Where the Red Fern Grows.

In Where the Red Fern Grows, Billy, the main character grew up in the Ozark Mountains on a little farm with his parents and three younger sisters. What Billy wants most in this world is a pair of coonhound dogs. He asks his parents for a pair of hunting hounds, but since the family is poor, all his father can offer him is a farm Collie from next door's Farm. Billy than becomes sick because he wants the dogs so bad. Then he decides to earn the dogs himself after finding a magazine with a section that advertised dogs for sale. The magazine was left behind by fisherman. On the bank where they fish, Billy makes a prayer to got to help him get his dogs. Billy does odd jobs and sells food and bait to the fishermen to earn money. After two years, he earns enough, and his grandfather orders the dogs. After traveling all the way to Tahlequah, Billy manages to get his pups and names them Old Dan and Little Ann after the two names he saw carved in a nearby tree.When hunting season comes, Billy is very excited and immediately starts out. His dogs rustle up a "coon", or raccoon and manage to chase it up the tallest tree in the forest, a sycamore. He knows that if he doesn't get the coon out of the tree his dogs won't trust him any more. He sets to work chopping down the tree. After a couple of days, the tree still hasn't fallen, and he is ready to give up. Billy then prays to God to help him bring down the tree. After this prayer, a strange wind blows the tree down without even rustling the branches of other nearby trees. His dogs get the raccoon and Billy decides that the wind was an act of God.
Billy goes out hunting almost every night. That winter, the price of coon skins is high due to a surge in popularity of their fur in the use of coats. He brings the skins to his Grandfather's store to be sold. Together, he and Old Dan and Little Ann perform some amazing feats hunting coons in the Ozarks and earn local fame. Then Grandpa enters Billy into a championship raccoon hunt, pitting Billy against grown men and the finest hounds in all the country. When they go hunting the first time, the pair of hounds tree three coons, qualifying them for the final round. During the final round, the pair tree one coon before a blizzard comes up. Billy, his father, Grandpa, and the judge lose track of the dogs. Finally, after half the night, they find them circling a tree in a hurry. Billy's father chops down the tree and three coons come running out. The dogs dispatch two of them, but the third gets away. They need one more coon to win the championship, but since the blizzard is still going on Billy does not want his dogs to chase the coon for fear of them freezing. However, against his wishes, the dogs chase the coon. Billy and the rest of the company wait out the blizzard . In the morning, the hunters discover the two dogs covered with ice unceasingly running around a tree. All the hunters help Billy melt the ice off his dogs. Then they watch as the trio take care of the last coon. Billy, Old Dan, and Little Ann win the hunt and receive the championship gold cup as well as a jackpot. With the money that Billy's hounds have earned, his parents have saved up enough for Billy's family to move to Tulsa, Oklahoma. This has been his mother's dream for a long time, since she wants the children to have a proper edjucation . He takes his hounds out one evening and encounters a mountain lion , which the hounds fight to protect Billy. Billy helps them by swinging his axe at the cat. Old Dan receives a gash across the stomach among other wounds. Old Dan dies from the severe injuries and loss of blood at their home. With her companion gone, Little Ann loses her will to live and she dies lying by his grave. Billy visits their grave one last time before he is about to go. When he sees the grave a sacred red fern grows over both their graves. It was said that only an angel could plant the seed of a red fern. The whole family is in awe of this rare and unique plant, and they carry the memory of the red fern with them to town. Billy never returns to the Ozarks but in his memories, he will always be with his dogs.