Cotton and Corn Fields in "The Old People"|Go Down, Moses in Go Down, Moses (Location)

Before they reach the big woods, the hunters travel past the "skeletoned cotton- and corn-fields . . . hard, gaunt, and motionless beneath the gray rain" and houses and barns (168). The fields are "skeletoned" at this time of year because they've been harvested. The houses and barns mark the the last point "where the hand of man had clawed for an instant, holding, the wall of the wilderness" that lies just beyond them (168). Many of these farmers show up to join the hunt for Old Ben, who has raided their livestock for years.