Life is just one thing after another for AI, the hard-working clerk in the grocery store. He waits on customers, settles disputes and "pinch-hits" as barber in the store's shop. He is busy waiting on customers when an inebriated gentleman comes in and demands attention. He asks whether Al has any dry herring, and when Al admits having some, he tells Al to give them a drink. Then he walks out, leaving Al amazed. In a few minutes the same customer enters again and wants to see some canned peaches. Al hands him a can but he insists upon seeing the can that forms the keystone of a big and wonderful looking pile of cans. Al takes this can out of the pile which falls in a wreck on the floor-and the customer then decides that it is the wrong brand. The village smart aleck enters and tries to mooch a few cookies out of a barrel. But Al has had experience with grocery store loungers before and fixes up a mousetrap which discourages the cookie-mooching habit. Then Al gets a note from his sweetie, saying that she has gone to the city and that he is to meet her there. On his trusty bicycle and accompanied by his pet monkey, Al starts for the city. The bicycle falls apart but Al continues his journey on one wheel. When he gets to the city he sits down to rest but unfortunately picks out a steel girder on its way to the top of a big skyscraper. When Al looks around again, he is surrounded by nothing but air and is a hundred feet up. He manages to keep on the girder until he can jump to a ledge, but his troubles have just started. They don't end until he finally falls off and lands on a truckload of mattress springs-and Al goes bouncing down the street.
—Press Sheet from Library of Congress