Sam Gribley

Sam Gribley is the main character and principal protagonist in the novel “On the Far Side of the Mountain” by Jean Craighead George. Sam lives with his sister, Alice, on Bitter Mountain on their family’s ancestral land, above the town of Delhi, New York, in the Catskill Mountains. Sam is about thirteen or fourteen years old, having come to the mountain at the age of twelve to live off the land. He succeeds wildly. His family tries to follow suit, but cannot make a living from the land, and so returns to New York City. Alice stays behind, which annoys Sam. She has been living with Sam for a year when the events of the novel begin.

Sam has a pet peregrine falcon named Frightful, which is confiscated by a man professing to be Leon Longbridge, the conservation officer. Sam is heartbroken, and ultimately explains what...