When a Man's a Man

One of the books that is inching it's way toward upward on my favorite books list is one by Harold Bell Wright (author of "Shepherd of the Hills" among others) called "When a Man's a Man."
Set in the open ranges of Arizona the story follows the life of a man, obviously out-of-place among all of those ranchers, as he gives himself to a task, testing himself as a man. He is a stranger, giving no information of his past, his reasons for traveling so far away from the city life to which he is evidently accustomed, or even his real name. The story is one of a man who is robbed of his birthright, a woman who believes she no longer belongs in the country where she was raised, and a cowboy in love with a woman who by her own admittance is no longer the one for him.
There's a world where men to live must be men and women must be women. How many of us would survive if we did what Mr. Honorable Patches did in "When a Man's a Man"? Could we really leave everything we'd ever known to travel miles away from home and take up a rough, somewhat-uninviting life as he did? He took up life for over a year among perfect strangers, doing the kinds of things not one of his old friends and acquaintance would never picture him doing. It was all an experiment and those ranch men he placed himself among knew (and, in many cases helped) it. Patches loved and exulted in his new life, triumphant in his experiment. But when faced with more trouble than he could have possibly imagined will his new training hold true? Will be he be a man?

Kitty, daughter of a prosperous rancher, had grown up in the west, being taught those skills that Patches so coveted now. She had been content with her life, and the young man everyone expected her to marry. But three years far away at school in the east had changed the young ranch girl forever. No longer could she view her old way of life as she had before. Her heart and mind were captured by the glitter and bling of the city. No longer did she truly appreciate the down-to-earth, real people she lived with. At school she was taught to value a man based on his formal education, his social position, and his wealth. And so no longer could she love her girlhood sweetheart despite his persistent devotion to her. She tried to push back the new views as she returned to life on the range but when the man from the east, known only as Honorable Patches, arrived in the area she found herself fighting all of those feelings once more. Will she ever see in her life what that man saw it? Something he fought for? Something he sought with everything he had?
And the over-all question: will Patches and Kitty take their God-given roles and live the lives He has planned for them? Will they fall? Or will they be true?