An older man on his way home breaks up a dogfight and discovers a courageous redbone hound that has been jumped by several other dogs. Taking the hound home to feed him and tend to his wounds, the man begins to reminisce about two redbone hounds that he recalls from more than fifty years ago. As he speaks, he takes down from his mantel a gold cup and a silver cup and settles by the fire to relate his story.

Ten-year-old Billy lives in the Ozarks of Oklahoma, the finest hunting country in the land. Billy longs for a pair of coonhounds, but he must settle for the three traps his father brings him. Trapping soon loses its excitement, though, and Billy cannot get the hounds out of his mind. Over the next two years Billy saves $50, having read in a magazine ad that a pair...