The story
“The Colonel, for many years, has lived in the past, reverencing the lost cause of the Confederacy and hating all Northerners. When his daughter, Rose, named for her mother, falls in love with a New England youth, he haughtily refuses his consent. Rose and John Hewins run away and are married. The years pass, and the Colonel steadfastly declines to become reconciled to his daughter. Eventually the old Southerner loses his property. Then his wife dies. But, with her last breath, the first Rose wins her husband’s promise that he will seek out their daughter and make peace with her. The old man goes North but is unable to find Rose. His money soon is spent. At last, wandering, cold, hungry and penniless in the snow, he is befriended by a little girl who takes him home to her mother. It is the third Rose who has found her grandfather. The Colonel’s declining days are happy. On the table in his room he keeps a vase containing three roses—one in full bloom, another half open and the third still a bud—to remind him of the three lives most dear to him.”
Summary from Reel Life · 8 May 1915
