Ralph Moody

The story of Ralph Moody's early years is filled with challenges and triumphs that will make jaw-dropping reading for the average modern, but were not all that remarkable for people living just one hundred years ago. In 1906 Ralph's father Charles moved the family to Colorado in hopes that the dry climate might cure his tuberculosis. They worked for three years to establish a small ranch, but had to give it up due to insufficient water rights. Shortly after they moved into town, Charles was killed in an accident and eleven-year-old Ralph became the man of the family.

After two years they were fairly well established, only to have to leave the state suddenly so as not to cause a neighbor to be hanged as a horse thief. Ralph continued to support his family during his teen years, then volunteered to serve in the Great War but was diagnosed as having diabetes. After being told he had one year to live, Ralph decided to live out his time in Colorado, but only made it as far as Kansas.

After four years as a Kansas drover, Ralph Moody decided the doctors had been wrong and that it was time to get on with his life. He married, settled down in Kansas City, and began a corporate career. When he was twenty-one he wrote in a diary that he would work as hard as he could to save $50,000 by the time he was fifty, and then write a book. In fact he began to write his first book, Little Britches, on the eve of his fiftieth birthday.

The Little Britches series is not only a joy, it is a treasure. Like the Little House on the Prairie series, it preserves the details of a way of life that is not all that distant in history, and yet is nearly extinct. And like the Little House series, it shows clearly and concretely how the challenges of such a life contributed to building one's character. Ralph's father Charles ranks alongside Pa Ingalls as one of the most admirable men in frontier literature—competent, righteous, devoted to his family, determined to provide for them. Although Charles appears only in the first book, his presence is felt throughout the series as Ralph builds on the foundation of character that his father began in him.

Our family has benefited greatly from reading about his example, and Ralph's example as a dutiful, devoted, and courageous son.

A note on language: The language used in these books is occasionally rough, particularly when cowboys are involved. There is the occasional curse word, and the Lord's name is sometimes taken in vain. By today's standards the bad language is mild, about what was usual for books written in the 1950s, but parents may still hesitate to expose their children to it.

Some parents may choose to use these passages to raise the question of whether a superficially "good" character is actually good in the Lord's eyes. Others may prefer to avoid the problem by avoiding this book. We find it adequate to edit out the bad language on the fly as we read it aloud, and we allow the older children to read the books for themselves, because they know that such language is unacceptable. If you need specific details about the language in order to make a decision, please contact us.

• Little Britches. Ralph Moody was eight years old in 1906 when his family moved from New Hampshire to a Colorado ranch. Through his eyes we experience the pleasures and perils of ranching there early in the twentieth century.
• Man of the Family. Father has died and Little Britches shoulders the responsibilities of a man at age eleven as the family works to establish themselves in Denver.
  
• The Home Ranch. During the summer of his twelfth year Ralph works on a cattle ranch in the shadow of Pike's Peak, earning a dollar a day, tested against seasoned cowboys on the range and in the corral.
  
• Mary Emma and Company. Mary Emma Moody, widowed mother of six, has taken her family east in 1912 to begin a new life. Her son, Ralph, then thirteen, recalls how the Moodys survive that first bleak winter in a Massachusetts town.

• The Fields of Home. Ralph is having trouble adapting to city ways in Massachusetts, so he is sent to his grandfather's farm in Maine, where he finds a new set of adventures.
• Shaking the Nickel Bush. Skinny and suffering from diabetes, Ralph Moody is ordered by a Boston doctor to seek a more healthful climate. Now nineteen years old, he strikes out into western territory hustling odd jobs, facing the problem of getting fresh milk and leafy green vegetables.
• The Dry Divide. Ralph Moody, just turned twenty, had only a dime in his pocket when he was put off a freight in western Nebraska. Three months later he owned eight teams of horses and rigs to go with them.
• Horse of a Different Color. The final book in the Little Britches series, it recounts Ralph Moody's final years of wandering before settling down to marriage and a career.
• The Little Britches Collection. To order all eight books in the series, go here.