"Ashes of Roses" Summary

Ada and Ruby weed the winter garden. They have plowed, sweetened, and harrowed the ground and planted a handful of seeds, hoping a warm fall will make up for a late start. Ruby is careful about doing chores in strict accordance with signs of nature, a practice Monroe would consider superstitious, but Ada envies as an attunement with nature and rationalizes as a metaphor for stewardship. As they hoe, a lost party of broken women and children ramble by, fleeing Federal persecution in Tennessee and aiming for Camden, SC. Ada and Ruby prepare a chicken dinner that is quickly consumed. The pilgrims tell of Federals taking revenge on Confederate soldiers' families for battlefield deaths and proclaim Ada and Ruby lucky to live in a hidden cove. In the morning, Ada and Ruby provision them for the next...