the world,
with no one to look after them, or care for them, but their Heavenly
Father.

They trotted around hand in hand, and the poorer they became the more
they clung to each other. Poor, ragged, and hungry enough they were!

Tommy had two shoes, but Margery went barefoot. They had nothing to eat
but the berries that grew in the woods, and the scraps they could get
from the poor people in the village, and at night they slept in barns or
under hay-stacks.

Their rich relations were too proud to notice them. But Mr. Smith, the
clergyman of the village where the children were born, was not that sort
of a man. A rich relation came to visit him--a kind-hearted
gentleman--and the clergyman told him all about Tommy and Margery. The
kind gentleman pitied them, and ordered Margery a pair of shoes and gave
Mr. Smith money to buy her some clothes, which she needed sadly. As for
Tommy he said he would take him off to sea with him and make him a
sailor. After a few days, the gentleman said he must go to London and
would take Tommy with him, and sad was the parting between the two
children.

Poor Margery was very lonely indeed, without her brother, and might have
cried herself sick but for the new shoes that were brought home to her.

[Illustration: The Orphans]

They turned her thoughts from her grief; and as soon as she had put
them on she ran in to Mrs. Smith and cried out: "Two shoes, ma'am, two
shoes!" These words she repeated to every one she met, and thus it was
she got the name of Goody Two Shoes.

[Illustration: Two Shoes, Ma'am. Two Shoes.]

Little Margery had seen how good and wise Mr. Smith was, and thought it
was because of his great learning; and she wanted, above all things, to
learn to read. At last she made up her mind to ask Mr. Smith to teach
her when he had a moment to spare. He readily agreed to do this, and
Margery read to him an hour every day, and spent much time with her
books.

Then she laid out a plan for teaching others more ignorant than herself.
She cut out of thin pieces of wood ten sets of large and small letters
of the alphabet, and carried these with her when she went from house to
house. When she came to Billy Wilson's she threw down the letters all in
a heap, and Billy picked them out and sorted them in lines, thus:

A B C D E F G H I J K,
a b c d e f g h i j k,

and so on until all the letters were in their right places.

From there Goody Two Shoes trott