A Favorite Fool

• Watchlist

Arling, ringmaster of a small wagon circus, abuses Polly and her seven children. Foy, a farmhand, sympathizes with her and she decides to quit her place as trapeze woman in the show and get other work. She sends her brood to the poorhouse, and Foy, ignorant of her flock, makes love to her and is accepted. She sends for the children and they arrive just as the ceremony is finished. As she proudly introduces them to their new father, Foy dashes out and drives away in the wagon which has brought the children. In his escape he crashes into the rig of a clown who is coming to tell Polly that she is the rightful owner of the circus. Mother and children reach the scene of the wreckage, and Foy is severely beaten up by his wife. She desists only when interrupted by the clown, who shows her the paper that proves her ownership of the show. In her joy she drops the paper and starts to kiss her children. Foy reads and then changes his attitude. The reunited family start to rejoin the circus. Back on the lot, Polly discovers that a farmer's wife has eloped with Arling, doing her act. She discharges both and in the argument that follows Foy takes all the burden of settlement and sends the other, except the farmer's wife, away. As he is trying to urge her to return to her husband that worthy appears and starts shooting. Foy's wife, thinking he is untrue to her, tries to cut off his retreat. Arling turns the lions into a cage in which Foy has taken refuge, just as the cyclone hits the tent and sends him sailing through the air in the cage with the lions. He finally reaches ground safely by using bunches of toy balloons which the cyclone blows his way. Back on earth, Arling gets the fate of a villain, and married couples agree to bury their differences.