The story
“Martha, a country spinster, lives with her very pretty niece, Rose Marie. Their neighbor, Silas Miller, has a family reunion, and, in order to accommodate all the guests, he asks Martha and Rose to take in his hired man, Jim, overnight. They consent—but when they have gone to their room, Martha confesses to her niece that she is afraid of the hired man and intends to sit up. Rose laughs at her—but scarcely is she in bed before they begin to hear strange sounds on the other side of the partition. They soon conclude that Jim is rummaging the wardrobe, meaning to steal their belongings. Then from the kitchen below come still stranger sounds, stealthy and terrifying. The noises and the women’s fears increase. At last they can stand it no longer, and they flee the house. The fugitives arrive at the reunion with the bloodcurdling tale of Jim’s treachery. Silas, seeing his hired man running back down the road the women have recently taken, shoots at him. Meanwhile, Ben, the city nephew, has lost his heart to Rose Marie. He insists on escorting the ladies home. On their return they bravely break into the kitchen—to find the cat, plastered over with sticky fly paper, cavorting around the room in wild efforts to free herself. Everybody laughs heartily—but Ben solemnly declares that Rose Marie needs a protector, and that if she will have him, he will assume the responsibility of her safety for the rest of his days.”
Summary from Reel Life · 7 February 1914
