Fourteen-year-old ""Did"", a city softie, is persuaded by sixteen-year-old Sparkle, tobacco-spitting toughle from the hills of Kentucky, to return home with him, in this warm likeable yarn of Kentucky mountain men and the possum hunting, fox hunting, trapping and running with the wonderful bound dogs which occupy much of the time. Exposed to this tough fibered existence Did accepts his new life eagerly, but finally recognizes his father's claim which he had ignored before. Perhaps a bit sentimental, but convincing and real.