Where the Red Fern Grows

Summary

Where the Red Fern Grows is narrated by Billy Colman, now a grown man in a town far from the Ozarks. Walking home from work one evening, he rescues an old redbone hound from a pack of town dogs, feeds it and lets it go home, and the encounter brings back the story of his boyhood. At ten Billy lives with his Mama, Papa and three younger sisters on a farm in the Cherokee country of the Oklahoma Ozarks, and he wants a pair of coon hounds more than anything. His parents cannot afford them. When he finds an advertisement for redbone pups in an old sporting magazine, he resolves to save the money himself, and for two years he sells fishing worms, crawfish, berries and vegetables to fishermen and to his Grandpa, who keeps the general store at the crossroads, until he has fifty dollars. Grandpa orders the pups from Kentucky. Too impatient to wait for a ride, Billy walks alone to the depot at Tahlequah, where townspeople and children laugh at the country boy, the kindly stationmaster helps him with his crate, and the marshal steps in when boys pick a fight. Camping in a cave on the way home, he hears a mountain lion scream and his pups answer it. He names them Old Dan, bold and strong, and Little Ann, small and clever, after names he finds carved on a tree. With Grandpa's help Billy catches a coon in a trap baited with something shiny, trains the dogs on its hide, and promises that if they tree a coon he will do the rest. Their first coon climbs the tallest sycamore on the river bottom, and Billy spends days chopping it down with blistered hands until, after he prays, a wind finishes the job. The dogs become famous. The bullying Pritchard brothers, Rubin and Rainie, bet that Old Dan and Little Ann cannot tree the ghost coon; they do, but Billy spares it. In the fight that follows, Rubin falls on Billy's axe and dies. Grandpa enters the dogs in a championship coon hunt; Little Ann wins the silver cup for looks, and in a terrible blizzard, with Grandpa lost for a time with a sprained ankle, the dogs win the gold cup and prize money. Not long after, the dogs fight a mountain lion to save Billy; Old Dan dies of his wounds and Little Ann, refusing food, dies on his grave. The prize money lets the family move to town so the children can go to school. On the last day Billy finds a red fern grown between the graves, which an old legend says only an angel can plant. Doubleday published the novel in 1961, after a shorter version ran in the Saturday Evening Post as The Hounds of Youth.

Top Lessons

• Work and patience

  Billy does not wait for someone to give him dogs. He earns them a few cents at a time over two years, and the long saving makes the pups more precious to him. The book shows that a desire held patiently and worked for can shape a boy's character.

• Keeping a promise

  Billy tells his pups that if they tree a coon he will do the rest. When the coon climbs the biggest sycamore in the bottoms, Papa and Grandpa tell him he could give up, but he chops for days until his hands are raw. A promise, even one made to dogs, binds him.

• Loyalty to the end

  Old Dan never leaves a trail and Little Ann never leaves Old Dan. When the mountain lion attacks, both dogs throw themselves at it to save Billy, and when Old Dan dies, Little Ann will not live without him. The dogs show a love that asks nothing back.

• Grief and comfort

  Billy is angry and heartbroken when his dogs die, and he cannot see why it had to happen. Papa suggests that God may have had a reason, and the red fern between the graves brings Billy peace. The book lets a young reader grieve fully and also find hope.

Verified Quotes

Medical Lens

The book's medical interest lies chiefly in grief. It gives young readers a full account of bereavement: Billy's shock and anger when Old Dan dies, his refusal of comfort, Little Ann's decline after her companion's death, which the book presents as an animal dying of sorrow, and the slow consolation of family, faith and the legend of the red fern. For a reader interested in childhood bereavement, the book is notable for letting the boy's grief run its course without hurrying him to comfort. Physical injury is described plainly for a children's book: Rubin Pritchard's death from a fall on an axe, Old Dan's fatal wounds from the mountain lion, Billy's blistered and bleeding hands from chopping the sycamore, the dogs' ice-coated coats and Grandpa's sprained ankle in the championship blizzard. There are no doctors in the story; injuries are treated at home by family with whatever is at hand.

• Chopping the big sycamore

  Billy chops for days until his hands are blistered and bleeding, refusing to quit on his promise to the dogs.

• The ghost coon and the Pritchards

  Rubin Pritchard trips while running with Billy's axe and is fatally wounded; Billy is left shaken by the death.

• The championship hunt

  In a blizzard Grandpa falls and sprains his ankle and is lost for a time; the dogs are found coated in ice and are thawed and rubbed by the fire.

• The mountain lion

  Old Dan is mortally wounded fighting the lion and dies; Little Ann refuses food and dies on his grave.

• Chapter 20

  Billy's grief is eased when the family finds the red fern between the graves and Papa and Mama speak of God's purposes.