Where the Red Fern Grows: Chapter 2  Summary & Analysis

At 10 years old, Billy Colman is struck out of nowhere by “that wonderful disease of puppy love”—seemingly overnight, he becomes consumed with longing for a pair of hunting hounds. Billy approaches his father one evening and he asks if he can have them, but his father ruefully explains that their family does not have enough money for such a purchase. Having failed to convince Papa, Billy goes to Mama—she, too, refuses him out of hand, telling Billy that he’s too young to be a hunter. Billy is devastated that despite living in the “finest hunting country in the world,” he is not allowed to have his own dogs.

Billy describes his family’s homestead: they live in the foothills at the base of the Ozarks in Northeastern Oklahoma. The homestead is on a plot of Cherokee land which was allotted to Billy’s mother due to “the Cherokee blood that flow[s] in her veins.” The land is fertile and rich, and Billy’s father runs a small farm just beyond their log house. Billy often spends his days exploring the countryside, familiarizing himself with game trails and animal tracks. He is most fascinated by raccoons—he loves their wily smarts and fastidiousness.

Billy’s “dog-wanting” becomes so intense that he starts moping around the house, “grieving” with each passing day and refusing to eat or play. One evening, Billy overhears Mama tell Papa that something needs to be done about Billy’s melancholy. Papa explains that he offered to buy Billy a mutt, but Billy only wants a specific breed of purebred hound—a pair will cost $75, an enormous sum of money to the Colman family. Overhearing his parents’ woes, Billy feels saddened by their money struggles. He goes to his father and he says that he will settle for a single hound. Papa looks at Billy sadly and he explains that times are hard—most of the farmers in the region have given up and have turned to the railroad to find work, and Papa may soon face the same fate. Billy goes to his room and he cries himself to sleep. 

The next day, Papa brings home three steel traps from the store. Billy is so excited he begins crying on the spot. The next morning, after a lesson from Papa, Billy gets to work setting traps—but he only manages to catch and enrage the family’s housecat, Samie. Billy’s sisters scream and cry as the cat struggles in the trap. Mama rushes over to help and she manages to get Samie free. As Samie skulks away, Mama declares that Samie has learned his lesson—but over the next several days, Samie gets caught in Billy’s traps many more times. Eventually, Samie runs away and he becomes an outdoor cat who only visits occasionally for food and milk. Billy feels guilty about scaring Samie off—but every time Samie visits home, Billy can’t help but notice how wild the cat has become.

Papa helps Billy trap opossums, skunks, rabbits, and squirrels in the cane fields beyond the house and he teaches Billy to skin them. In spite of Billy’s success trapping small game, Billy remains determined to catch himself a raccoon—but raccoons are too smart for Billy’s little traps, and Billy finds daily evidence of the tools and tricks they use to steal food from the traps without getting caught.

After a while, Billy begins longing for his hounds again when hunting season starts and he hears a hunter and his hound out in the mountains each night. The hunter’s whoops and the dog’s bawls are too much for poor Billy—he resumes begging his parents to buy him the dogs, but his requests are only met with his mother’s tears and his father’s sadness. In order to distract Billy from his longing, Papa tells Billy that he’s old enough to start working in the fields. Billy is excited—he feels he has “finally grown up to be a man.”