The Dry Divide

by Ralph Moody

Book Overview

Ralph Moody, just turned twenty, had only a dime in his pocket when he was put off a freight in western Nebraska. It was the Fourth of July in 1919. Three months later he owned eight teams of horses and rigs to go with them. Everyone who worked with him shared in the prosperity--the widow whose wheat crop was saved and the group of misfits who formed a first-rate harvesting crew. But sometimes fickle Mother Nature and frail human nature made sure...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0803282168
• ISBN13: 9780803282162
• Release Date: August 1994
• Publisher: Bison Books
• Length: 230 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.4" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

The Dry Divide

This is one of my favorite books in Ralph Moody's sieres. All the sturggles of life are here. A great book for all ages. And best of all it is True! Ralph Moody's books should be read. A book you don't want to end.

It came just in time to read out loud

I LOVE the Little Britches series. My husband had never heard them, so I am reading them out loud when we travel in the car. I have loved hearing them for the 3rd time, and my husband has thoroughly enjoyed them for the first time.

By his bootstraps

When Ralph Moody, 20 years old, is put off the train at McCook, Nebraska, on July 4, 1919, he has exactly one dime to his name. He's using half of it for two doughnuts and a glass of water when a man comes into the cafe looking for wheat-harvest hands, at $5 a day for drivers, $7 for pitchers, and as high as $8-$9 for stackers. Ralph has never stacked wheat, but he's pitched plenty of hay, so he bluffs his way into the stacking job. He soon learns that he and the rest of his employer's new crew--a stranded medicine-show "doctor," a dried-up little old man, two great hulking Swedish blacksmith brothers, two Denver U. college boys, a Mexican teenager and a chunky little Irishman--have signed up with the boss from hell. Myron Hudson is a hard-driving, hard-swearing man who's rough with his stock and rougher with his wife and five small children; only his young sister-in-law Judy seems willing to stand up to him. He has such a terrible reputation in his own neighborhood that he has to cross the state line to hunt hired hands. After years of successive crop failures as a tenant farmer he has finally moved about as high up on the dry divide as he can get and still be on the planet, and he's mortgaged to his neck. Ralph resolves to help Mrs. Hudson and her children and makes a plan to do it, but after only one full day on the job Hudson is killed by one of his own horses. Now Ralph no longer has to sneak around behind his back to put his plan in motion, and he steps in and takes hold like a born CEO. Working out a deal with the banker who holds Hudson's paper, he not only contrives to bring in all of Hudson's wheat, but sets up a regular business hauling that of other farmers to the elevator, a task requiring split-second scheduling and perfect teamwork. The respect he shows his fellow team-members makes them his loyal followers, and three months later he owns eight teams of horses, the rigs to go with them, and over $1300 in profits stashed in the bank, and has his eye on some cattle-land to set himself up in ranching. Perhaps only in the early 20th century could a scheme like Ralph's work out so well, but without his own native gifts, the skills of his team, and the vision of a shrewd (if not always completely trustworthy) small-town banker even he couldn't bring it to fruition. Here we see how the lessons he learned from his parents, his grandfather, and his past employers stand him in good stead. This is the conclusion toward which he has been moving ever since his family first settled in Colorado a dozen years before, and in true American-dream style he has made it from hardscrabble farm boy to about-to-be landowner before he's even old enough to vote. An inspiring American story.

Great Book!

After having read all the books leading up to this one I can only say that Ralph Moody's parents had reason to be proud of their son. What an illustration of how faithful and honest parenting will build the character of a man.

Ralph Moody is to print what Garrison Keillor is to radio...

I first read Mr. Moody's books as a child and then re-read them as an adult. They had lost none of their attraction. He is like the person we all know that can tell a story that captivates and entertains.... This review extends to all of Mr. Moody's autobiographical books; they all fit together in a series.