Hardy Collins is the main protagonist of the Western book Down the Long Hills by best-selling Western author Louis L'Amour. He is a 7-year-old boy who is responsible for his widowed father Scott's stallion Big Red and Betty Sue Powell (the "just past three" daughter of one of Scott's friends Andy Powell and his wife, both of whom died in the Indian massacre). Starting at the age of two, he had learned from his father how to survive in the wilderness, including how to make nails, and how to set traps... of course, it was from helping Indian boys that he had learned how to catch fish. He also carries a knife, especially to open cans.