Billy Colman

We first meet Billy, the narrator and main character, as an older man, remembering his experience with a pair of redbone hounds. Then, as the story gets underway, we see him at the age of ten, running through the bottoms of the Oklahoma Ozarks and longing for a pair of hunting hounds. We watch Billy grow and develop through the age of fourteen, completing his rite of passage to manhood.

Billy is the oldest of the four Colman children and the only boy. He is a carefree boy who loves nature and his family. Billy has three younger sisters who do not spend much time with him, but all his actions toward them are kind and sensitive. He also seems to have a close relationship of mutual respect and affection with both of his parents as well as with his beloved grandfather.

What Billy wants more than...