Silas Croft was a kindly old Englishman who had a farm in South Africa. With him resided his two nieces, whom he had taken from their drunken, worthless father when they were of a tender age.
Disregarding the sanctity of "Song Bird's" feelings, John Strong, a young surveyor in the pioneer forests of the west, makes love to the Indian maiden whenever he chances to meet her, until she longs and looks for his coming and going, and finds that he has made himself part of her life.
Veteran Warner and old gardener Burns vie for the hand of Widow Simpson, and the gardener steals the former's uniform and joins in the ranks of a parade, pursued by his rival.
Set in a tenement, a lonely confirmed bachelor occupies a room across the hall from a dour spinster. Children run amok in the hallways playing pranks on the two.
The boy Is a bachelor of thirty who by diligence and perseverance is on the road to success. The boy's success gains him introduction into fashionable and aristocratic circles.