Billy was walking home one day when there was a dog fight in the ally and he went to investigate to see what was going on and there was a bunch of dog's beating up on one dog so he decided to get involved and break it up. They all scattered away when they saw him coming. The dog that was getting beat up on was lying on the ground in what looked like a lot of pain. He rushed over and noticed he was a beautiful hound dog. He also noticed that he wasn't hurt that bad, just scared. This hound dog reminded him of his hounds that he had had when he was just a boy. Billy was very happy the dog had come through town, because he had stirred up a lot good memories for Billy.
When Billy was a boy he had a major addiction to wanting a pair of hound dogs.
Dog Looking at and Listening to a Phonograph, "His...
Billy
User BillyHowever, as much as he wanted a pair of hounds he did not receive them. Every now and then he would hear the neighboring dogs calling treed to their masters, and their masters whooping back to them to tell the hound that they were on the way. This encouraged Billy to wanting a hound more. His dad told him one day that his grandpa wanted to see him as soon as possible. Once he got to his grandfather, his grandfather told him that he had seen an ad in the newspaper for some hound dog pups. That's when Billy finally had decided to do something about this "not having a pair of hound dogs" problem. So he went and got an old tin can and started putting money in it that he made from working in the fields.
Over the next year he had saved up enough money to buy his hound dog pups. He hiked over the mountains to the nearest town post office because that's where his dogs where going to be until he picked them up. He got to the post office and put them in a potato sack bag and headed for home. His grandpa had given him a coon trap so he could train his dogs. He named his dogs Old Dan and Little Anne. They made a great set. By the time hunting season had come he had his dogs trained and ready to go. The first night they treed their first ringtail coon. He skinned the coon and took it to his grandfather for money. He gave the money to his father.
After about a year or so his dogs had become very good at hunting. The neighboring kids thought that their dogs were the best dogs in the whole world. He told them that his dogs could catch any coon that his dogs got sent of. So they challenged him thinking that they were going to get five dollars out of him. They told him about a very old smart coon, they said that he has fooled the smartest dogs out there. Billy knew that his dogs could catch him. The neighbor's dog and Billy's dogs got in a fight and when one of the neighbor kids tried to stop the fight with an ax but in the process of running with an ax he tripped and fell on the ax and died.
After the big incident Billy's grandfather thought that he needed to move on with life so he entered him in a dog hunting contest. They packed ( Billy, his grandfather, and father) and left the next morning. When they got there Little Anne won a Beauty contest. They were entered into the finals. When it was their night to hunt against one of the finest dogs they were very nervous. They ended up hunting in a blizzard. They caught three coons and won the gold cup. A couple of nights after they got home Billy decided to take his dogs hunting. Old Dan treed a Bobcat which scared Billy a lot. The bobcat jumped the tree and started fighting with Old Dan. Little Anne jumped in right away hoping to save Old Dan's life. They fought for about ten minutes when Billy decided to get involved. He threw his ax at the bobcat. Still fighting with an ax in its and two dogs on its side it did not give up until his last breath of air. After all the fight was over Billy had to carry Old Dan home because he so badly cut up he couldn't walk. Billy's parents tried to mend him up as much as they could but that didn't much for he died the next day. A few days later Little Anne died of sadness for her partner in hunting and brother had died. He buried them next to each other. About a year later they had saved up enough money to move to town to get a good education he went to say his last goodbye to his dogs when he realized a red fern had grown over them. There is a legend about the red fern it is "that only an angel could plant the seeds of a red fern, and that spot was sacred."
Dan in the hat!
Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel)
Walk a Little Straighter