Rainbow Valley characters

First appears in chapter 2

Mistress of Ingleside, home again at Glen St. Mary after three months abroad with Gilbert. Her children are growing up and need her less, and she watches the doings of the Glen, and of the new minister's family in particular, with sympathy rather than interference. She is content and no longer at the centre of her own story.

Appears from the start

The Ingleside housekeeper, devoted to the Blythes and to their standing in the Glen, an authority on every family in the district and a reliable source of the news, the gossip, and the moral verdict that goes with it.

Appears from the start

Once Miss Cornelia Bryant of Four Winds, now married and living at the Glen, still capable, still blunt, and still convinced that men are a trial. She takes a practical interest in the neglected manse family and does more for them than the whole congregation put together.

First appears in chapter 2

The eldest Blythe boy, red-haired, energetic, and full of plans, who leads the children's expeditions and intends to be a soldier or an explorer or whatever else the week suggests.

First appears in chapter 2

The second Blythe boy, beautiful and dreamy, who writes verses, loves words and the look of the world, and shrinks from ugliness and violence. The other boys of the Glen think him soft; his own family know that he sees and feels more than the rest of them.

First appears in chapter 2

One of the Blythe twins, dark-eyed and serious, close to Faith and Una Meredith and inclined to take the manse children's troubles as her own.

First appears in chapter 2

Nan's twin, red-haired and quick-tempered, Jem's usual companion in the games and expeditions of Rainbow Valley.

First appears in chapter 2

The youngest Blythe, a small, pretty girl who lisps, minds her clothes, and dislikes being laughed at, tagging after the older children in the valley.

First appears in chapter 2

The new Presbyterian minister at Glen St. Mary, a widower with four children, scholarly, unworldly, and so absorbed in his books and his sermons that he does not notice the state of his house or the behaviour of his family. He is beloved in the pulpit and helpless everywhere else.

First appears in chapter 3

The eldest Meredith child, a sensible, self-appointed leader of his brother and sisters, quick to see when they have gone too far and equally quick to have gone there with them.

First appears in chapter 3

The elder Meredith daughter, warm-hearted, fearless, and entirely without discretion, who acts on impulse and cannot understand why the Glen is scandalized by things that seemed perfectly reasonable at the time. She is fiercely proud of her father.

First appears in chapter 3

The younger Meredith daughter, quiet, anxious, and easily hurt, who worries about her father and her family's reputation and keeps her thoughts to herself. She is the one who notices when other people are unhappy.

First appears in chapter 3

The youngest Meredith, a boy with his mother's blue eyes who collects insects, frogs, and snakes and keeps them about his person, to the horror of the congregation.

First appears in chapter 4

The Merediths' elderly housekeeper, half blind and nearly deaf, who nursed their father as a baby and will let no one else near the kitchen. Her cooking and her housekeeping are equally bad, and Mr. Meredith will not hear of dismissing her.

First appears in chapter 6

A half-starved runaway girl of about twelve found hiding in an abandoned barn, sharp-tongued, worldly, and free with information the manse children have never heard before. She has been passed from one hard household to another and has learned to look out for herself.

First appears in chapter 12

One of two sisters living at a house up the hill above the harbour, a gentle, fair woman no longer young, who keeps house with her elder sister and is well liked in the Glen. She and the minister fall into conversation one evening and find they suit each other.

First appears in chapter 12

Rosemary's elder sister, dark, heavy-browed, and dominant, devoted to Rosemary and determined that the two of them shall never be parted.

First appears in chapter 26

A loud, red-bearded, prosperous farmer of the district, famous for his temper, his opinions, and his long absence from church, who says whatever comes into his head at whatever volume it arrives.