It happens sometimes that a man whom a girl has rejected, and who remains unmarried because of his absorbing love for her, will fix his affection on her child,--she having married a more favored suitor and produced a family,--and will love that child as if it were his own. That happens to _Bigelow_. The son of his loved and lost idol is the light of his eyes and the joy of his heart. There is no labor that he will not do and no sacrifice that he will not make for the lad, of whom he ardently prophesies success and honor. The boy, _Robert_, has been intrusted with money, the property of the Grand Army veterans, and, instead of placing it in the bank, as directed to do, he has used it in speculation, and lost it. When the knowledge of that fault comes to the veteran he is, at first, stunned by it; then enraged; and then broken by the conflict between the sense of shame and the struggle of affection. He tries to thrash the boy with a horse-whip, but in that manifestation of wrath he fails: his cherished pet cannot have done wrong; has only erred through accident; can surely be redeemed; must, of course, make amends,--and all will be well. The case comes to trial, before a judge who, privately, is hostile to _Bigelow_, and measures are taken to insure conviction. The veteran offers to replace the money that has been taken by his ward,--supposing that the complaint will then be dismissed. That money he has obtained by sale of his personal effects, and also by means of a mortgage imposed on his farm. The old soldier makes an impassioned, pathetic appeal to the court, but the hostile magistrate cannot be appeased. _Robert_ is convicted and is sent to prison for one year. A little time passes, and _Robert’s_ sweetheart, the daughter of that malicious judge, leaves her father’s abode and seeks refuge with _Bigelow_ and the kind old woman who keeps house for him. _Robert_ is pardoned, at the intercession of the veteran’s military comrades, and he comes back, to his guardian and his love, on New Year’s Day.