Mother

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The picture opens with a view of the sewing room in the Wetherill home. Ardath Wetherill is working, and her younger sister, Leonora, is chiefly engaged in conversation. William Howard Wetherill, eldest son, has married a stage person who is squeezing from him every dollar that may be exacted. Walter Thompson Wetherill, the next brother, has, without the knowledge of anyone concerned, become engaged to Elizabeth Terhune, sister of the wife who led the elder brother from the dear old home. The family has a small estate, jointly handled by Mother Wetherill and John Rufus Chase, an elderly lawyer, who has an apparent affection for the mother. James Bingham Wetherill and John Walton Wetherill, twins of typical small boy nature, make up the family. Harry Lake, a young man of high type, loves Ardath. Ardath tries to turn him over to her younger sister, not that she loves Lake any less, but that she loves the sister more. There is a humorous tangle over which girl Lake is to marry. He has kept his faith to the older girl, but the mother had been led to believe that when Lake asks for a personal interview he does it to ask for the hand of Leonora. What Lake really wants is to tell her that her eldest son, who has been employed by the bank of which Lake's father is head, had embezzled $10,000 to keep up the whims of the wife and that he has brought a note, with the mother's forged endorsement to the Arm to keep himself out of jail. The mother rises to the situation. She tells Lake that the signature is hers, fights the family lawyer over the proposition of making good on the declaration, irrespective of the fact that it threatens absolute poverty. She ultimately gets the girls to consent to a retrenchment program. She sustains the family honor effectually, shows her mother love, and engages herself with the task of getting rid of the possible daughter-in-law, who threatens to come into the circle. There is where Elizabeth Terhune comes into the story. The mother has the son bring in his intended wife, and she tells her that the family is poor; that the son has no expectance. She urges that the flashy damsel marry her son; she pictures her cooking and rearing his children, and then has the pleasure of seeing her little plan win, when she is denounced by the girl along with her son. The final scene shows the mother putting the two boys to bed. Master James and John Wetherill entertainingly read a dime novel until they hear her footsteps. Then they switch to the Bible and hide the novel. The home scene is perfectly familiar. It includes the return of the wayward older boys, which gives the mother back her entire flock, and leaves her watching a brood that is her only love and care.