Howard Leland Hutchings, his father, Dr. William Hutchings, and his 5-year-old twin brothers, Raymond and Earl, make the trip from St. Louis across the Mississippi River to Dr. Hutchings' hometown of Grand Tower, Illinois, in a Ford Model T touring car.
Tilly and Old Dr. Hutchings
Noah and Aunt Delphine
Howard to spend his afternoons talking with Tilly, Noah's twin sister, and Old Dr. Hutchings's wife. Howard's visit is the frame story for Tilly's story, and Tilly takes over as narrator for most of the book in order to tell the story of the first year of the Civil War and how all the old people came to live in that house together
The Pruitt Family - 1861
Delphine Duval and Calinda, two teenagers from New Orleans