waited for
nothing, but dashed out of the barn, and ran through rain and mud till
she came to the Squire's house.

He was at dinner with some friends, and any one else but Goody would
have found it difficult to gain admission to him. But she was well known
to the servants, and was so kind and obliging, that even the big fat
butler could not refuse to do her bidding, and went and told the squire
that Goody Two Shoes wished very much to see him.

So the squire asked his friends to excuse him for a moment, and came out
and said, "Well, Goody Two Shoes, my good girl, what is it?" "Oh, sir,"
she replied, "if you do not take care you will be robbed and murdered
this very night!"

Then she told all she had heard the men say while she was in the barn.

The squire saw there was not a moment to lose, so he went back and told
his friends the news he had heard. They all said they would stay and
help him take the thieves. So the lights were put out, to make it appear
as if all the people in the house were in bed, and servants and all kept
a close watch both inside and outside.

Sure enough, at about one o'clock in the morning the three men came
creeping, creeping up to the house with a dark lantern, and the tools to
break in with. Before they were aware, six men sprang out on them, and
held them fast. The thieves struggled in vain to get away. They were
locked in an out-house until daylight, when a cart came and took them
off to jail.

They were afterward sent out of the country, where they had to work in
chains on the roads; and it is said that one of them behaved so well
that he was pardoned, and went to live at Australia, where he became a
rich man.

The other two went from bad to worse, and it is likely that they came to
some dreadful end. For sin never goes unpunished.

But to return to Goody Two Shoes. One day as she was walking through the
village she saw some wicked boys with a raven, at which they were going
to throw stones. To stop this cruel sport she gave the boys a penny for
the raven, and brought the bird home with her. She gave him the name of
"Ralph," and he proved to be a very clever creature indeed. She taught
him to spell, and to read, and he was so fond of playing with the large
letters, that the children called them "Ralph's Alphabet."

Some days after Goody had met with the raven, she was passing through a
field, when she saw some naughty boys who had taken a pigeon, and tied a
string to its legs in