Little Britches

By Anna Thayne True Virtues 9/9/12 The book, Little Britches, by Ralph Moody is the touching true story about when the author himself was young. Ralph and his family of 7 moves from New Hampshire to a ranch in Colorado when Ralph is eight. Ralph gains many good virtues along his boyhood journey. Three of them are, being a hard worker, being honest, and being determined. The first of Ralph’s good virtues is being a hard worker. Ralph loved to help his father. He was always exited about helping him with the milking and the chores. Ralph enjoyed work. His first real job was herding cows for one of his neighbors named Mrs. Corcoran. At first this job was difficult since Ralph had no experience. However, it didn’t take him long to get the hang of it. In the summer, Ralph worked for Fred Aultland, a close neighbor, by riding the stacker horse for haying his fields. Then, for the entire next summer, Ralph worked for a man named Mr. Cooper on his ranch as a hired worker. There, he herded cows, was the cook’s helper, and the water boy. Ralph said, “Before we got to… Mr. Cooper’s… place, I knew I was going to like working for him as well as I liked working for Fred Aultland, but I didn’t begin to realize how much I was going to like it.” Not only was Ralph a hard worker, but he also enjoyed his work. Back then, most eight and nine year olds worked more than teenagers do today. Ralph was a very hard worker. The second out of three of Ralph’s many good virtues is that he was honest. At first Ralph wasn’t always honest, however, he learned from his mistakes later. Whenever Ralph was sneaky or dishonest, his conscience was tugging on his heart. Ralph’s father said,” There are only two kinds of men in this world: honest men, and dishonest men.” He always confessed because he was so weighed down by his wrongdoing and he knew it was the thing to do. For example,

Bibliography: Moody, Ralph. Little Britches. New York: Bison books,1991.