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Get the Boy Synopsis

Willie O'Donovan, grandson of Cormack O'Donovan, a retired millionaire contractor, is regarded by his parents as more of a nuisance than an asset. Mr. O'Donovan, Willie's father, is actively engaged in business, while his wife is an enthusiastic aspirant for social recognition. The grandfather, coming to the O'Donovans' home for dinner, enters to find that he has interrupted a domestic row. The grandfather, disliking to have Willie brought up in such an atmosphere, persuades the parents to let him send the boy away to a boarding school. Willie arrives on the school grounds and is made miserable by Peters, one of the other boys. Peters is in love with Mary, a pretty country girl. Willie receives word from Baden Baden, where grandfather had gone for his health, announcing his death. The will he has left with his valet bequeaths his entire fortune to Willie, but naming the person with whom he is living on his eighteenth birthday as the custodian of the fortune until Willie has reached his majority. Willie's parents are overjoyed when they hear of the news. O'Donovan has been losing money rapidly in his business and finds Willie's fortune a necessity. Since the grandfather's departure for Europe they have entered suit for divorce which complicates matters. Each of them decides to beat the other to the possession of the boy before he reaches his eighteenth year. Each of them writes to him to come to them. Willie refuses to have anything to do with them, so each hires a detective to get him. Clews, the father's detective, captures him, but Willie succeeds in giving the detective the impression that he is not Willie. That night Clews breaks into the dormitory, and following directions given him by Willie, gets another boy whom he takes back to the city to the waiting father. Willie's father is enraged at the detective's mistake and orders him back to get the boy. Returning to the school grounds he and Ketchum, the rival detectives, are pitted against each other. But Willie is too clever for them, and evades the detectives each time they plan to get him. School ends and Willie goes to live at Mary's home in the country. But the villains still pursue him. While he and Mary are fishing, Clews manages to capture him and take him back to his waiting auto. Ketchum, however, in the meantime, has learned that Clews is ahead of him. He hurries to the village constable and enlists his aid, insisting that a kidnapping is about to be pulled off. And so, when Clews arrives at the machine he is met by the posse and is arrested. In the confusion, however, Ketchum gets Willie on board a train and starts with him for New York. Ten miles out of town Willie escapes. En route, he runs into a gang of hobos who take his money and clothes. Willie is then forced to hide his nakedness in a sack. O'Donovan gets Clews out of jail and they start for town when they see Willie returning in his sack. They give chase, but Willie beats them to the gardener's cottage, where he gets a suit of clothes and starts for the church where he is to meet Mary. They trail him there and capture him again. Willie, who is wearing the gardener's clothes, begs for permission to return to Mary's for his own clothes. They hurry there and are met at the house by Mrs. O'Donovan, Ketchum, Mary and her mother. When Mary's mother refuses to let either party take the boy without a warrant, they rush off to get said warrants from the town justice of the peace. While they are gone Willie escapes through the window and they return to find him gone. The next day Willie is eighteen, and since he is living with neither of them, the money is to go to charity. They go to the attorney's office to hear the settlement of the will. One minute before the appointed hour, in walks Mary and demands the money. The parents are indignant until she informs them that Willie is living with her. Mother is about to faint when in walks Willie and announces that they are married and on their way to Europe on a honeymoon. The parents make up and decide to forget the divorce.

The Opened Shutters Synopsis

When the story opens Sylvia Lacey has been left an orphan. Her shiftless father, Sam Lacey, of artistic, but weak nature, left her without money. Her mother had died ten years before. The girl writes to her only remaining relatives, an aunt, Miss Martha Lacey, and her mother's brother. In his youth the Judge, Calvin Trent, wanted to marry Miss Martha, but they quarreled. When Sylvia's letter arrives, announcing that she will be in Boston the next day, both uncle and aunt are nonplussed. Neither wants the responsibility. Miss Martha finally decides to go and the Judge sends his young partner, John Dunham, in his place. Miss Martha waits with the young lawyer in the hotel parlor. Plainly she speaks her mind to John about the inconveniences of the girl's coming. Sylvia is already in the room and hears. She promptly refuses any aid from either relatives. Miss Martha is sorry, but it is too late. Dunham, however, goes back to the girl and forces her to accept a loan (of judge's money.) Back in the village, Miss Martha and the Judge both remember a cousin of the Judge's who manages the Judge's main farm. "Thinkright" is sent for and his white hair and kindly eyes soon win the girl to visit him. "Thinkright" once loved Sylvia's mother and is naturally drawn toward the girl. As she and "Thinkright" reach the Mill Farm near Portland, she sees the deserted old Tide Mill with all its shutters closed. Imaginative, she says then and always after, that the old mill is sorrowing and only love can open the shutters. Edna Derwent, a rich Boston girl, who owns a cottage on a nearby island, is a friend and disciple of "Thinkright's." He has taught her to be patient with the false social life which means so much to her mother. Each summer she comes to Hawk Island with Miss Lacey as chaperon. Sylvia becomes jealous of Edna and all her beauty, charm and wealth. "Thinkright" stops this trend of thought in the girl and after several severe tussles, turns her thoughts into the right road. She struggles bravely. Her uncle, penitent, arrives and promptly falls in love with this niece he has never seen before. She forgives him. The next day Miss Lacey arrives at Hawk Island with Edna. This forgiveness is harder, but Sylvia, strong in her new right thinking, manages it. She is invited to the Derwent cottage for a visit. John Dunham, an old friend of Edna's, comes for a visit and his fancy is quickly taken with the imaginative Sylvia whom he rescued in Boston the month before. Sylvia has a strong talent for painting. She has done some things with pencil, but longs for paint. She has no money and is too proud to ask any of her relatives. In her heart she adores John Dunham, but has held herself coldly toward him because she thought that he and Edna were engaged. Suddenly she discovers that he loves her. In her embarrassment she drops her book of sketches and "Thinkright'' finds pieces of brown paper covered with drawings, all showing much power and talent. Edna leagues Judge Trent in a plan, and Sylvia learns that she is to have lessons in painting. The winter passes. Sylvia is making rapid strides in her profession under Edna's special wing in Boston. Summer comes and she goes to the Mill Farm again for a visit. Walking alone on the edge of the basin, she sees the shutters of the Tide Mill have opened and the windows are gleaming brightly. Just then John Dunham appears and asks her to go with him to the Tide Mill. It is open. The first floor is vacant and so is the second. He asks her to go clear to the top and there she finds a luxuriantly appointed artist's studio. "Love opened the shutters," says John, "I bought the Mill and furnished this for my bride." The old story is told and the shutters of life open wide for the girl who learned to think right.