens a letter to her cousin Lucy, who lives in Charleston. In the letter she describes the changes in her life, and suggests that Lucy wouldn’t even recognize her if they were to meet again. Ada has learned to think literally and practically, she explains—when she sees a crow, for example, she does not “seek analogy for its blackness.”

Ada works hard, cutting hay with a scythe. Late in the evening, exhausted from her day’s work, she sits by the wire, staring up at the stars—Ruby is still doing work. Suddenly, Ada hears Ruby’s name called—it’s Stobrod and a friend of his. Ada stands up and tells Stobrod that Ruby isn’t here. Stobrod nods but sits down next to Ada. Ada notices that Stobrod’s friend—whom he calls Pangle—is carrying a banjo.

Ada politely asks Stobrod how he’s doing, and Stobrod explains that he’s been living in the mountains, “like an outlaw.” He introduces his friend as a “simpleminded” boy—possibly related to the Swangers. Stobrod explains how the “boy,” who’s actually around 30, recently learned how to play the banjo—it’s his only talent.

Stobrod goes on to explain to Ada how he found his friend a banjo. A few months ago, Stobrod and some other military deserters snuck into a wealthy man’s home. The gang tied up the man and his wife and beat him. While the other deserters stole food and alcohol from the house, Stobrod stole only a banjo, which he gave to Pangle. In the present, Stobrod and Pangle play music for Ada’s entertainment. Ada is moved by the music—it’s strange and not always pleasant, but it reminds her of her father, who loved fiddling, unlike most preachers. As they play, Ruby arrives, and she sits next to Ada, listening.

It’s now late at night. Stobrod and Pangle stop playing their instruments. Ruby mutters to Ada that her father is about to ask them for a favor. Stobrod explains that he needs “caring for”—he’s poor and hungry all the time, and can’t stand the thought of being sent back to fight in the army. Ruby dismissively tells Stobrod to “eat roots” to survive.

Stobrod complains to Ruby that she’s not being very sympathetic. Ruby angrily reminds Stobrod of how he went about brewing liquor years ago. When Ruby was eight years old, he left her to go into the mountains to brew liquor. Stobrod left his child for months at a time, and Ruby was forced to forage for wild food and catch fish in the river. Essentially, Ruby says, Stobrod let her starve. The one thing she’ll say for him, she admits, is that he never beat her. But he never patted her on the head or hugged her either. Stobrod and Pangle walk away, quietly.

Ada and Ruby go into the house to sleep. Ada pulls out a telescope and points it at the stars. She thinks of the majesty of the stars, and compares the spectacle with John Keats’s poem Endymion—she concludes that the natural world is more beautiful and complex than any poem could ever be. She writes Inman a simple letter: “Come back to me.”