After viewing an enlistment poster, Jerry decides to fight for his country. On his way to the recruiting station he becomes an interested spectator of a preparedness parade. Indeed, so interested does he become that it requires the services of two policemen to quiet his ardor. When he explains that he is on his way to enlist, they release him. At the recruiting station he is told he is too small, and he combats this statement so strenuously that he has to be chased away. Tired by his exertions, he lies down and dreams of the “Spirit of ‘76,” he having seen the picture at the recruiting station. Seeing himself as the drummer in the picture, fires his zeal anew, and he is playing the part and the drum to perfection when he is awakened by another policeman who wants to know what ails him. When Jerry explains his desire to enlist, the officer takes him to the recruiting station and the matter is fixed, and Jerry takes his place with a squad of rookies. But unfortunately he gets into an argument with another rookie, and during the melee which ensues Jerry runs off to avoid being put in the guard house. The training camp is near the border and Jerry, unconsciously running in that direction, is made prisoner by a Mexican bandit chief. He is taken to their headquarters, and there meets a beautiful girl and her father, who are also prisoners. Then Jerry is tied to a tree and sentenced to be shot, but the girl manages to elude her captors and comes to Jerry’s aid, and his Mexican guard is made to change clothes and places with him and is almost shot in Jerry’s stead. Jerry and the girl then rescue her father, and the three make their escape and are met by the soldiers who have been seeking Jerry as a deserter. But, instead of being treated as one, he is regarded as a hero.