Ch. 1 notes

1. Ch. 1 notes • At the start of the story the narrator, Billy, leaves work on a beautiful spring day and sees a dogfight. • One old hound is fighting against 5 or 6 other dogs. Billy watches the fight for a short time and then decides to stop it. • The other dogs run off, leaving the old dog hiding under a hedge. Billy examines the injured, hungry dog and sees the name Buddie written on its collar. • Looking into the eyes of the dog makes Billy think of the time when he was a child. • He takes the dog home for some food and a bath. • Later that evening he opens his gate and lets the dog free. Billy returns to the house and looks at the two metal cups he keeps over the fire. The cups remind him again of his boyhood days.

2. CH. 2 Notes • Billy talks about the time when he was 10 years old and desired to have a puppy more than anything else in the world. He wanted two coon hound dogs but his parents couldn’t buy them. • Billy loves the place where he lives and spends many hours exploring the hills and forests. He is interested in animals and enjoys following their tracks. He also likes to catch little animals like rats and frogs. • His parents talk again about getting him a dog, but the ones he wants cost too much money. • Instead his father buys him some steel traps. At first the only thing that Billy catches in the traps was his own cat . Later, he catches other animals like rabbits and skunks. • Billy still wants a coon hound and his desire grows even stronger when every night he lies in his bed listening to the howls of another hunter's hound.

3. CH. 3 Notes • The next summer Billy starts helping his father on the farm, but he never forgets about wanting a dog. • One day while he is working he finds a sports magazine by the river. Looking through it he sees an ad of dogs for sale, including coon hound puppies at $25 each! • He decides to try and earn the money he needs by selling the animals and fish he catches or the fruit and nuts he finds in the forest. He puts the 23 cents he already has into a little can and gets to work. • He works all through that summer and the next one and finally has enough money to buy the two puppies. He goes to ask his grandfather to order them from the magazine. His grandfather promises to do this.

4. Ch. 4 Notes • Billy's grandfather says that he has ordered the dogs which have to be collected from Kentucky - a long way from Billy's home. • Billy finds it impossible to tell his parents about the dogs and decides one night to walk to Tahlequah to get them himself. He walks through the night and finally reaches town early the next morning. It is the first time he has been in such a big place and he feels a little frightened. • After buying some things for the rest of his family, he walks towards the depot where the dogs will be waiting. On the way he meets a group of children his age. They start laughing at him and calling him a hillbilly.

5. CH. 5 Notes • Billy collects the two dogs from the depot and goes home. He carries the dogs in a gunny sack with two holes cut out for their heads to look through. All the people in the town stop to look at him and laugh. • An older boy pulls the ear of one of his puppies. Billy and the boy start to fight; then other boys join in. Luckily for Billy a Marshall steps in to end the fighting. He buys Billy a drink and wishes him luck on his journey home. • The sack with the dogs gets heavier and heavier, and Billy stops in a cave by a stream to spend the night. Billy enjoys watching the puppies play before he falls asleep. He is woken by the screaming of a big cat, and spends the rest of the night protecting his puppies.

6. Ch. 6 Notes • Billy continues on his way home. When he stops in the afternoon, he decides on names for his dogs - Dan and Ann. • Finally he arrives home and his family welcome him. He gives them their presents and talks with his father about his experiences in the town. • Billy says he never wants to live in a town, but his father replies that they might move there one day. Next morning they make a doghouse and collars for the dogs.

7. Ch. 7 Notes • Next day Grandpa shows Billy how to make a trap to catch a raccoon. (Billy needs a raccoon skin so he can train his dogs in hunting them.) • Billy goes to the river and sets up his traps. A week later no raccoon has been caught in any of the traps and Billy begins to believe that Grandpa's idea was not a good one. But his father persuades him to go out and have another look, and indeed in the third trap is a raccoon. • Before he can stop them, Billy's dogs start to attack the raccoon. He pulls them away and runs back to the farm. • The next day, after skinning the raccoon that his father killed, Billy starts to train his dogs. At the end of the summer, the dogs are ready. The hunting season is just a few days away.

