Synopsis

Young Jamie loved a lassie and she loved him. His love was strong but his purse was weak, and so he went to sea to make his fortune with which to claim his lassie as his bride. The good ship "Ben Lomond" bore him away, and while he was on the seas the lassie's father had his arm broken, when the gypsies stole their cow and the mother of the lassie was taken sick. They were poor folk and the lassie was obliged to spin and weave, keep the house, care for her father and nurse her mother. "Auld Robin Grey," a friend of the family, generous and true, aids them in the time of their need and kindly bestows his beneficence whenever he can do so without pretension or obtrusion. He likes the father and the mother, but he loves the daughter. He asks her to marry him. Her parents favor good old Robin Grey, but the daughter still loves Jamie, and she cannot give heart and hand to another. Men must work and women must weep, but it seems the poor lassie must do both, for it is not long before there is great sorrow and excitement among the town folk. The ship "Ben Lomond" is announced as wrecked, with Jamie and all on board lost. They try to keep the news from Jenny, but bad news travels quickly, and despite Robin Grey's efforts to have the shock come to her as gently as possible she sees the bulletin posted on the outside of the ship chandler's and is supported from falling by her faithful friend Robin. Giving up her Jamie as gone to a watery grave, she is urged to marry Robin Grey, while her heart is at the bottom of the sea. Robin proves a good husband and she tries to be a good wife to him, although she does not love him. Like one from the dead Jamie escapes the wreck and comes back to claim Jennie's hand and heart. She can scarcely believe she sees aright, and she is not easily convinced that her Jamie is alive and talking to her, and when she does realize it she tells him she is the wife of "Auld Robin Grey," and he is a good man and she will do her best to be a faithful wife to him. Jamie and she kiss and then part from each other, to go their own ways as their consciences direct.