Miranda

Miranda is the main character in the story; through most of it, she is nine years old, but the story concludes with the adult Miranda, perhaps nearing thirty, reflecting on her memories. She lives on the farm of her grandmother, now dead, with her father, Harry, her brother, Paul, and her older sister, Maria. Although her family once had money and social status, her grandmother had slighted her father Harry in her will, leaving them "in straits about money." Miranda thus has an awareness of both her family's grand past and their current difficulties; she has a "powerful social sense, which was like a fine set of antennae radiating from every pore of her skin." Lacking the guidance of a woman—either her mother or grandmother—Miranda's father dresses her in boys clothes: "dark blue overalls, a light blue shirt, a hired-man's straw hat, and thick...