Samantha Parkington
Samantha has all the memories of her
experiences in her canon books, but lives in a parallel doll world where it is
always 1904, and peopled exclusively with dolls. Samantha and Julia are the heads of the
household at the Big House by the Park.
Samantha is Alpha Female, and Julia is Beta Female, and all the others
look to them for guidance and to keep the household running smoothly. Presumably, Grandmary and Admiral Bemis still
live in Mount Bedford, just south of Kisco Hills,
and Uncle Gard and Aunt Cornelia, and Bridget and Jenny live in New York City, but they do not have anything to do with the lives of the girls at
the Big House by the Park.
Julia is co-head with Samantha of the household at the Big
House by the Park. Julia does more work
than Samantha in the actual managing of the household; if Samantha is “Head of
State”, Julia is “Prime Minister.” She
introduced Samantha and the other girls to the teachings and tenets of the
Theosophical Society, and probably takes it the most seriously. She is accorded great respect by the others,
and has been called on from time to time to act as peacemaker.
Like Samantha,
Nellie remembers everything that happened to her in her canon books, but is
glad to be living with other girls in the Big House by the Park, and not have
to deal with the grown-ups who had been trying to run her life. She came later to the household and at first
had a hard time, since Samantha, her best friend and surrogate sister, had
established a strong bond of friendship with Julia. But after some adjustment, the three of them
get along fine, and there is no jealousy or rivalry between her and Julia over
Samantha. Nellie has made herself a
fixture of life in Kisco Hills, and is as welcome in the junk shop and
Donovan’s Saloon as she is in more respectable establishments.
Jane deLacey
Jane deLacey is an Elizabethan girl from 1594, the daughter of a great
lord, living at deLacey Hall, near the village of Poppets Revel, Warwickshire. Unhappy with her life there, she found
herself suddenly and unexpectedly supratemporally transmigrated to the Big
House by the Park. Warmly welcomed by Samantha, Julia, Nellie,
and the other girls who live there, she has had to learn about life in the
Twentieth Century, which hasn’t always been easy or fun. She has had to re-learn many things she had
assumed were true, has had to cope with living in the same house with a Roman
Catholic, Nellie, but has become best friends with Gila, the Jewish immigrant
girl. She is delighted to be living in
the Modern World and all the wonders it holds for her, and she has even been re-united with her beloved
doll, Nell. She is learning to speak colloquial modern
English, but hasn’t quite got the hang of it yet.
Gila Gali
Gila is from Lialkadorf, a small, poverty-stricken shtetl in Poland, and her family sent her to live in America so that she could have a
better life, free from starvation and the threat of pogroms. She was taken in by the girls in the Big
House by the Park, and made herself at home at once. She would keep kosher if she could, but is
just glad to have regular meals. She
spoke only Yiddish at first, and still has problems with English. She is best friends with Jane deLacey. As they were both from backgrounds very
different from the other girls, they bonded with each other, and spending so
much time together, developed their own private language, “Elizabyiddish.”
Leah Tolly
At
ten, Leah is the eldest of the girls who live in the Big House by the Park, and
as such, she knows more and has taken on the responsibility of teaching the
girls their lessons every day, and helping them with their schoolwork. She is the most bookish of the girls, and she
and Samantha spend a lot of time in the local public library. She can always be counted on to come up with
some interesting bit of trivia, or solve out perplexing conundrums. She is the closest companion of
Clarice, who, at eight, is the youngest of the girls. Leah looks after her in a big-sisterly kind
of way.
Clarice Berenguer
Clarice is only eight, and the youngest of the girls in the
Big House by the Park, and as she is so sweet and cute, she is made much of by
the other girls. She enjoys this
attention without becoming spoiled; she has the example of all the
even-tempered, fair, and sharing girls around her. She is the special pet of Leah, who looks
after her like a big sister.
Liesel Elizabeth Ott
Liesel Elizabeth is probably the most private of the girls
who live in the Big House by the Park. She holds herself apart from the other girls for the most part, but joins
in activities with them gladly and enthusiastically when asked to; she’s not
unfriendly. She sees herself as stylish,
though not fashionable. She is
particularly close with Savannah;
the two have a bond much deeper and affectionate than just best friends; they are as much in love as two nine-year-old girls can be. She comes up
with plans and ideas for the two of them, and Savannah goes along with them.
Savannah Comte-Heritage
Savannah
is proud of her French ancestry, so she
has learned to speak French, which she teaches to the other girls as part of
their home schooling. She is devoted to
her sweetheart, Liesel Elizabeth. Cautious as she is, she is willing to go along with Liesel
Elizabeth in just about anything, from paying calls on the neighbors on
Christmas Day, to treasure hunting in the Adirondacks.
Katherine Alyse Ashley
Katherine
Alyse lives to look good, she subscribes to The Delineator, La Mode Illustrée,
and several other fashion magazines; these represent the depth of her literary
pursuits. Tea parties, picnics, strolls
through the park, shopping for frocks and hats, these represent the major part
of her active pursuits. The other girls
could make fun of her, but she is the arbiter of taste and style for the
household, and acquires and cares for their communal wardrobe. The others are
very pleased to have little choice but to dress in high fashion; every girl
wants to look her best! Her best friend
is Mia Bella, and they share a similar passion for fashion.
Mia Bella Alexander
Mia Bella stopped by the Big House by the Park for a New
Year’s Day Visit, met Katherine Alyse, and decided to stay. The two of them share a love of the latest
fashions, and enable each other’s fashionable and trendy obsessions. Other than that, and her cute good looks, there’s
not much to the poor girl’s personality.
Bailey Battat
Bailey was sort of the odd-one-out among the girls at the Big
House by the Park, everyone’s second-best friend, although never ignored or made to feel left out by the others. But then her second cousin, Kelly Ann, came to stay and is now Bailey's best friend. Bailey is always there, ready to help out in any
way she can; making up a fourth for a hand of euchre, helping in the kitchen or
school room, quietly going about her daily chores unobtrusively. She and Kelly share a room with Jane deLacey, which can be
something of a challenge on occasion, but which she bears with a good will.
Kelly Ann Battat
Kelly is Bailey's second cousin, from Montreal, and came to visit for Thanksgiving and was offered the opportunity to stay and be Bailey's best friend. Kelly enthusiastically agreed. She is the thirteenth member of the family at the Big House, but she considers this to be magic rather than bad luck. She has an interest in ceremonial magic, and wants to start a sub-sub-splinter group of the Order of the Golden Dawn with some of the other girls.
