Little Britches - Book 23

My husband read this book out loud to my middle son at least, maybe also the youngest one, this was about 12 or so years ago.  I don't even remember where I bought the book.  For that long of a time, I've been meaning to get around to reading it myself.  I vaguely knew what it was about.  Anyway, I finally read it!  It is one of those books I missed somehow in childhood and I wonder, how did this pass me by for so long? 

It is beautifully written account of a young boy and his poor family trying to establish a ranch in Colorado back in 1906 when he was eight years old.  The boy, Ralph, is the second oldest of a family of six children.  He's the oldest boy though.  His father got lung disease from working a woolen factory in New Hampshire and so the family tries its luck out west where the air is supposed to be better.  This reminded me of a book I read earlier in the year of a woman reporter traveling around Colorado territory in the late 1800s by horseback.  She met many people who had moved to the area because of lung issues.

Ralph's family is a warm and hard working family unit.  They are frugal, joyful, intelligent, faithful and loving.  Ralph is all boy and is forever doing things that are just a little bit more dangerous than his mother (and father) would like him to do.  He loves horses though and has a gift with them.  He gets many jobs trying to help earn money for the family.  He herds a rather unpleasant neighbor's dairy cows.  He and his father help a really kind and wonderful neighbor with haying.  He winds up working the summer of his 10th year as a cowhand (but really a water boy) at a big ranch where he can only come home on some weekends.  But there he makes friends with a real cowboy, Hi, who teaches him many things.

There is lots of peril from a horrible wind storm to rancher thugs shooting at the family over an irrigation ditch dispute.  Ralph's love for his father is touching and wonderful.  The book packs an emotional wallop.

Two thumbs up!  I plan to try to read the whole series (I think there may be eight books in total?).

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