The Runaway

The average youngster, who lives in a comfortable home with a father and mother ready to gratify every wish, is far differently situated from little boys whose home is an orphan asylum, where they are cared for with scores of others, and are promptly disciplined for any infraction of the rules. The authorities of some institutions are very kind to their young charges, but the superintendent of a certain little country orphanage was a very penurious man, and the children confided to his care were badly cared for and frequently punished when they did not deserve it. One of the children, a manly little boy, resented the harsh treatment he received and escaped from the asylum, A traveling peddler took a liking to the child and the boy became his companion on his wanderings. The boy was the grandson of a wealthy farmer, his mother having made an unfortunate marriage and left her parents' roof many years before. Soon alter the child disappeared from the asylum, the grandparents received word that their daughter, from whom they had never heard, had died and that her little son was in the country asylum. The grandparents hastened to the asylum, warmly thanked the superintendent for his care of the child and told him that they intended to reward him handsomely for the care of their grandson. The superintendent was avaricious. He knew that the old couple had never seen the boy, so he brought another of his little charges to them and persuaded the grandparents that he was their daughter's son. The rejoicing couple took the boy to their home. One day, the little "grandson" strayed away from the farmhouse and started to investigate the well. He leaned over too far and fell in. The child undoubtedly would have been drowned if a boy who was driving by on a peddler's wagon had not come to the rescue. He dropped down the well, lifted the dripping little boy from the water, and the farmer, who had arrived on the scene, turned the windlass until both children were drawn up to safety. The amazement and the joy of the grandparents was great when they found that the manly little stranger was their own grandchild. As for the other little fellow, they had learned to care for him so much that he became the other boy's little brother. Both boys lived happily on the farm and soon forgot that they had ever been inmates of an asylum. - IMDb