The story
“Two children get into a boat, unobserved by their elders, and drift into the lake. Suddenly the boat capsizes and the two children hang on to the gunwale. One of the children is saved by its father, the other child assuring him that she will be safe until he returns. Returning with the child’s father, he finds that the little tot has slipped from the boat and is drowned. The loss of the child makes the two fathers enemies, and one of the men becomes ruined by a merciless step that has been taken. The daughter of the ruined man takes the matter into her own hands, and the lonely man and wealthy financier learn the lesson of forgiveness.”
Summary from The Bioscope · 20 March 1913
Another synopsis, from The Moving Picture World · 26 October 19121 min
“Helen Randall and Ruth Foster were little tots. The two children lived side by side on one of the fashionable streets in New York City. One day Helen and her parents were starting for the park when the little one suggested that they invite Ruth to go with them. The idea pleased them all, and as to Ruth, she was in an ecstasy of delight. She skipped down the steps into the Randalls’ automobile, and her father (a widower), watching her as the machine whizzed off, realized more than ever the little treasure he possessed. At the park the two children got into a boat unobserved by their elders and drifted into the lake. In total ignorance of their peril they frolicked about the flimsy craft until it suddenly capsized and two little figures were clinging to the gunwale. Randall swam out to the boat. Even his love for his child made him hesitate to take her to the shore first until the little Ruth assured him that she was safe, that she would stay on the boat until he returned. But when he returned, and with him her frightened father, the little form that they brought to land was still. The child had slipped from the boat and drowned while he brought his own child to safety. The loss of his little girl made Foster almost frantic, and he became as vindictive as an enemy to Randall as he had been a friend. A power in Wall Street, step by step he smashed the latter back in the merciless warfare of the street, until Randall, innocent of wrong though he was, stood on the brink of ruin. But when all hope was gone, when he had brought himself to looking upon a life of poverty with the resignation borne of necessity, his daughter took the matter into her own hands, and John Foster, the wealthy financier and lonely man, learned the lesson of forgiveness.”
