Elizabeth Miller

An irritable man meets a boy in the woods, and gets a change of attitude.

Joe est un marchand de journaux pauvre de New York qui vit avec sa grand-mère violente. Tout en vendant des journaux, il reçoit un billet pour une excursion pour enfants parrainée par le Fresh Air Fund. Le lendemain matin, Joe se faufile hors de son immeuble pour rejoindre l'excursion, où il voit la campagne et l'océan pour la première fois. Après un pique-nique, un adulte bénévole lit aux enfants un conte fantaisiste tiré d'un livre de contes, l'histoire d'un jeune prince battu par une vieille sorcière. Un groupe de fées sauve le garçon, l'emmène sur un bateau et part pour «la terre au-delà du coucher du soleil, où il vécut heureux pour toujours». Joe s'imagine être le garçon de l'histoire.

In the first scene we see a group of children at a window waiting for the arrival of their father. Following this we learn that the little family lacks a mother. The next scene brings us to a theater-box party. The father of the little family meets another woman. It soon becomes evident that he intends to marry again and at last he brings this other woman to the house. While he is present, she seems to be fond of the children, but once he is out of the room we see that her fondness is hardly skin-deep. Soon the mother's picture is removed from over the fireplace and evidently the new wedding will take place. Little Margaret, taking care of the children, finds them hard to amuse one day, and going up into the garret, finds some old clothes, in which they all dress. By chance she puts on the very costume which was used when her mother posed for the big portrait, now absent from its place over the mantel, and so it happens that when the father comes home at night.