Little Britches

Ralphs’s father injures himself while taking Babe to breed with a horse in Fort Logan. Though he waves off the accident, Doctor Stone tells the family he is lucky to be alive, describing how he was thrown from Babe at the entrance of Fort Logan. That night, Ralph notes that, though his father’s cough had been improving all that summer, he can hear him coughing long after they went to bed. Ralph’s father looks bad in the morning, but he refuses to rest, saying he needs to dig a grave for the undertaker and start work on the next house.

That night, after returning from digging the grave, Ralph’s father tells them about his childhood. He has never done so before, and Ralph wonders, in retrospect if it was a premonition. Ralph’s father coughs all night long, and the next day Doctor Stone diagnoses him with pneumonia. The children are only allowed to visit him for a minute each, and Ralph doesn’t know what to say. He tells his father about a rope he found on the road, and his father tells him to “take care of it, partner.” Those are the last words Ralph hears his father say. Ralph learns later that his father asked for him before dying, but the doctor forbid it.

Ten days after the onset of Ralph’s father’s sickness, Hal hands his siblings a note from their mother telling them to go to the Roberts’ house for lunch. After they get out from school, Hal hands them another note directing them to a different houses. Ralph goes to the Roberts’ again. Ralph overhears the nurse talking on the phone on his mother’s behalf—the Roberts’ have the only phone in the neighborhood—saying that Ralph’s father died 20 minutes ago. Ralph feels like his brain has stopped working. When it starts working again, he imagines it going around like a gramophone singing the lines “so long, partner” repeatedly.

Bessie and Mrs. Aultland stay with Ralph’s mother that night and the children stay where they are. Ralph’s mind feels numb, and everything seems unreal. All their old neighbors come to the funeral, and Ralph realizes how important his father was to them. At the funeral, Doctor Browne tells Ralph’s mother she has blood poisoning and demands she get help from him at once. After the funeral, Ralph’s mother leaves with Doctor Brown and the children go to stay with other families. 

After four weeks, Ralph’s mother returns, carried into the house by Doctor Browne and a nurse. Ralph collects his siblings from the other homes, and they all gather around her. She tells them not to be sorry for themselves anymore because they have many things to do and begins giving out instructions to prepare dinner. Ralph describes the supper as the “most memorable meal” of his life. Instead of his mother looking to Ralph’s father to say grace, as she used to, she looks to Ralph. Ralph realizes he has become a man.