Where the Red Fern Grows – Inner-Spiration #1

“After the last shovel of dirt was patted in place, I sat down and let my mind drift back through the years. I thought of the old K. C. Baking Powder can, and the first time I saw my pups in the box at the depot. I thought of the fifty dollars, the nickels and dimes, and the fishermen and blackberry patches.

I looked at his grave and, with tears in my eyes, I voiced these words: “You were worth it, old friend, and a thousand times over.”

(Statue of Billy and his hounds, Old Dan and Little Ann, from Wilson Rawls’s novel, Where the Red Fern Grows).