The story
The young farmer’s wife had one trial, her husband’s father. He was old and peevish, and so wracked and crippled by illness that he could not walk a step. The woman declared that something must be done and on numerous occasions pleaded with her husband to send the old man to the poor house. The farmer long resisted, but at last he yielded and the woman drove away triumphantly, to make arrangements at the alms house. The old man knew what was contemplated. Helpless and friendless he sat in his chair, and prayed for death. Who could blame him? His wife [sic; should be daughter-in-law], as has been stated, was on her way to the alms house. The old man’s son was at work in the fields, and the invalid was alone in the house, except for the tiny grandchild, who was slumbering peacefully in the adjoining room. The outer door was open, and through it crept a venomous snake. It paid no attention to the old man, but squirmed and wriggled its way into the inner room where the baby was slumbering.
The invalid loved the child, but he was powerless to aid him. He was a quick-witted man, however, and discovered a way to send out the alarm. The farmer’s pet dog came in the house, and the invalid, writing a note, attached it to the dog’s collar, then sent him out to find his master. The warning reached the farmer just in time, and he saved his baby son, just as the wife arrived with an attendant from the alms house detailed to remove the old man there. When the woman found out what had happened during her absence she was conscience stricken, and tenderly embracing the old man, told him that his home would always be with them, adding, ‘John and I can never forget that to you alone we owe the life of our little son.’ And the old man no longer prayed for death, because happiness had entered his life, which had long been one of sickness and sorrow.
Summary from The Moving Picture World · 14 June 1913
