What happens in Chapter 14 of Where the Red Fern Grows?
Chapter 14 focuses on Billy and his hounds, Old Dan and Little Ann, as they chase after a legendary raccoon known as the "ghost coon"—a clever old creature that has outsmarted every hunter in the area. The hunt kicks off with a buzz of excitement as the dogs quickly catch its scent, but the ghost coon lives up to its reputation by using every trick it knows: crossing water, backtracking, and climbing trees, only to jump away just before the dogs can catch up. Billy’s neighbors, including Rubin and Rainie Pritchard—two rough boys who have always questioned the dogs' skills—are there, having wagered Billy two dollars that Old Dan and Little Ann won't be able to tree the ghost coon. Eventually, the dogs do manage to tree the animal, proving Billy right. However, when Billy chooses not to kill the trapped coon, Rubin loses his temper. Amid the ensuing chaos, Rubin charges at Billy's hounds with an axe, stumbles, and falls onto the blade—a sudden, shocking accident that concludes the chapter with a sense of grief and horror. Billy finds himself alone in the dark woods, grappling with the weight of what has just occurred.
Analysis
Wilson Rawls constructs Chapter 14 as a tonal trap: it begins with a triumphant hunting scene and ends in tragedy, with the shift between the two nearly imperceptible until the axe falls. The ghost coon serves as a classic folklore motif—the elusive animal that tests a hunter's worth—but Rawls flips this idea by making the true threat human instead of wild. The Pritchard boys are sketched with sharp precision; their cruelty is subtle and recognizable, the kind that lurks behind a wager. Billy's decision not to kill the treed coon is a quiet moral turning point, a moment where his sensitivity pushes back against the macho reasoning of the hunt, and it's this very refusal that incites Rubin's violence. Rawls uses the darkness of the woods as both a literal backdrop and a source of psychological tension—the lantern light is narrow, the action abrupt, and Billy's understanding of what has transpired comes in pieces, reflecting a child's confrontation with irreversible loss. The axe, introduced as a tool of aggression, ultimately becomes a means of accidental self-destruction, a grim irony the text doesn't emphasize but allows the reader to sense. Old Dan and Little Ann remain steadfast throughout, their loyalty a quiet contrast to human unpredictability. The chapter's final image—Billy alone, the coon forgotten, the night vast—signals the novel's significant shift from boyhood adventure to elegy.
Key quotes from Chapter 14
“'I don't want to kill him,' I said. 'He's too smart and game. I just want to let him go.'”
Billy speaks to the Pritchard boys after Old Dan and Little Ann have successfully treed the ghost coon, his refusal to kill the animal igniting Rubin's rage.
“I heard a strange sound—a loud grunt—and then silence.”
Rawls renders Rubin's fatal fall with devastating understatement, the sparse description forcing the reader to absorb the horror at the same pace as Billy.
“I wanted to run, but my legs wouldn't move. I just stood and stared.”
Billy's paralysis in the aftermath of Rubin's death captures the novel's central tension between innocence and the violent realities of the world he is growing into.
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Create an accountSign inVocabulary in Chapter 14
- ghost coon
- A legendary raccoon in the local area that is said to be uncatchable, having outsmarted every hunter and dog that has ever tried to track it.