Where the Red Fern Grows

Billy’s whole family stay inside for a few days as a winter storm blows through, freezing the ground. Billy is stir-crazy, itching to get out with his hounds again. Finally, the storm breaks, and the three go out on a hunt, after Papa cautions Billy to be careful of ice under the snow and the dark of a new moon night.

Old Dan bawls in no time. The raccoon crisscrosses the river a few times and leads the hounds past the house, where Billy’s whole family is out on the porch cheering them on. Billy feels so proud and supported.

Suddenly, the baying stops. Billy knows something is wrong, remembering Grandpa telling him raccoons can pull some mean tricks on hounds on the treacherous ice. He finally finds Old Dan, who “raised his head and howled the most mournful cry I had ever heard” (115). He leads Billy to Little Ann, who is stuck in the center of the mostly frozen river, where the water still flows. The raccoon had led them across the river, but Little Ann hadn’t made the jump. Billy uses a long stick to edge his lantern across the ice to see her little face and paws gripping the ice for dear life, and slowly slipping. He bursts into tears, knowing she doesn’t have much time and he can’t cross the ice without breaking through. Billy again prays for divine help.

The clang of the metal lantern gives him an idea. He takes the handle of the lantern off and manipulates it into a hook, which he attaches to a long stick of cane. Then, Billy takes off his clothes and wades into the river, breaking the ice as he goes. He’s up to his chin before he’s close enough to hook Little Ann’s collar and drag her out.

Billy lights a huge fire and rubs Little Ann’s body until her blood starts circulating again. On his way back, Billy stops at the old sycamore tree stump and says a prayer of thanks.

Billy doesn’t tell his family what happened. He’s sick for three days after the incident. Keeping his lantern’s handle upright, Billy continues to wonder at the divine intervention in his life. He asks Mama if God answers all prayers every time. She says, “No, Billy, not every time. He only answers the ones that are said from the heart” (121).

Billy’s hounds have earned the reputation for being the best in the country. Grandpa is constantly bragging about them to everyone, which gets Billy in a pickle one day when he goes to the store with his sisters for some corn meal.

The Pritchards are a large family with a bad reputation that live upriver. The two Pritchard boys, Rubin and Rainie, arrive at the store when Billy is there waiting for cornmeal. They are disrespectful and antagonizing, lying about buying tobacco for their father (it’s for them) and trying to be in the store alone.

The Pritchard boys follow Billy out to the mill, where Grandpa helps Billy grind the corn meal. Rainie comments on Billy’s hounds’ reputations, then claims his old blue tick hound can outhunt them. He bets Billy two dollars that he can’t tree an infamous old raccoon in their neck of the woods. He calls him the ghost coon because he runs out hounds, climbs a tree, and disappears. They agree to meet the next night for the hunt.

The next night, Billy has a long talk with Little Ann, asking her to please tree that old ghost coon for him. Finally, the Pritchard boys arrive, and they commence their hunt. In no time, Old Dan has found the ghost coon’s trail.

The old raccoon lives up to his reputation, taking the hounds back and forth across the river and almost disappearing in an embankment, if Little Ann hadn’t sniffed him out. When Billy catches a glimpse of him, he sees the largest raccoon of his life.

Finally, the raccoon changes directions, and the Pritchard boys tell Billy that he’s heading for the tree he likes to disappear into when he gets tired. Old Dan bawls treed, but the raccoon doesn’t fool Little Ann.

Billy’s hounds continue searching for the ghost coon, to no avail. Billy hands over the two dollars to Rubin, conceding the bet. Suddenly, Little Ann bawls treed. There’s an old post near the tree, beneath an overhanging branch. Peering into it, Billy realizes the post is hollow. The raccoon has climbed the branch and dropped into the post from above. He pokes it with a stick and the raccoon leaps out, fighting with the dogs, then climbing the tree once more.

Billy climbs the tree to get the raccoon out but has a change of heart once he reaches him. The ghost coon cries, knowing it’s caught. Billy decides not to kill it. Rubin is upset, threatening to beat Billy.

Just then, the Pritchard’s old hound dog walks up, dragging its broken lead rope. Billy knows the killing of the ghost coon is out of his hands now, but he still doesn’t want to be there for it. He asks for his money back, as he’s treed the coon, as per the bounds of the bet. The Pritchards refuse, however, claiming the bet was to kill the raccoon.

Grandpa had told Rubin he would whip him if they laid a hand on Billy, but Rubin pins him down anyway and starts slapping him around with his hat. Their hound picks a fight with Old Dan. Rubin tells Billy if he says a word, he’ll come find him while he’s hunting one night and slit his throat.

Suddenly, Rainie exclaims that Billy’s hounds are killing their old blue tick. They look up to see Little Ann’s jaws locked around Old Blue’s neck while Old Dan slashes at his belly. Rubin runs toward them with Billy’s ax, screaming that he’s going to kill them: “I saw a small stick when it whipped up from the ground. As if it were alive, it caught between Rubin’s legs. I saw him fall. I ran on by” (145).

Billy pulls Old Dan and finally Little Ann off their old hound, who is barely alive. He calls to Rainie to help him, but he’s paralyzed, staring at Rubin who is still on the ground, unmoving. Billy ties his hounds to the barbed wire fence and goes over to see.

Rainie screams when Billy approaches and runs away into the night. When Rubin fell, the ax blade went deep into his stomach. He begs Billy to help him take it out, which he does. Rubin then dies.

The ghost coon watches as Billy leads his hounds away, leaving his ax behind. When he gets home, he wakes his parents and tells them everything. His father immediately goes to fetch the only person with authority to move the body, Grandpa, and to speak and mourn with the Pritchard family.

The next day is drizzly and sad. Papa finally comes home, telling them that the Pritchards would bury Rubin on their property. Although the father seemed distraught, Papa noticed how none of the other family members shed any tears. Mama shows compassion for them.

For days, Billy is depressed and shocked, with bad dreams and no desire to hunt. He decides he needs to pay his respects to Rubin. He takes some flowers his sisters gave him all the way to the Pritchard’s, where he sets them on Rubin’s freshly dug grave. Mrs. Pritchard comes out and straightens them, wiping a tear from her eye, and Billy feels closure.