A father is greatly beloved by his two children and it is a bitter blow to them when they learn from their nurse that they are to have a stepmother. They decide to run away, leaving an affectionate note for their father, in which they explain that they don't want a "stepmother," so they have "runned away." They pack their toys together and make their home in a huge piano packing box. The father returning with his pretty young bride finds the note, and immediately starts a search for them. They come upon the packing box and the children reading "The Story of the Cruel Stepmother." The stepmother asks her husband to leave her alone with the children. They ask her if she is running away from a cruel stepmother too, to which she answers "Yes." Of course they take her into their confidence. The wife finds a better story in the same book, entitled "The Story of the Fairy Godmother," and it is while reading this to the little ones, that they fall asleep. The husband now returns with some men, and they carry the children asleep in the packing box, back to the garden of their home. Here he awakens them, after he has sent his wife to the house to be ready to receive her stepchildren. They do not like the idea of having to meet the stepmother, but the father persuades them, and gently takes them to the room. They are astonished to find it is the lady who read them the story of the "Fairy Godmother."