Booze Marcy, a drunken, brutal prospector, failing to find gold in the Arizona desert, decides to turn north and head for Nevada, the so-called land of gold. His frail but patient wife and baby boy are packed into the prairie schooner and the journey is started. Booze's brutality becomes worse as the days pass, and soon his wife dies, leaving little Joe to the mercy of his drunken father. After a crude burial they resume the journey northward. They come upon a party of renegade Indians, and Booze decides to leave the boy with them. He effects a trade and little Joe becomes the property of the tribe, while Booze goes on in his search for gold. Tonoma, an old squaw, takes a fancy to the child and befriends him. Two years pass by. Little Joe is generally disliked by the tribe and is forced to endure many hardships. Finally he runs away. Wandering to the river bottom, he is found by Larry Tompkins, a big-hearted miner. Tompkins hears the boy's story and buys him from the tribe. Seeing old Tonoma's affection for the child, he makes another trade for the squaw, and the three start on the long trail northward to Larry's mine. Time passes on, Larry feels happy in his responsibility, and his hitherto rough shack takes on the air of a well-cared-for home. By coincidence Booze Marcy calls at the shack one day in an effort to secure Larry's mine. Larry refuses to sell his valuable possession. Marcy notices the boy and squaw and recognizes his son, little Joe. Failing to secure the mine, Marcy secures an order from the court, which gives him possession of his child. This action almost breaks poor Larry's heart, for he has grown to love the boy. Booze again starts in his brutal abuse toward the child. Big-hearted Larry cannot stand for this and rather than leave the child to the mercy of his degenerate father, he gives Booze a quit-claim deed to his mine and takes little Joe forever unto himself. Written by Moving Picture World synopsis

• Plot Summary

• Drama
• Short
• Western