The Little Mother of Black Pine Trail - Production & Contact Info (original) (raw)

The "Little Mother," otherwise called Babbie, is a young widow, who bravely struggles to maintain herself and her six-year-old daughter, Marie. Just outside Babbie's cabin, leaning at a dangerous angle, stands a venerable black pine tree, ...See moreThe "Little Mother," otherwise called Babbie, is a young widow, who bravely struggles to maintain herself and her six-year-old daughter, Marie. Just outside Babbie's cabin, leaning at a dangerous angle, stands a venerable black pine tree, which since men first came to the north, has ever seemed on the point of falling. When Jim Stone begs Babbie to marry him, she laughingly dismisses him with a promise that she will be his wife when the black pine falls. One day Jim's younger brother, George, comes to the little mother's cabin to persecute her with his ignoble protestations. He is followed thither by his discarded love, Julia, a woman notorious in the camps. The latter arrives just in time to hear George's passionate declaration to Babbie. His words lash her primitive soul into a frenzy of jealousy. As Babbie raises a gun to ward off the insulter, the enraged Julia steals up behind her and blindfolding her, pulls the trigger. Stone falls dead and Julia flees. Babbie is immediately apprehended and although Jim tries to shield her in every way she is taken off to prison. She begs Jim to stay in her cabin and be a father to little Marie, for ere the black pine falls, she tells him, she will return. Christmas comes. The storm king rages. The black pine, loaded with its weight of snow and ice, totters and trembles under each renewed blast of the wind. Julia, tortured by remorse, comes to the cabin in Jim's absence, to kiss the child. Jim returns unexpectedly and the woman is forced to conceal herself in the loft. From her hiding place she witnesses a pathetic scene which makes her resolve to bring the little mother back to Baby Marie before that Christmas Day is over. How she accomplished this, how the black pine comes crashing down under its burden of years and ice, how Babbie and Jim are united, and how Julia expiates her sin, are all too good in the unfolding in the picture to be spoiled by anticipating them here. Written by Moving Picture World synopsis See less