The World in Pancho's Eye

Born into a family of cattlemen on the southern Arizona border at the beginning of the Great Depression, Mikey Summers is raised by people who are wilder than the animals under their care. Maggie, his mother, is quick to love, but also quick to fight, loves contention as much as peace, likes to run and play, but is decent with a fine moral sense. She does hard work as though tapping for a dance, but can be as mean and ill-tempered as she is decent and good. Paul Summers, his father, loves to cowboy, ride broncs, get drunk with Maggie's brothers, be Maggie's husband as long as it is fun, but tries not to get serious about any of it. When Maggie reminds him that he will have to stop running and playing and be responsible, he only grins. As his parents and uncles and their families work and play hard to keep their world from dying of drought, disease, and the Depression, Mikey revels in its fathers, mothers, horses, dirt, dogs, cows, and trees and learns that he must fight his own battles to keep it.