8. Ch. 8 Notes • The hunting season starts and Billy gets ready to take his dogs out into the hills and forests. His mother is worried about him but his father reassures her that Billy is old enough to look after himself. • Billy goes out with his dogs and soon they find a raccoon. They follow it across a river but then lose its trail. Just as he is getting ready to go back home, the dog Ann senses the raccoon and they all chase after it. The raccoon has to save itself by running up a huge tree. • Billy decides that cutting the tree down is the only way to get to the raccoon. He chops at it all night with his axe but is still not done by morning. His father comes and offers to continue cutting it down while Billy goes home for breakfast. Billy refuses the offer, saying that he can't break his promise to his dogs to get the coon. • His father goes home and sends Billy's sister to bring him some breakfast. Billy then continues working as the dogs watch

9. Ch. 9 Notes • He still hasn't finished chopping later that day when his grandfather arrives at the tree they make a scarecrow in order to stop the frightened raccoon from coming down the tree. • At dinner, Billy describes the hunt and his grandfather explains how the coon fooled him and the dogs. Grandfather says that Ann now understands the trick and will be a better hunting dog in future. • The next morning Billy discovers that Dan is not in the dog house but at the tree, where he has kept watch all night. • Billy continues chopping at the tree, although he is in pain all over his body. He prays for help and then suddenly a gust of wind blows the tree down. The coon runs off, but the dogs catch it and kill it. Billy and his dogs have caught their first coon. • Billy tells his father about the wind that brought the tree down and asks him whether he thinks God helped. Billy's father says that he'll have to decide for himself. Billy decides that he was helped.

10. Ch.10 notes • Billy and his dogs become very successful at catching raccoons. • Billy is not so interested in the money he makes and gives it to his father. • He enjoys taking the raccoon skins to his grandfather's store where all the other hunters are and he now has his own stories to tell. • Some of the hunters make fun of Ann, but Billy knows how good his dogs are. • One night while Ann is recovering from a cut on her foot, Billy tries to get Dan to hunt without her but Dan wants to go back home. • Dan is always getting into trouble while hunting. One night he disappears while trying to swim the river and Billy thinks that he has drowned. But Ann finds him and together with Billy they rescue him from under the ground where he has chased a raccoon. • On another evening Billy finds Dan standing on the branch of a tree high above the ground. Billy has to climb the tree and push Dan down through the hole in the tree. Billy has to fill the hole in the trunk with rocks to stop Dan from climbing up again.

11. CH. 1 1 notes • One night Ann gets into trouble. A blizzard has been blowing for several days and the temperature is very cold. They chase a raccoon to the river, which is half frozen. Dan jumps across the river, but Ann falls into the freezing water. • Billy is unable to think of a way to save her. She is losing her grip on the ice and seems sure to be carried away by the river and drown. • Once again Billy prays for God to help, and then has an idea when he hears his lantern fall. He makes a hook from the lantern handle and fixes it to a cane. He then walks into the icy river until he can reach far enough to catch Ann's collar with his hook and pull her to safety. • Billy builds a fire to warm Ann's frozen body, and they return home. Billy does not tell anyone about what happened so that his mother will not be worried enough to keep him from hunting. When he gets a cold, he explains only that he got his feet wet.

12. Chapter 12 notes • Billy's grandfather loves to boast about Billy and the dogs but this boasting leads to something terrible happening. • One day Billy meets two boys, Rubin and Rainie Pritchard, at his grandfather's store. No-one likes the Pritchard family and in the past Rainie has taunted Billy. • Rubin and Rainie talk badly of Billy's dogs and bet him that they can't catch an old and smart raccoon (ghost coon) that lives in their part of the country. Billy's grandfather is angry with the two boys and gives Billy two dollars to bet. • The next night Billy meets the boys at night. The dogs soon smell a coon a little way upriver and the hunt begins. After some time, the coon climbs hides in a riverbank. • The Pritchards want their money when the dogs can't seem to find the coon, but soon Ann senses the coon and chases it out of its hiding place. The coon surprises the boys by running straight towards them with the dogs following behind. The coon turns and runs upriver. The Pritchards are sure that it will get away and tell to Billy get his money out.

