And ma doesn't read it, because she has to cook for the teamster boarders.
It's a real pretty book teacher's given me, though." Martin felt inside his jacket, and brought out a little New Testament.

It was only a ten-cent Testament, for Miss Bruce, his Sunday-school teacher, did not have money enough to buy Bibles for her class of thirteen boys.

She had felt that she must do something, however, for the boys were destitute of Bibles of their own.
The best she could do was to buy small Testaments with red covers, and she had cut a piece of bright red, inch-wide ribbon into thirteen lengths, had raveled out the ends so as to make fringe, and had put a piece of this fringed ribbon into each boy's New Testament for a book-mark.

The boys thought a great deal of the pieces of ribbon, they were so bright and pretty.

Miss Bruce had written some special little message to each boy in the front of his Testament.
The general purport of each message was that the book was given with the teacher's prayer that the boy might learn to love the Bible and might become a real Christian.