Tom is threatened by two local ruffians from whom he has won money. Jessie tries to persuade widow, Lizzie Armstrong, to let her son, Robert, take up a grammar school scholarship, but Lizzie needs him to leave school to earn money. Matt proposes to Lizzie who refuses him. Jack helps Tom take on the ruffians, who are then humiliated by a 'tin-panning' by local women arranged by Lizzie.