Before leaving work one afternoon I spotted a Redbone coonhound in a fight with the neighborhood dogs. I chase the other dogs away and I help the hound recover from its wounds. When the dog started to feel stronger again, I realize he must be set free. I knew that the hound will find its way home. This event makes me revisit my past. Because it reminds me of the two coonhounds I had taken care of when I was a boy in the Ozarks.
I use to lives on a farm. I wanted two good coonhounds very badly. But the thing was that Papa couldn’t afford them. So I decided to work hard, selling fruit and bait to fishermen, so eventually I would has enough money for my dogs. He gives the money to my grandfather, who ordered the dogs for me. I sneak off in the middle of the night to go to town and pick them up.
While in town the other children pick on me but I stood up for myself and I get help by the marshal. On my way home, me and my two pups sleep in a cave over night. Outside, they hear a mountain lion, and the pups bravely howl back. After that I decides to name them Old Dan and Little Ann. I can see that Old Dan is very brave, and that Little Ann is very smart.
Once home, I want to begin training them. I have to have a raccoon hidden to train them with my grandfather and use the fur to teach them how to trail a raccoon. During their training, the dogs' personalities become apparent. Old Dan is brave and stronger, while Little Ann is very intelligent. Both are very loyal to each other and to Billy.
On the first day of the hunting season, I take my dogs out for their very first hunt. I promise them if they tree a raccoon, I will do the rest. The dogs are very ready to chase their first raccoon in a large tree. "The Big Tree” it is one of the largest trees in the woods. As I tried to call my well-trained dogs off the hunt, they look at me sadly and I cut down the enormous tree to keep my promise an exhausting effort that takes me a few days of chopping and costs me blistered hands. In the end, when about to give up my effort, I do a short prayer for strength to continue. Mysteriously, a strong wind starts to blow and the tree comes crashing down. Old Dan and Little Ann take the raccoon down.
Me, Old Dan and Little Ann go out hunting almost every night. As months go by, I bring more fur into my grandfather's store than any other hunter, and the stories of my dogs spread throughout the Ozarks. Not long after earning local fame, two boys named Rubin and Rainie, of the Pritchard family, challenge me to a raccoon hunting contest. They said that no hound could ever chase the "ghost raccoon,” a raccoon that lives near the Pritchards' home. I try to ignore the challenge, but the Pritchards are mean, and start to talk about my grandfather. My grandfather grows furious and tells me to accept the challenge so that Old Dan and Little Ann can chase it.
A few weeks later, my grandfather enters me into a championship raccoon hunt. Putting me against experienced hunters and the finest hounds in all the country. Before the hunt started, I enter Little Ann into a contest for the best-looking hound, where she wins and is given the silver cup. On the fourth night of the hunt, Old Dan and Little Ann chase three coons, making it to the final round.
The sixth night, the dogs chase one raccoon before a blizzard hits. Me , my dad, and grandfather and the judge lose sight of the dogs. When we finally find them, my grandfather falls and sprain his ankle which prevents him from walking. They built a fire, and when my dad chops down a tree, three coons rise. The dogs take down two of them, and chase the final raccoon to another tree. In the morning, the hunters find out the two dogs covered with ice circling the bottom of a tree. This last coon wins them the championship, and the gold cup.
One night, after the hunt, Billy and his dogs chase a mountain lion, which attacks the dogs. Old Dan got seriously wounded, but holds off the animal long enough for Billy to get the killing blow. I rush my dog’s home, but Old Dan's wounds are severe and he dies a few hours later. Little Ann survives the attack, but I knew she was not going to live because she was very sad about old dans death and din t want to eat or do anything. But she does dies of depression a few days later by Old Dan's grave. I bury her next to Old Dan, to note on life not being fair. Thanks to the money earned from the sale of my raccoon furs as well as the dogs' winnings from the championship raccoon hunt the family can finally afford to move into town.
On the day that me and my family are to leave the farm to move to town, I visits his dogs' graves to say goodbye. There I see that a large plant has grown between the two hounds: a red fern. According to an old Indian legend, only an angel can plant a red fern. With this sign, Billy is finally able to recover from his loss. But I will always have that that memorie.
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