Living on Andalusia farm in Milledgeville, Georgia, O’Connor and her mother, Regina, had many pastoral responsibilities. O’Connor would have used a rake such as this to spread seed for her many beloved peacocks. In her 1961 essay “The King of the Birds,” O’Connor notes, “It is hard to tell the truth about this bird. The habits of any peachicken left to himself would hardly be noticeable, but multiplied by forty, they become a situation.” This rake was taken from a scrap metal pile at Andalusia.