The story
“Ruth lives with her miserly uncle, whose grocer threatens him with a lawsuit for failure to pay a bill of long standing. The uncle, Herman Long, has been thwarting the love affair between Ruth and the rural letter carrier—and he determines to use Fred in escaping his obligations to the grocer, and to break off any attachment between him and his niece, forever. He summons two witnesses and shows them an envelope addressed to the grocer, containing the sum demanded. Then, by a clever ruse, he exchanges this envelope for an empty one, which he gives to Fred for registration. When the grocer receives the empty envelope, and the thing is made public, evidence is against Fred—especially as it is known that he has recently bought an expensive ring. Ruth finds the duplicate envelope in her uncle’s wastepaperbasket—and, suspecting treachery, carries it to the Post Office. One of the witnesses recognizes this as the original envelope by a tobacco stain on it—the miser is cornered, and Fred is vindicated.”
Summary from Reel Life · 27 December 1913
