Where the Red Fern Grows: Chapter 9 Summary & Analysis

By late evening, Billy is exhausted from chopping when he hears someone coming: it is Grandpa in his buggy. Grandpa asks how Billy’s doing, and Billy confesses that he’s about ready to give up. Grandpa, however, insists that Billy can’t give up—what he needs is some rest and some food. Billy, however, states that if he leaves the tree, the raccoon will escape. Grandpa reaches into his buggy and he pulls out the materials to make a scarecrow, explaining to Billy that the scarecrow will help keep the raccoon in the tree while Billy returns home to eat, sleep, and rest.

Together, Billy and his grandfather build and erect their scarecrow, laughing and talking all the while. Grandpa helps Billy and the dogs into the buggy and they all set off for home. On the way, Grandpa compliments Billy on his hard work on the tree. Back at the house, Mama greets Billy and she fawns over him. She has prepared one of his favorite dinners: chicken and dumplings. Over dinner, Billy and Grandpa continue talking about raccoon hunting and the various tricks raccoons pull to try and get hunting dogs off their trails. Grandpa reassures Billy that his dogs will soon enough learn how to handle any trick a raccoon throws their way. After dinner and a hot bath, Billy lets Mama cover him in liniment and then he falls into bed and he sleeps deeply through the night.

In the morning, Billy is stiff and tired, but Papa assures Billy that he’ll limber up as soon as he starts swinging his ax. Papa says that he heard a hound howling all night; Billy looks out the window and realizes that Old Dan isn’t in the doghouse. Billy declares that Old Dan must have returned to the sycamore in the middle of the night, determined not to let the raccoon get away. Billy grabs his things and hurries back out to the woods with Little Ann close behind, determined to prove to Old Dan that he’s just as committed to catching the raccoon as the dog is.

Back at the old sycamore, Billy notices that there are two small beds made of leaves. He realizes that Little Ann must have come out here to sleep beside Old Dan, then returned to fetch Billy at first light. Further moved by his dogs’ determination, Billy gets back to chopping. He limbers up soon enough—but as the day progresses, Billy begins developing blisters on his palms. He wraps them in rags, but his preventative measures are no use—the blisters burst and they cause Billy excruciating pain. By late afternoon, Billy realizes that he is in too much pain to keep going.

Billy kneels between his dogs and he prays, asking God to give him “the strength to finish the job.” As Billy stands, he hears a gust of wind approach. Billy watches as the wind tangles in the branches of the big sycamore and it starts to blow the tree over. Fascinated, Billy pulls his dogs out of the tree’s way and watches as it falls with a “cyclone roar.” Sure enough, as soon as the tree hits the ground, a large brown raccoon scrambles out of it. Billy sics Old Dan on the racoon, and Dan and Ann hurry after it.

Billy watches as Old Dan and Little Ann trap and kill the racoon in a “savage and brutal” manner,  tearing his flesh amidst his “dying squalls.” Billy feels a sadness in his heart as he retrieves the raccoon from his dogs—but at the same time, he is excited to have made his first kill. As Billy walks back through the woods, passing the large sycamore, he feels a sense of sorrow at the giant tree’s fall. He apologizes to the tree for his role in felling it.

As Billy arrives home, he sees that his whole family is waiting out on the porch for him. He holds up the raccoon triumphantly, and Papa offers to help him skin it out back in the smokehouse. As Billy and Papa work together on the skin, Billy asks if Papa noticed any gusts of wind earlier. Papa says he didn’t. Billy tells Papa about praying to God for the strength to fell the tree, and the sudden gust of wind that took it out. Billy asks Papa if God answered his prayer. Papa says it’s up to Billy to decide for himself. Billy quietly decides that he did, by some blessing, receive God’s help in felling the tree.