Where the Red Fern Grows: Chapter 13 Summary & Analysis

Billy approaches the tree, a squat oak in the middle of a field. Billy walks once around the tree looking for the raccoon, but Rubin and Rainie insist it’s no use—the “ghost coon,” they declare, has already disappeared. Rainie urges Billy to pay up. Billy, however, insists on climbing the tree. From up in its branches Billy can see Little Ann sniffing around an old fence post a few yards off. Because his dogs are scenting elsewhere, Billy realizes that the raccoon is not in the tree after all. The boys urge Billy to pay up already. Billy insists on letting the dogs sniff a while longer. After several minutes, however, even Little Ann and Old Dan give up and return to Billy. Billy takes out the $2 and hands it over, congratulating the Pritchard boys on winning the bet.

A breeze rustles through the trees. Little Ann raises her head to sniff and she begins walking with purpose toward the tree. Watching her, Billy declares that he might not have lost his $2 after all. Little Ann tracks the scent to a fence post nearby. Billy approaches the post and he knocks on it—it is hollow. Billy picks up a switch, asks Rubin to give him a boost, and uses the switch the poke around inside the post from the top town. Soon, his switch catches on something soft, and the “ghost coon” scrambles out of the post right into Billy’s face.

As soon as the raccoon hits the ground, Little Ann and Old Dan are on him. The raccoon puts up a good fight, eventually scrabbling up into the oak tree. Billy climbs the tree to shake the raccoon out—but as he climbs out onto the limb where the raccoon is hiding and hears its nervous cries, he becomes emotional and he decides that he doesn’t want to kill the “ghost coon”—having caught up with it is enough. Billy climbs down and he tells Rubin and Rainie that he isn’t going to kill the raccoon. They call him “chicken-livered” and they warn him that if he doesn’t call his dogs on the raccoon right away, they’ll “beat [him] half to death. Billy refuses once again. The boys warn Billy that if his dogs don’t kill the raccoon, theirs will. The blue tick hound growls menacingly.

Billy asks for his money back and he declares that he wants to go home—he doesn’t want to stay and watch the raccoon die. Rubin becomes angry and he accuses Billy of going back on his bet. Billy reminds him that the bet only concerned treeing the raccoon—not killing it. Rainie begins calling for Rubin to beat Billy. Rubin grabs Billy and throws him to the ground. Just as Rubin is about to unleash a blow, Billy hears growling nearby. He turns to see Old Dan and the blue tick hound fighting. Rubin starts beating Billy anyway. Rainie, however, calls out in distress that Old Dan and Little Ann are “killing Old Blue.”

Rubin leaps off of Billy and seizes Billy’s ax. He roars that he will kill Old Dan and Little Ann before letting them kill his dog. As Rubin runs toward the dogfight, however, he trips on a stick and falls. Billy runs past him to break up the fight. Old Blue is alive but in bad shape, and Little Ann will not relinquish her jaws’ hold on his neck. Billy carefully pries her jaws apart and pulls her and Old Dan off to the side, calming them down.

Billy turns around to see Rainie staring down at Rubin in horror. As Billy moves closer to the Pritchard boys, Rainie starts screaming and he runs for the hills. Billy looks down and Rubin and he sees that Rubin fell on the ax—the sharp blade has lodged itself in Rubin’s stomach. Rubin quietly pleads with Billy to take the ax out of him. Through fear, shock, and nausea, Billy reaches down to remove the blade from Rubin’s stomach. Blood gushes from the wound. Rubin tries to push himself up but he fails—he dies within seconds. Billy grabs his dogs and he starts heading for home. He looks back one last time and he sees the eyes of the “ghost coon” shining in the tree above Rubin’s dead body.

Back at home, Billy wakes his parents and he tells them everything that’s happened. Mama begins crying and she wraps her arms around her “poor little boy.” Papa, however, stands up and gets dressed. He announces that he is going to tell Grandpa what’s happened, as Grandpa has the “authority to move the body.” He urges Billy to go alert the rest of their neighbors.

The next day is long, slow, and rainy. Papa doesn’t come home from the Pritchards’ until late in the afternoon. He reports that while the boys’ father took the news “pretty hard,” none of the women living at the Pritchards’ shed a single tear. Rainie, he says, is still in shock—he hasn’t said a word all day, and his parents are planning to take him into town to see a doctor. In a stern, tired voice, Papa warns Billy not to mess around with the Pritchards anymore.

Over the next several days, Billy is plagued by terrible guilt and nightmares. Billy asks Mama if there’s anything he can do to help, but she insists the Pritchards “don’t like to have outsiders interfere.” Nonetheless, Billy takes an old bouquet given to him by his sisters off the wall in his room and heads to the Pritchards’ place. Old Dan and Little Ann follow him dutifully through the hills. As Billy approaches the property, he can see that a fresh grave has been dug in the graveyard on the Pritchards’ land. As Billy quietly places the flowers on Rubin’s grave, he can hear the sounds of Old Blue howling inside the house.