Rough and Ready Tom Moran discovers an inebriated individual, Dick Baird who is getting the worst of a quelling fight against odds and rescues the under man. Baird is about all in as the result of his previous dissipation and this last brawl. He confesses to Norman that he has not been at home or seen his mother for fifteen years. He shows Tom the picture of his mother and sister which he carries in a locket that he has cherished through all of his wanderings. He has just written home saying that he will return on a visit, but it is too late; he is next day slugged to death by a robber, his last words to his friend being: "Don't let mother know". Tom Moran finds his way to Dick's home and falls in love with his sister. The mother is blind and thinks her own boy has come back to her. He is allowed to become a member of the family and bless her declining years.
May Johnson is the center of attraction for Rubeville farmer's sons and is especially sought after by Jim Hudson and Lucius Milker. Lucius has a bit the best of it in May's affections and Jim casts about for something to make his stock stronger. He reads, in one of the weekly papers, the ad of a correspondence school which guarantees to teach the wonderful art of hypnotism in thirty lessons. Jims pictures to himself the added advantage he would possess over his rival by the knowledge of this power, and starts of save up his money for the course. Meanwhile he is steadily losing ground with May while Lucius gains.