This anecdotal first person narrative emphasizes the power of positive thinking and selfless behavior, as it tells of a reverend and his wife who have resolved to cease complaining about their sufferings in their competitive battles with each other for sympathy. Folders 3 and 4 consist of the original 120 page typescript of Ghost Hound of Thunder Valley . The first nine chapters are contained in Folder 3, and chapters 10-18 are in folder 4. Included in Folder 3 is a separate list of character descriptions. While the characters struggle for land ownership and fox-hunting championships, the story also incorporates another tale about a puppy named Ghost who escapes drowning by Clint.
Ghost soon yearns to follow the call of the hunting horn.
The growing and hungry pup is adopted by Johnny and goes on to become a champion fox hound. The theme of good versus evil permeates nearly every facet of this tale, establishing clear-cut borders between the two forces throughout the story. There are clear definitions of chivalrous manhood as depicted through the wealthy landowner, Mr. Baker, as well as ideals of womanhood and motherhood which appear in the characters of the mother fox and Baker's granddaughter, Teena. Also, the author reinforces messages about man's connection with nature, rather than his destruction of it. In his rewrite of chapters 15 and 18, Autry changes the fate of Ghost's foster-parent foxes from that of death at the jaws of hunting dogs to that of escape on a log down the river.