Martha is an intelligent and hardworking girl. But because her parents were poor, they gave her to her grandparents to bring up. Her poverty did not stop her from hard work and she has been scoring top grades all the years.
In the Texas school where she was studying, there was the custom of awarding a scholarship jacket to the best outgoing student. The jacket was given during the valedictory function for the 8 grade students. The eligible student should have constantly scored the top grades in all the 8 years of his/her stay there. Martha was sure she would get it and she was eagerly awaiting it.
There was a girl called Joann in her class. She was nowhere near Martha in her grades. But her father was a Board member and he made a plan to keep Martha away from the Prize. He knew that Martha was too poor to pay any money to get the jacket. He and some his friends took the initiative and made the Board change its policy from that year. They decided that to get the scholarship jacket the student has to pay 15 dollars. By this he knew that Martha won’t get it and it could then be given to Joann.
But a good teacher named Mr. Schmidt was against this scheme. He persuaded the principal to make the scholarship jacket free. The principal also realized it would be an injustice to Martha if the jacket was not given to her. So, finally, Martha got it because of the goodness of Mr. Schmidt and the principal. Martha was very happy.
