y under the affliction she was
in for the loss of her brother but the pleasure she took in her two
shoes. She ran to Mrs. Smith as soon as they were put on, and stroking
down her ragged apron, cried out: "Two Shoes, Ma'am! see Two Shoes!" And
so she behaved to all the people she met, and by that means obtained the
name of Little Goody Two-Shoes.

Little Margery saw how good and how wise Mr. Smith was, and concluded
that this was owing to his great learning; therefore she wanted of all
things to learn to read. For this purpose, she used to meet the little
boys and girls as they came from school, borrow their books, and sit
down and read till they returned. By this means she soon got more
learning than any of her playmates, and laid the following plan for
instructing those who were more ignorant than herself. She found that
only twenty-six letters were required to spell all the words; but as
some of these letters are large, and some small, she with her knife cut
out of several pieces of wood ten sets of each. And having got an old
spelling-book, she made her companions set up the words they wanted to
spell.

The usual manner of spelling, or carrying on the game, as they called
it, was this: suppose the word to be spelt was plum-pudding (and who can
suppose a better?), the children were placed in a circle, and the first
brought the letter p, the next l, the next u, the next m, and so on till
the whole was spelt; and if any one brought a wrong letter, he was to
pay a fine or play no more. This was their play; and every morning she
used to go round to teach the children. I once went her rounds with her,
and was highly diverted.

[Illustration]

It was about seven o'clock in the morning, when we set on this
important business, and the first house we came to was Farmer Wilson's.
Here Margery stopped, and ran up to the door,--tap, tap, tap! "Who's
there?" "Only little Goody Two-Shoes," answered Margery, "come to teach
Billy." "Oh, little Goody," says Mrs. Wilson, with pleasure in her face.
"I am glad to see you! Billy waits you sadly, for he has learned his
lesson." Then out came the little boy. "How do, Doody Two-Shoes?" says
he, not able to speak plain. Yet this little boy had learned all his
letters; for she threw down the small alphabet mixed together, and he
picked them up, called them by their right names, and put them all in
order. She then threw down the alphabet of capital letters, and he
picked them all up, and h