Story
A New England schoolteacher arrives in a small Southern town. He becomes the savior of several local people in time of emergency, including a young who is oppressed by the unwelcome romantic intentions of a local ne'er-do-well. The teacher pretends to marry the girl to fool the unwanted suitor, but then finds that the marriage was inadvertently legal....
Novel
Billy Milford, Harvard graduate, goes west to seek his fortune. In Addertown he secures a position as stationmaster of the L. & R. Railroad, but is forced out because of his drinking habits. He accidentally meets Gunhild, an emigrant Norwegian girl, as she arrives in Addertown to take up her home with Jan Hagsberg, the town's saloonkeeper. Seeking revenge on the railroad, Milford joins Jim Dorsey in a scheme to hold up the road's paymaster on his way to pay the employees of the company's mine.
