Where The Red Fern Grows

Where the Red Fern Grows, by Wilson Rawls. The theme is working hard to get what you want and loss.

Once upon a time, there was a boy named Billy. When Billy was really young he loved to catch things lizards with he hands, when he got a little older, he got little traps to catch little critters. Soon, he got tired of the traps and so desperately wanted two hunting dogs. He asked his parents several times, but they said it was too much money. Billy started losing weight because he wanted two hunting dogs so bad. One night after Billy saw people leave their camp, he saw they had left a newspaper behind.

Billy looked at the newspaper, it said that there were hound dogs for twenty-five dollars each. Billy decided to catch critters and pick blackberries so he can sell them to get two hunting dogs. His grandpa had a store so Billy could sell his stuff there. Billy found a can to put his money in. He worked hard for two years two get the money he needed. One day Billy went to his grandpa store and counted the money, he had enough! They counted twice just to make sure.

Billy went to his grandpa’s store every day to see if he had heard back from the people selling the dogs. One day Billy went to the store and his grandpa said that in a few days Billy could ride with a man that Billy’s grandpa knows because he was going to town. Then he gave Billy ten dollars and told him the each dog got five dollars cheaper. That night, Billy was thinking that the dogs could have been hungry or something had happened to them. So, he jumped out the window and started walking to town. It was so far away so Billy had to camp over night.

The next morning, Billy started walking again. When he made it to town, he saw a bunch of kids playing, stopped and watched them for a bit, and then went to the place where he got the dogs. When he first saw them, he was speechless, then he picked them up and put them in a gunny sack with two holes for each of their heads.

Billy started walking to the route he had came, when a few boys walked up to him. They started pulling the dog’s ears and Billy didn’t like it, there was a fight with punching and people getting hurt. Then a sheriff came in and stopped the fight. Then Billy and the sheriff walked together for a little bit. Billy went into a store and bought fabric for he mom, overalls for his dad, and candy for his sisters with the ten dollars he had, then Billy went outside where the sheriff was waiting.

The sheriff gave Billy a soda pop. Billy had never had a soda pop before. When he tried it, he was amazed with how good it was. Billy said thank you to the sheriff and started home. At dark Billy made beds out of leaves then gave his dogs some of the food he brought, then he ate some himself. In the middle of the night, something awoken Billy, it was a mountain lion.

Since Billy had a fire he was safe because mountain lions don’t like fire. The next day, Billy saw two names in a tree and decided that was what he was going to name his dogs, Old Dan and Little Anne. When Billy got home, his mom was really mad, but when she saw the dogs and the gifts, she wasn’t as mad. Now all Billy needed to do was get a coonskin to train his dogs. The next morning Billy went to his grandpa’s store to show him his dogs. His grandpa told him how to catch a coon. At first Billy didn’t think it would work, but then he thought twice, maybe it would work.

That very day Billy started making the traps. It took a pretty long time. When he was done, he put out traps. After a few days, Billy was beginning to think it wouldn’t work, but when he went out one morning, there was a coon! The dogs had a little fight with the coon, then the coon was dead. After they skinned the coon, Billy decided to start training the dogs the next day. When they went outside Billy started giving the dogs some lessons, Billy knew that with just a little practice, they would be great hunting dogs.

Billy taught the dogs for a year. The day the hunting season started, Billy talked to his dogs, ate a good dinner, and started hunting. The dogs caught scent of a coon, they chased and chased the coon until they treed him. The dogs treed the coon in a huge sycamore tree. Billy cut the rest of the night. In the morning his parents came out and told him that he should stop cutting and that there is only one coon in the tree, but Billy didn’t listen, because he made a bargain with his dogs, the bargain was that if they treed a coon, he would do the rest. Later that day, Billy’s grandpa came over.

He told Billy to make a man out of leaves and sticks to keep the coon in the tree for a while so that Billy could rest. After Billy was done making it, he went inside, ate, and went to bed. The next morning, Little Anne was on the porch, but Old Dan wasn’t.

Billy knew where Old Dan would be, he would be at the tree with the coon. At first, Billy thought that just Old Dan slept there, but when he got to the tree, there was two little leaf beds, Little Anne had slept there too. Billy started cutting the tree again. When Billy was about to give up, a gust of wind blew the tree over. The coon jumped out of the tree and the dogs started chasing it. They caught it. The dogs soon became one of the best hunting dogs where Billy lives. One day when Billy went to his grandpa’s store and the Pritchard boys were there, Rubin and Rainie. They were bullies. They didn’t believe that Billy’s dogs so good, so they made a bet, the bet was that if Billy’s dog’s could caught the ghost coon, they would give him two dollars, if not, Billy would give them two dollars.

Billy hasn’t heard of the ghost coon, but the Pritchard boys said he was a real trickster. Billy was suppose to meet them at dawn. Billy got there early to have a talk with his dogs. When the Pritchard boys came, they started.

