Lonnie, and his friend Text, spend their days in the streams and woods of Mississippi poking sticks in doodlebug holes, looking for crawdad castles, and catching sweet stinker bugs for good luck, All the while they keenly observe Lonnie's father, Harve McNeil, train his champion bird dogs. After all they are born to it — boys and bird dogs grow up together. They're hunters. It's in their blood.

When one of the champion dogs has a litter of seven yelping, squirming pups, their dream comes true. They are given a dog of their own to raise and train. They bond instantly, beginning a journey of love and responsibility that hones their skills and challenges their characters. Yet the lineage of the dog is questionable and Lonnie's father wonders if the scrawny, wobbly-legged dog is a biscuit eater — an ornery dog that won't hunt anything except his own biscuits; an animal that may have to be destroyed.

After its publication in 1941, The Biscuit Eater rapidly became an American best-seller and was made into a film after the Second World War.