The story begins in St. Louis where, as a young man, "Forty" failed in business and found that poverty had no attractions for his wife, who separated from him. In the quarrel that ensued, Dennison accidentally cut his little son's forehead and fled, not knowing how serious the injury was. He determined to hide his shame in the mining camps and the year drifted on leaving him a bit of flotsam on the shores of that vast human stream that surged through the mighty canyons of the Sierras. Lonely and sad, he had taken to his bosom a little waif of the diggings who had come from Heaven knows where, and she had nestled her little red head against his shoulder and brought him peace. Back in St. Louis a search had been instituted for a young lady who had sprung into interest through having become an heiress most unexpectedly. She had been stolen by gypsies, it was surmised, and taken west, and Col. James, the lawyer, sent his clerk, young Arthur Dennison who had taken his mother's name of Stanley to look for her. Tom Bradshaw, a fellow clerk, overhearing the Colonel's instructions to Arthur, changed the description given him, and getting to the ground first, married a girl he was sure was the heiress, only to find that poor little "Carrots," freckled and ragged, but good and true, was the missing child, that old "49" was Arthur's father, and had struck it rich at last in the claim he had worked for twenty years, and that his action brought happiness to everyone but himself. Written by Moving Picture World synopsis

• Plot Summary

• Short
• Western