"Cornelius Kogelschitz hated his name with all the passion his mind could muster." It is the opening line of a story about a young lad whose parents die of typhus and who ends up living with his uncle and aunt and their eleven children in New York City. When Cornelius overhears his aunt berating her husband over an extra mouth to feed, the youth makes up his mind to leave. Having once seen a picture of Colorado with snow capped mountains and a rushing stream, he decides to hop a train and head west. Traveling west, the train lurches and rumbles and Corny hides from the brakeman. Struck from behind, Corny is thrown from the train and falls onto cinders badly injured. Saved by a scrappy girl riding along the tracks, Cornelius begins his Western adventure.