“Don’t y’all go through that fence!” Big Ma called after us. But we pretended not to hear.” (p 30) Why did the Logan children disobey...

In Chapter 2 of Rolling Thunder, Hear My Cry
by Mildred Taylor, the Logan children are engaged in picking cotton along
with their mother.  As Cassie climbs a pole to pick the high cotton, she can also see
above the field to the road where there are two figures walking briskly.  One of them is
taller that the other, whose "fluid gait" looks familiar to Cassie.  Squinting and
shadowing her eyes from the glare of the sun, Cassie gasps in recognition; she slides
down the pole, exlaiming "It's Papa!"

In disbelief her
mother utters the name of her husband.  Then John and Little Man eagerly descend their
poles, and rush toward the barbed wire fence.  Big Ma calls to them to not crawl through
the fence and trespass upon property that may not belong to the owner whose cotton they
pick, but the children pretend not to hear her as they rush to see their father, who has
left his work on the railroad to come home with another man.