The story of the short film from the beginning of the movies in the 1890s, when all movies were shorts, through the 1950s when short subjects virtually disappeared from theaters.

The gang packs up for a camping trip to Cherry Creek two miles from their home, but to them it is the wilderness. After night falls, the hooting owls and croaking frogs conjure up visions of spooks. When a thunderstorm hits, they all scurry for home.

The gang decides to build their own fire engine.

Rich boy Waldo gets his clothes dirty playing football with the gang just before he has to go to his mother's society party. The gang tries to help him clean up.

The kids try to raise money to buy a doll for Marianne.

A magic lamp lets a young couple become kids again and exposes a mean old man who runs his orphanage like a prison.