He learns about breaking horses and rides in a rodeo before he is twelve. He has also learned to drive a hay rake and plant vegetables and maintain a garden and build an outhouse and other rough carpentry - much of this from his father, who is very inventive and clever with his hands. By the time he is eleven he has even learned some stunt riding and how to cut cattle under the tutelage of his sure-enough cowboy pal, Hi. Young Ralph wants to be a cowboy, and he makes a darn good start, learning to ride and handle a team of horses from the time he is 8 or nine. It begins in 1906 when Ralph - the "Little Britches" of the story - was 8 years old and covers the next three years, telling the story of Charlie and Molly Moody's family of five children - Ralph was second oldest - trying to make a living after moving west from New Hampshire, looking for a dry healthy climate, where Charlie might recover from tuberculosis. Ralph Moody's own story about growing up on a poor dry land Colorado ranch.
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