- Peter Van Horn and his wife, while making a trip on horseback, are killed by accident and a highwayman decides to impersonate Peter. Because Hulda, Peter's little daughter, smiles at him, the highwayman's heart is softened and Instead of putting her out of the way, he takes her to a roadside inn and leaves her in the care of the mercenary innkeeper and his shrewish wife. He then goes to Rotterdam to pose as the heir to the Van Horn estates. Five years later Hulda is very unhappy. The innkeeper and his wife have made a little drudge out of her. She is dressed in rags, made to work hard and frequently beaten. One day Hulda goes to the spring for water. Frightened by a flock of geese, she drops her heavy pitcher and it breaks. Hans, the goose tender, comes to her aid and promises to protect her from the ferocious monsters. Hulda forgets her troubles and she and Hans go dancing to the spring hand in hand. Just as Hulda and Hans have discovered that Hans is a fairy prince and is going to carry Hulda away some day on a beautiful white horse, the innkeeper's wife comes upon them. She drags Hulda away from her little playmate and whips her severely. A blind old botanist hears the child's cries and interrupts the woman at her cruel occupation. He gives her money and takes Hulda to his own home. Meanwhile the highwayman, assuming Peter Van Horn's name, has prospered greatly in Holland. Repentant and anxious to atone for his crimes, he sends word to the innkeeper that he is coming to America to get the little girl. On the way across his ship is wrecked and the usurper doomed, but not before he has written a full confession and sealed it in a bottle. Hans, disconsolate because his little playmate has gone away, is sitting on the seashore writing "Hulda" in the sand, when the bottle is washed up at his feet. He reads the confession and takes it to the burgomaster. Then the burgomaster and Hans hurry to the botanist's home just in time to save Hulda from the villainous innkeeper. Hulda is proclaimed the heiress of the Van Horn fortune and the old botanist is appointed her guardian. Then, to make Hulda happy, the old botanist adopts Hans and everything ends as it should.—Moving Picture World synopsis
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