Thomas Morris

Michael Morda, a young sculptor living in San Francisco, is madly in love with Elinor Hunter, and they plan to be married. When Elinor becomes jealous of Julie Stressman, an old friend of Michael's and one of his models, Michael reluctantly asks Julie not to visit him at his studio. They agree to meet only at the construction site where he is working on a sculpture for which Julie is modeling. When Elinor also shows up at the site, Julie leaves so as to avoid a confrontation, but she is killed by some falling materials. Julie's dying request is that Michael adopt her daughter Mitzi, whose father died years earlier. In order to prevent Mitzi from being taken to an orphanage, Michael lies and says he is her father. Elinor hears this, and without asking questions, leaves him and marries another man the same night.

A year after their former exploits, Tom Sawyer's puppy love of Becky Thatcher keeps him home while Huck Finn, chafing under "civilizing" influences like school and shoes, plans to run away. His scapegrace, abusive father intervenes; Tom and black Jim help him escape; and (departing from the novel) all three raft down the Mississippi, where they're joined by two likable rogues and meet pretty orphans Ella and Mary Jane. The latter may change Huck's mind about girls...