Salt Lake City, Utah: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Mutual Improvement Association, September 1927
Fiction, Short Story
Clifford Bates is leaving to go to Idaho to find work mining, and he is frustrated with his mother’s attempts to get him to bring his late father’s Book of Mormon with him. He has never been religious, and he is worried about what other people will think if they see him reading it, but in the end he decides to take it. On the train, he smells tobacco from another car and decides to smoke, but finds the Book of Mormon in his pocket instead of cigarettes. He starts reading it and is greatly impressed by it, relating to many of the passages. He resolves to read all the verses his father marked and to quit smoking. He also meets another passenger, who happens to be a member of the Church, who offers him a job.