Dry Divide [Hardcover]

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.

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.

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.

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