A Child of the Desert
Tom Manning, a young cattle man in Montana, while looking over the range with one of his men, sees in the valley below them the remains of a massacre. Riding down upon the overturned prairie schooner, they discover the dead bodies of a man and a woman. A little baby girl rises from the breast of its dead mother, and is cared for by the big hearted westerner. At dawn the following morning the child, picking prairie flowers, wanders away and is lost to Tom, who frantically scours the country for her to no avail. A freighter crossing the plains stops at a water hole to take on a supply of water. Leaving his schooner and oxen, the little orphan climbs in and falls asleep. Arriving at the destination, the freighter discovers the baby. He is a brutal man and raises the child only to stake her in a poker game against his financial losses. Manning, years later, comes upon the scene of action and himself takes a hand in the game, winning the girl. He takes her to his mother. Love dominates all and a happy ending gives to this story an unusual power.
