Leave Me Where I Lie

There is no way you can read thisbook and not feel the pain and joys of Mattie Posey as she lives in theaftermath of the Civil War on a farm in Mississippi. The times are hard and she has to do the workof a man on the family farm, as she has no brothers to help with the farmwork. When her religiously prejudicedparents interfere with her love for a catholic boy, Matties pain devastatesher soul and threatens to break her spirit.Matties manic/depressive mother,Annie, vacillates between extreme emotional lows and highs, which cause her tobe very strict, and a harsh disciplinarian.Matties father, Wade, is a gentle, kind man. However, he does not take a stand against hiswifes extreme discipline of the children.Mattie must assume her mothers duties and care for her when she isincapacitated by her depression. A rogue panther is lured to thePosey house by the smell of fresh, butchered pork which hangs in thesmokehouse. The familys life isendangered when the dogs corner the panther under the kitchen but Annies quickthinking and action saves her family.Matties love for her horse,Prince and her confidence in his speed entice her to enter the horse race atthe Neshoba County Fair. Herdetermination to prove Prince as the fastest horse in the community causes herto break rules in order to win the race.The Posey family and the blackfamily, who shares their surname, have been bound in a close relationship sinceWade and Joshua were small children. Thetrials of rugged farm life and the illnesses and deaths due to a lack ofmedical care bind them even closer.When Mattie falls in love withFrank Haney, a boy of the Catholic faith, her prejudiced parents take drasticmeasures to prevent their marriage, so they decide to elope. The Ku Klux Klan interferes withWades efforts to reward his faithful, black friend with a deed to part of hisfarm. When a cross is burned in hisfront yard he visits each of the Klan members and gives them a piece of thecharred cross. Years later, Mattie meets JohnMayo, who is twenty years her senior and when he proposes marriage to her shehas difficulty accepting because of her love for Frank.