Half Broke Horses: Chapter 6 Summary & Analysis

Jim convinces the English investors to buy the neighboring Hackberry ranch, which has a windmill with well water. He and Lily now preside over 180,000 acres of land. Lily loves Hackberry, and believes its well means that their days of  “hauling fuel drums” like they did in the storm were over. Lily buys a truck-load of lead pipe from Los Angeles, which they use to connect the spring water to a spigot at the house. Lily paints the rooms different colors, something the artistic Rosemary especially appreciates. Lily decides she wants to buy Hackberry, and the family begins saving every penny. Lily comes up with money-making schemes, including selling encyclopedias door-to-door, and takes the children to scavenge for bottles to recycle, insisting it is teaching them “resourcefulness.”

Lily is now nearing her thirty-ninth birthday. When the family drives by a sign for flying lessons, she insists they stop. The pilot, whom she calls Goggles, is surprised that Lily, not Jim, wants the lesson, because he has never taught a woman before. Lily scoffs at being called a “little lady,” and Goggles agrees to take her up in the rickety two-seater plane. Lily takes her first flight and feels as though she is seeing the world for the first time. Rosemary is surprised she spent money since they are supposed to be saving; Lily responds that she could make money as a pilot, and the lesson was an investment in herself.

Still needing more income, Lily writes to Grady Gammage, who helped her get her job in Red Lake, about teaching opportunities. He tells her about a remote job in a town of Mormon polygamists. Jim accompanies her and the children to help them settle in the town. Main Street is tiny, and Lily shares the teacherage room with Rosemary and Little Jim. There are no cars, and people are so poor that the children wear dresses made of feed sacks. When the locals discover that Jim is the son of the famous Mormon Lot Smith, they warm up to the family.

Lily observes that the students’ houses are like “breeding factories” where up to seven wives “churn out” babies. The girls are “docile and submissive,” and at around thirteen years old they disappear into their arranged marriages. Lily decides she must teach her female students that they do not have to become “broodmares dressed in feed sacks.” She includes lessons on nursing, women like Amelia Earhart and Eleanor Roosevelt, and her own story of breaking horses and learning to fly a plane. She encourages them that they can all do it too, so long as they have the “gumption.”

The local patriarch, Uncle Eli, scolds Lily for teaching the girls “worldly ways,” and says the town will shun her if she continues. Lily refuses to be cowed, and the next day gives a lesson on religious freedom. When Uncle Eli comes to the house to intimidate her, Lily grabs her revolver and shoots past his ear, saying that next time she won’t aim to miss. The sheriff comes by, and Lily knows she won’t last long. She continues to teach, but is fired by the county superintendent in the spring.

Lily gets another job in Peach Springs, where she agrees to be the teacher, janitor, cook, and bus driver. The town has set aside money for a new form of transportation for the kids. Lily buys a hearse from a used car lot and spray paints “school bus” on the side. She drives 200 miles every day to pick up and drop off her students. Rosemary and Little Jim also attend the class, and she paddles them often to make sure no one thinks she is playing favorites. One day Little Jim is unconscious after falling off a swing, and Lily must frantically pile all the children into the hearse and drive them home before heading to the hospital. Jim wakes up on the way, but, not wanting to go back to school, Rosemary pretends to be sick. Lily makes her spend the night alone in a room at the hospital to teach her a lesson, and she never plays hooky again.

Lily decides to use the hearse to run a taxi business on weekends and puts some of the extra money towards more flying lessons. When her neighbor’s three cousins visit from Brooklyn, she agrees to drive them to the Grand Canyon and takes Rosemary with her. Lily is appalled at how spoiled and delicate the Brooklyners seem. They ask Rosemary about Santa Claus, but she has no idea what they are talking about. On a hill, the hearse’s brakes give out. The Brooklyn ladies are scared, but Lily is proud that Rosemary remains fearless. Lily is able to maneuver the car so that they crash safely, and says that if you drive you need to know “how to crash.”

Lily decides to show the children what Christmas is like, and tries to convince them that Santa Claus has brought them gifts. Rosemary is not fooled. The kids are excited about Christmas lights, though, and the family cuts down a pine tree. That night Jim connects the lights to the hearse battery, and the sight astounds the children—as well as some ranch hands who have never seen electric lights before.

Deputy Johnson’s son Johnny Johnson is in Lily’s class, and a real trouble maker. He kisses Rosemary and sticks his hand up another girl’s dress, causing Lily to slap him. He hits her back, at which point she hits and spanks him to teach him not to mistreat girls. Afterwards she refuses to apologize to the Deputy, and her contract is not renewed. Jim says she has a habit of getting into altercations, but Lily insists she just has a habit of sticking up for herself and does what is necessary when the rules are wrong. Nevertheless, she is tired of being fired. She realizes she is crying in front of Rosemary, something that makes her feel as though she has let her daughter down. She asserts that she is “not a weak woman.”

Lily is determined to prove to the town that Deputy Johnson did not break her spirit. When Gone With the Wind is set to play at the local movie theater, she vows to attend in a fancy dress. Gone With the Wind is her favorite book, and she admires that Scarlett O’Hara never lets anything get in her way. Lily sews her own gown out of her red living room curtains. Jim drives her in the hearse. Upon arrival, Lily waves to the crowd, including Deputy Johnson, as the photographer’s lightbulb flashes.