After just a little bit, the dogs caught scent of the ghost coon and chased him up a short tree. Rubin and
Rainie said that their dog Old Blue has chased the ghost coon up that tree many times, but he just disappears. Billy’s dogs didn’t want to give up, so they kept going. Little Anne was barking at a old fence rail, Billy went over to it, out of the side of the tree there was a long branch that stuck out, Billy was thinking that the coon jumped off of it and went into a hole in the fence rail. Billy was right! Then he heard the whining of the coon and decided he didn’t want to kill it. Rubin got mad and asked why, then jumped on Billy. Then Old Blue came and started a fight Old Dan, and then Little Anne came to help him.

Old Blue was about to be killed, so Rubin ran to go help him with an ax in his hand, but he tripped and fell on the blade of the ax. Rainie looked at Rubin for a second, and then ran off. Rubin was dead.

Since the Pritchards had a graveyard of their own, Rubin’s funeral was at as own house. Billy didn’t ever want to hunt again. One night Billy went to Rubin’s grave and put a flower on it, that made him feel a little better. One day Billy went to his grandpa’s store and his grandpa had good news. He said he had been tracking down who had brought the most coons in, and Billy won! That meant that Billy could go to the hunting championship that was in two days! Billy’s grandpa said they were leaving the next morning. Billy’s father said he would come to, and Billy’s youngest sister asked that if he wins the gold cup would he give it to her, Billy said he promised he would.

The next morning they said goodbye and were on their way. They had to stop so they could make a tent where they were sleeping that night because they wouldn’t make it there by dark. At night Billy thought he heard two owls hoot, the legend says the if you hear two owls hoot, it means bad luck, but Billy’s father and grandfather told him not to believe the legend.

The next day they got there and set up their tent at the campground. There was a contest for best looking dog, Billy decided to enter Little Anne. Billy used his grandpas brush so he could brush Little Anne’s hair, he put butter in it to make her hair shiny. When the contest started, the judges explained the rules. Soon it got down to the last two, Billy and another man. They looked at which one walked most proper, it was Little Anne, she had won the silver trophy! Then every body had to pick a card from a box that told them which night they would hunt on.

The judges said that on the first night the person with the most coons would not be eliminated, but the others would. If someone got more than the other person got, then that means the person who beat the other person would be in the lead. If there is a tie, then all the winners go against each other. When Billy picked his card, he got night four.

The three nights before Billy’s night, there was a lot of noise from everyone who was hunting. Billy started the next night, and after just a few minutes, Billy’s dogs caught scent of a coon. They chased and chased until they got it. Billy’s dogs have to get two more coons to tie the other two people and make it into the tie breaking hunt. At the end of Billy’s hunt Billy’s dogs had caught three coons, they did it! On the fifth night no one got three coons. The next night would be the tie breaker. Just a little after the tie breaking hunt started, Billy’s dogs found a coon and caught it. Soon a storm started to come in.

The other two hunters made it in the tent before the blizzard started, and one of them already caught three coons! Billy started to lose track of his dogs, Billy’s father said to just go back to camp, but Billy didn’t want to go without his dogs. Soon they found Little Anne, then she led them to Old Dan. Then they went under a tree for shelter, but then they realized that Billy’s grandpa wasn’t with them!

Little Anne found grandpa. It looked as if he broke or sprained his ankle. They brought him under the tree and built a fire. Then they thought they saw something in the tree, so they cut it down. Three coons came running out and the dogs went and chased after one. Billy decided to wait till the storm was over and then he would go look for his dogs. When the storm was over, they saw people looking for them. They built something to carry grandpa on. Then a man came running to them , he had something to show Billy.

He brought him to his dogs that were walking around a tree with a coon in it. The dogs had ice on their back and they didn’t stop walking around them tree because they knew that if they did they would freeze to death. When they got back they were going to hand out the reward to the person who got three coons, but everybody wanted Billy to have it, even the winner, so Billy got the gold cup and the cash pool!

When Billy got home he gave his youngest sister the gold cup and the older ones got the silver one to share, but at dinner they were fighting over it so they gave one of them a dollar, and then they stopped fighting. The next time Billy went hunting, his dogs found something pretty quick. It turns out it was a mountain lion! The mountain lion almost got Billy, but his dogs saved him. When the mountain lion was dead, Billy took his dogs back home to take care of the wounds, but Old Dan’s wounds were really bad, and the next morning, he was dead. Billy went to the top of a hill and buried him.

Little Anne wouldn’t eat and a few days later, she died of sadness. Billy was extremely sad. At dinner, Billy’s father said that since they have been wanting to move to the city if they had enough money, they were going to move because Billy won that cash pool. On the day they were going to leave, Billy went to the dog’s grave to say goodbye, and when he got there, there was a red fern growing between their graves! The legend says that where a red fern grows, that place is sacred forever. Billy showed his parents and they were amazed. They said, “Goodbye!” and then went back and started on their way. Billy knew that even though his dogs were dead, they would always be in his heart.