The young son of Kenneth and Mildred Rattner, growing up fatherless in an ancient log house near Red Branch. Resourceful and self-reliant, he traps muskrats, hunts hawks for bounty, and roams the countryside day and night. He forms a deep bond with Marion Sylder after rescuing him from a wrecked car, not knowing that Sylder killed his father. His mother has made him swear to find the man who took his daddy away.