School Days on AllMovie

Corny as it may sound now, Gus Edwards' song "School Days" was once a popular sentimental hit. It inspired a vaudeville playlet, which in turn spawned this film. Orphan Speck Brown (14-year-old Wesley Barry) has been adopted by a Deacon (George Lessey), but the boy is a handful. He plays hooky from school, preferring to fish and frolic with his dog. But a stranger (J.H. Gilmore), who turns out to be Speck's long-lost uncle, brings him to New York. The old man had left his small town home and his sweetheart to make it in the big city, but now, decades later, he's lonely. Through his uncle's example, and through several other adventures, Speck learns two things: the value of a good education, and the value of the old homestead. So he returns to the country, his teacher (Margaret Seddon), and his little sweetheart (Arline Blackburn).