Johan is a poor Holland peasant and pleads for work for the sake of his motherless babe, but is refused, and in desperation and in a moment of melancholy places the baby boy adrift in an open boat, trusting to fate that some God-fearing and benevolent person would find and give the boy a home. He himself becomes a wanderer in the fields. He finds a purse, but too late. The wife of the bargeman of Bergen finds and gives the boy her home and love, she having no children, but four years later the stork visits the home and heaven blesses them with a baby girl. Fifteen years later the children are grown up and cherish more than a sister’s and brother’s love for each other. By chance, one day Johan meets the boy and recognizes him, buys an interest in the barge to be near him, saves his life when he has plunged into the water to rescue his supposed drunken father, the bargeman. His identity is made known and unbounded happiness rules the boy and girl, for they realize the bright world that has just opened to them.