Physical Description: Red hair that is usually braided with ribbons from Mama’s rucksack. From far away Cornelia looked like a person with no intention but if you came up close you saw that her dreamer’s eyes had a mischievous gleam in them and her smiling mouth was in a determined line. Her hooked nose got her stares from the village children because it did not match the rest of her face, and made her look as mismatched as the patchwork coat of the miller.

Character Traits: Cornelia spent most of her time with the big Chestnut Mare that she called Mary. “That horse is too big for her,” quoted all of the stablemen. “She should get a pony,” said the villagers when they saw Cornelia riding Mary down the street. But Cornelia admired Mary, even if she was as stubborn as father with a bad toothache! Cornelia made friends easily. Most friendships that she had with the other village children were simply because she had helped them. For instance, she became friends with Katherina when Cornelia had fallen into a mud pit and Katherina helped her out of it. Katherina was the closest of her friends. Cornelia wants to be a blacksmith and ride horses in her free time.

Dislikes: family arguments, bullies, chicken soup, being cold when Pieter doesn't do his chores and makes Cornelia do it. When Pieter drones on and on and on about ships and sailboats (he wants to be a sailor when he grows up). When her clothes get ripped when she is horseback riding, because she has to ask her mom for needle and thread and has to mend them herself.

Likes: Mama braiding her hair, riding Mary down steep hills and feeling her stomach swoop, smelling the flowers in the garden of the nice lady next door, making headbands by twisting flowers together. When Mama asks her to bring her ground spices from the market, using the bellows from Papa's blacksmith shop, racing on horses with her best friend Katherina.