The Home Ranch

In the summer of his twelfth year, Ralph Moody takes a job on a cattle ranch beneath Pike’s Peak, where the work brings him into close comparison with experienced cowboys. The ranch episodes build on the family responsibilities he assumes after his father’s death, placing practical labor and growing independence alongside the demands of home life. The story also connects with the wider sequence of Moody’s autobiographical adventures: it follows an episode noted near the end of *Man of the Family* and precedes the family’s move east, covered in later books.