a named best friend, which causes several unfortunate events, but she is also quite loyal to her brothers and sisters. Her nickname is pronounced "Die", not "Dee". Shirley Blythe: Anne was very sick after giving birth to Shirley, so the Blythe housekeeper, Susan Baker, took care of him until Anne was well. Shirley calls Susan "Mother Susan", and goes to her to have his bruises kissed and his cuts washed. Shirley is quiet and doesn't like to be forced to talk, liking to play on his own. He is known as the little brown boy, because he has brown eyes, hair and skin. He is also seen as taking after Gilbert's father, John, in personality. Shirley was named for Anne's maiden name. Bertha Marilla "Rilla" Blythe: The youngest of the Ingleside children, Rilla is named after Anne's late birth mother Bertha and her deceased adoptive "mother" Marilla Cuthbert. She was born a roly-poly plump baby, and remained so until she was seven. She has red hair, like her mother and maternal grandmother, which later turns a ruddy-brown color, and hazel eyes like her father. Rilla is very proud, hates to be teased or to be classed with lower people. She has cherished a crush on Kenneth Ford since age six. Rilla has silly beliefs and ideas, and a fear of being unladylike. She has a lisp, which her mother believes she will grow out of. Later in her life, the lisp only comes back when Rilla is nervous. Rilla, in her teens, regrets being called by her silly childhood nicknames - Rilla or Spider - instead of her respectable and "dignified" first name, Bertha. Rilla seems the only of Mrs Doctor Blythe's flock that isn't ambitious, and her only intention is to have a good time. At the end of the last book of the series, however, Rilla matures into a good, accomplished young woman and loses her childish immature way of acting and thinking. The Manse children Gerald "Jerry" Meredith - Jerry is twelve in the beginning of the book and has his father's black hair and large black eyes, but in him they are flashing instead of dreamy. He has a great sense of self-judgment and is described as being very smart, 'the brightest of all the children in the Glen school'. He is good friends with Jem and Walter. He seems to have a crush on Nan.