- Evelyn Carmichael, a poor widow aware that she is about to die, writes to her wealthy father-in-law Lord Carmichael, who had disowned his son years earlier, pleading that he rescue his granddaughter Geraldine, known as Jerry, from a life in the slums. Lord Carmichael, an avowed woman-hater since his wife disappeared years earlier with his brother, expects Jerry to be a boy and is appalled to find otherwise. However, the lord is won over by Jerry's sweetness, and when Jim Dawson, a neighbor of Jerry's from the tenements, arrives at Carnimore Castle with his daughter Sophia, whom he is trying to pass off as Jerry, the lord exposes them as impostors and then expels them from his castle. Meanwhile, Jerry has also won over the hearts of the servants, whom she is drilling into a play army. One day, while on an excursion into an unused tower of the castle, they discover a locked room in which reside two skeletons. A note near one of the skeletons explains that Lord Carmichael's wife and his brother had been exploring the tower when the lock sprung and trapped them, causing their deaths. Lord Carmichael, realizing that his wife didn't betray him, has his faith in women restored and makes Jerry mistress of the castle.—Pamela Short
- Geraldine Alicia Elizabeth Endelbury Carmichael is the seven-year-old daughter of Evelyn Carmichael, an English widow. To friends she is just Jerry for short. In the tenement live also the Dawsons, Grandma, Jim and his daughter, Sophia, who is Jerry's age. Jerry mails a letter addressed to Lord Carmichael in England for her mother. Exacting a promise from Jerry to take care of certain papers, Evelyn, fatigued by her losing fight against death, passes away. Jerry hides the papers behind a loose board in the room. Jim Dawson steals the rings from the dead woman's hands. When none of the neighbors want Jerry, she is taken to an orphanage, where she makes a friend of Billy, another unfortunate. In England, the crabbed old Lord Carmichael lives in solitary grandeur. He reads a letter from his daughter-in-law, Evelyn, in which she says his son is dead and she is dying, beseeching him to provide a rightful place in his household for his grandchild, and rightful heir. Lord Carmichael turns the letter over to his attorney, Thomas Bradford. He explains that for thirty years 'no woman has been permitted to cross his threshold because his wife disappeared on the same day that his older brother was missed, and he suspected them of infidelity. Bradford sails for America to bring Lord Carmichael's heir. Jerry and Billy run away from the orphanage to see a circus parade, and persuade Bill Snyder, owner, to take them in. Ransacking the Carmichael room, Jim Dawson finds the papers which Jerry secreted. Among them is Jerry's birth certificate, which shows that she is related to Lord Carmichael of Carinmore Castle, England. Jim rehearses Sophia, his daughter, in the art of being a lady, preparatory to presenting her to Lord Carmichael as his grandchild and heiress. Bradford traces Jerry to the circus, from which he takes her to Carinmore Castle. Lord Carmichael becomes furious. She is the first female to enter the threshold in thirty years. He had expected to find his heir a boy. Jerry loses no time in telling him that he is a nasty, cross old thing, but she wins over the hearts of the servants. Lord Carmichael consents to allow Jerry to remain, but she must wear boy's attire. On her grandfather's sixty-ninth birthday, Jerry gives a surprise party for him. Touched by her sweet thoughtfulness, he is won over in spite of himself. Among his gifts he finds a great doll, which Jerry purchased because she could find no dolls in the house, and a skipping rope. Jim Dawson arrives at Carinmore Castle, presenting Sophia as the grandchild of Carmichael, and heiress to Carinmore Castle. To substantiate his claim, he shows Evelyn's jewels and the papers he had found. While Bradford is questioning him, Lord Carinmore interviews Sophia. Frightened by his manner, Sophia forgets her oft-rehearsed part, and bungles Dawson's plans. When Jerry greets the newcomer as Sophia, Lord Carmichael is convinced that Dawson is an impostor. Through the intervention of Jerry the Dawsons are permitted to leave. Jerry has been drilling the servants of the house into an army. Deciding to fit up a watchtower, she has them take her to an unused tower of the Castle. It is a difficult matter to open the rusty lock, but when that is accomplished, and they enter the room, they find two skeletons. Examining the room, Lord Carmichael finds a faded sheet of paper under a pile of dust near one of the skeletons. He deciphers a message written by his wife thirty years ago, in which she says that his brother and she had been exploring the tower when the lock sprung to, and trapped them. Unable to make anybody hear them, they were both dying. Lord Carmichael realizes that his wife and his brother had been innocent of all wrong. As reparation for his months and years of bitterness. Lord Carmichael permits Jerry to assume girl's garments again. Decked out in her new finery, Jerry proposes that she can now be Lord Carmichael's little mother.
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