Daughters of Poverty

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An old laborer is in charge of keeping the country roads in his district in good order. He lives in a cottage with his two daughters, Jane and Annie. Annie, the younger one, falls in love with Walter Hudson, the son of a wealthy manufacturer, who lives in the neighborhood. She has a meeting with her lover one day and is discovered by her father, who in a fit of furious rage drives her out of his cottage. He takes to drink, his work is neglected, and he is threatened with discharge unless he reforms at once and restores the roads to their original good condition. This angers him still more, and, knowing that his expelled daughter will pass along a certain road in an automobile with her lover, he places a tree across the path in order to wreck the machine and kill his daughter. The other daughter, Jane, observes her father's actions and endeavors to remove the tree. This she cannot do, so she stands in the way of the approaching motor car. The occupants do not see her until they are too near to stop and the poor girl is seriously injured by the machine. Her sister, Annie, is so terrified that she refuses to return to her lover's home and this has the effect of bringing him to the road laborer's cottage, where the young manufacturer formally demands Annie's hand in marriage. The father finally consents and all ends happily.