Page:Goody Two-Shoes (1888).djvu/11

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GOODY TWO SHOES.


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 order to let it fly and draw it back again when they pleased.

Goody could not bear to see anything tortured like that, so she bought the pigeon from the boys and taught him how to spell and read. But he could not talk. And as Ralph, the raven, took the large letters, Peter, the pigeon, took care of the small ones.

Mrs. Williams, who lived in Margery's village, kept school, and taught little ones their A B C's. She was now old and feeble, and wanted to give up this important trust.