Broncho Billy's Gratitude (1912)

• 75%
• 1912
• Western
• Gilbert M. Anderson
• Gilbert M. Anderson
• Vedah Bertram
• Brinsley Shaw

Dan Hart, a worthless good-for-nothing, takes the wedding ring from his wife's finger to pawn, and spends the money for drink, leaving a note saying he has given up all claim to her as his wife. Mrs. Hart takes her little girl and leaves for the west. A year later she is a school-teacher in Montana and happy in her new work. One evening she is washing the supper dishes when Broncho Billy, wounded and seeking concealment from the sheriff's posse, who are hunting him down for outlawry, staggers into the kitchen. Pitying him, Mrs. Hart bandages his wounded arm, gives him supper and protection for the night. Broncho and the little child are soon fast friends, and the "kid," as he calls her, romps with him until bedtime. Next morning Mrs. Hart leaves for the schoolhouse, with the little one, and Broncho, his heart full of gratitude for her kindness, starts down the trail. That afternoon Mrs. Hart is astonished when Dan. her husband, turns up at the house and demands that she return to him. She refuses and he forcibly takes the child and escapes down the trail, where he boards the stage-coach. An hour later Broncho holds up the stage and recognizes the child and Broncho forces him to release her, then allows the stage to go, unmolested. Outside the house Broncho stops, writes a note and sends the tot in to her mother. A moment later he is surrounded by the sheriff's posse and is led away to jail. Overjoyed at her baby's return, Mrs. Hart reads the note, which says Broncho is coming back to look for her some day and to kiss the "kid" for him. With a prayer in her heart, she resolves to wait for him.