The Ranche on the Oxhide: A Story of Boys' and Girls' Life on the Frontier

A frontier family establishes a homestead on the Kansas prairie, where two adventurous boys, their sister, and neighbors learn to build, hunt, and survive amid buffalo herds, wolves, panthers, rattlesnakes, and wild horses. Episodes follow trapping, fishing, and turkey hunts, the training of hounds and breaking of ponies, and close relations with a Pawnee band led by White Wolf who alternately aids and challenges them. A child’s abduction by raiders and ensuing rescue efforts, cavalry encounters including General Custer, and a final retrospective documenting losses and inheritance complete a portrait of everyday danger, resourcefulness, and frontier camaraderie.