13. Chapter 13 notes • Dan is giving the bark that means the coon is up the tree but Ann is not barking, so Billy isn't sure if the coon really is in the tree. He climbs it twice but cannot see the animal, so he pays Rubin the two dollars. • Just then Ann smells the coon and goes up to a large gate post not far from the big tree. She then starts to bark. Billy finds out that the gate post is hollow, and when he pushes a stick into it, the raccoon runs out and climbs the tree again. Billy follows it, but somehow he doesn't want to kill the old coon. He tells the Pritchard boys but they say that to win the bet he must kill it. • Suddenly Old Blue, the Pritchard's huge hound, races up. Rubin won't give the two dollars back and throws Billy to the ground. Then everyone starts fighting - the boys and the dogs! • Rubin takes Billy's axe to kill Billy's dogs. Billy runs after him and Rubin trips over a stick and falls on the axe and is killed. • Billy runs home and tells the whole story to his parents. His father leaves for the Pritchards. He tells the family that the Pritchards will bury Rubin on their own land. • Later Billy tells his mother that he thinks it would be safer for him to carry a gun instead of an axe when he hunts, and that he plans to save money for one. She replies that he will not have a gun until he is 21.

14. Chapter 14 notes • Billy's grandfather asks Billy to tell him everything about Rubin's death. He says that Billy should to try to forget all about it and not feel guilty. • Then he talks about a championship coon hunt to be held soon. He has been working for a long time on a plan to enter Billy's dogs in the championship. The prize is a gold cup. At home, Billy tells the family about the plan. His mother tells Billy's father to go along. His sisters are sure the dogs can win, and the youngest sister asks for the gold cup when they do. Billy promises to give it to her. • Billy works for days to make sure his mother and sisters have enough food and firewood while he is away with his father. Then one morning he and his father set out for Grandfather's store. • Along the way, Billy tells his father that Ann is gun shy. When they arrive at the store, they find that his grandparents have prepared everything they need for the trip, and they set off.

15. Chapter 15 notes • After a day's travel, they camp for the night. Billy's grandfather notices how much the dog's are fond of each other. During the night Billy hears an owl cry and remembers the superstition that hearing more than one is bad luck. Later he hears a second cry and can't be sure whether it is the same owl. When he tells his father and grandfather, they tell him not to believe in superstitions. • The next day the 3 arrive at the campground. Billy has never seen so many people in one place, and feels proud when he hears someone saying that his hounds are "pretty good." • The first part of the competition is for the best-looking dog. Dan has many scars from fights with raccoons, so Billy decides to enter only Ann in the contest. She makes it to the final, and the crowd calls out, "Walk them." Ann does better than the other dog and the judge gives Billy a silver cup. • Billy then hears the rules for the hunting contest. His dogs will hunt on the fourth night. Five dogs qualify from the first 3 night's hunting, and now it is Ann and Dan's turn.

16. Chapter 16 notes • Billy, his father, his grandfather, and a judge begin hunting at sundown. Soon the dogs pick up the scent of a coon. The men can hear the dogs chasing it but can't catch up to them. They hear a loud roar and think that the dogs ran the coon right through the camp. The dogs quickly tree the coon. • Later, they catch a second raccoon, and then Dan smells a third one. They track it to a tree beside an old rail fence. Dan starts to bark but Ann does not. The men can see that the coon is not in the tree. • The sky is beginning to turn light gray, but the dogs will not give up. Ann suddenly starts to bark and Dan comes running. The judge is surprised that Ann was able to find it. So Billy has three skins. • No dogs qualify on the last night, which means that there are three teams in the finals - Billy's plus two others. Billy decides that the swamp where they caught their third coon is the best area to hunt. Ann quickly finds the first raccoon. It runs for the river and fights with the dogs. But eventually they kill it and set off to look for the next raccoon.

