Little Britches: Chapter 26 Summary & Analysis

The next morning, Hi tells Ralph he’ll let him ride Sky High “from scratch” if can figure out his bucking pattern. Ralph already knows it, and Hi begins teaching Ralph how to train Sky. When Ralph returns home, he realizes again how homesick he is and how good his mother’s cooking is. Again, his family goes for a picnic near Bear Creek, and his mother finishes reading The Call of the Wild. Ralph stays late to help his father milk the cows so as to hear him say, “So long, partner.”

Ralph describes what he learns during his six weeks at Mr. Cooper’s ranch. He only does one real hour of work a day and spends the rest of the time practicing what Hi teaches him, like swinging a rope and roping steers while on Sky. He soon finds himself annoyed with some of Sky’s bad habits, however, and to fix them, Hi ties him to a massive bull. The bull knocks Sky flat multiple times, and Ralph worries that Sky will be killed and Hi makes him stop watching. When Ralph returns to help Juan with supper, however, Sky has improved, and by the day’s end his bad habits are gone.

Hi also teaches Sky High how to stand ground-tied, which means learning stay in one place without being tied to anything. Like the other lesson, Ralph is hurt by what Hi does to Sky High, though he acknowledges the necessity of the lesson, realizing that his father often employed a similar approach. Hi puts a rowel bit (a bit with a sharp mouthpiece) in Sky High’s mouth and chains him up without feed or water in a patch of grass. When he tries to eat the grass, the rowel digs into his mouth, making him bleed. The lesson works, and Hi lets Ralph help herd the cattle in addition to helping Juan. Ralph continues to train Sky, eventually teaching him to herd cattle almost as well as Fanny.