17. Chapter 17 notes • The sky turns dark and soon a blizzard starts, making hunting dangerous. The men want to go back but Billy pleads with them to keep following the dogs. Billy then has an idea and asks his father shoot the gun. Ann hears it and runs to them. She then leads them to the tree where Dan has treed a raccoon. • Suddenly, they notice that Billy's grandfather is missing. They soon find him - he was knocked unconscious when he fell over a tree. They go over to the tree where the dogs have got the coon and build a fire. Grandpa insists that they continue with the hunt. • Billy's father chops at the hollow tree until it is weak enough for him and the judge to push over. Three coons run out. Dan kills one, and Ann kills another, though she is hurt in the fight. The third runs away, chased by the dogs. • Billy warms the coon skins at the fire and uses them to ease the pain of his grandfather's foot.

18. Chapter 18 notes • Just before dawn they hear the men from the camp searching for them. They explain that the grandfather's horses broke loose when the storm began. • Twenty-five men have been searching all night. One of the men says that he has seen the two dogs, and they go with Billy and his father to find them. They build a fire and slowly warm up the dogs' bodies. Then they frighten the coon from the tree. It attacks Dan, but Ann kills it. • Billy is given the prize of more than three hundred dollars, and the crowd agrees that Billy's dogs are two of the finest hounds they have ever seen. Then he is given the gold cup, he decides to take it home instead of having it engraved. • Everyone at home is overjoyed to see them and they have a celebration dinner. That night Billy hears his mother and father talking about his grandfather's needing help around the store and decides that they must want him to help out there.

19. Chapter 19 notes • Billy goes back to hunting with his dogs. One night the dogs begin chasing an animal that they 3 three times. Each time it jumps down and runs away. Billy thinks it is a bobcat. When the dogs tree it a 4th time, we discover that it is in fact a mountain lion. • The lion jumps at Old Dan, and Ann joins in the fight. The lion starts to attack Billy, but the dogs protect him. Finally, as the dogs are biting into the lion, Billy has the chance to kill off the lion with his axe. Ann does not seem to have been too badly hurt in fight, but Dan is seriously injured. Billy treats his cuts. • Billy begins walking home, but he hasn't gone far when he hears a cry and realizes that Dan is not with them. Dan is very hurt and is in a bush. Billy picks Dan up and carries him home, where his mother tries to care for Dan. Billy tells the story of the fight with the lion and the dogs' courage. • Soon Dan dies. The others go to bed, but Billy stays up alone. He hears the sound of a dog outside and thinks that Dan has come back to life. But it is Ann, not Dan. The next day Billy buries Dan on the side of a hill. Two days after this Ann becomes ill and later Billy finds her dead on Dan's grave. • They have made enough money from selling coon skins to take the family out of the hills and into town so that the children can go to school. Billy's father thinks that God may have taken the dogs away so that Billy would be willing to go to town. The next day Billy buries Ann in the grave next to Dan.

20. Chapter 20 notes • The following spring the family leaves their farm. On the day of their move Billy climbs the hill to say good-bye to his dogs. He is astonished to find a red fern growing between their graves. • He remembers the Indian legend of the red fern, how an Indian boy and girl became lost in a blizzard and were frozen to death. When their bodies were found in the spring a red fern had grown up between them. Billy brings his parents to see the red fern. • Legend says only an angel can could plant the seeds of a red fern, and that they never died. Where one grew, that spot was sacred. • Billy says good-bye to the dogs knowing that he will never forget them. The family rides off. • Billy has never returned to the hills where he lived as a child, but some day he would like to. He would like to walk back into the hills and see the places of his childhood, and he would like to visit the graves of his dogs and see the red fern, which he is sure still grows there.