---

Farmer Meanwell was at one time a very rich man; he owned large fields and had fine 

flocks of sheep and plenty of money but all at once, his good fortune seemed to 

desert him; year after year, his crops failed, his sheep died off, and he was obliged 

to borrow money to pay his rent and the wages of those who worked on the farm,

it was lost; he had to sell his farm, but even this did not bring him money enough to 

pay his debts, and he was worse off than ever.

Among those who had lent money to farmer Meanwell was Sir Thomas’s bribe and a 

farmer named grass ball, Sir Thomas was a very rich man indeed, and farmer grass 

ball had more money than he could use, but they were both very greedy and covetous 

and particularly hard on those who owed them anything.

Farmer grass ball abus’d farmer Meanwell and caught him all sorts of dreadful names, 

but the rich Sir Thomas grabbed was crueler still and wanted the poor debtor shut up 

in jail; Sir poor farmer meanwhile had to hasten from the place where he had lived 

for so many years to get out of the way of these greedy men, he went to the next 

village taking his wife and his two little children with him, but though he was free from

grabbing grass poor, he was not free from trouble and care; he soon fell ill, and when 

he found himself unable to get food and clothes for his family; he grew worse and 

worse and soon died; his wife could not bear the loss of her husband whom she loved 

so dearly, and in a few days, she was dead; the two orphaned children seemed to be 

left entirely alone in the world with no one to look after them or care for them but their 

Heavenly Father, they taught it 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 it grew 

in the woods and the scraps they could get from the poor people in the village, 

and at night, they slept in barns under haystacks; the rich relations were too proud

 to notice them, but Mrs. Smith, the clergyman of the village where the children were 

born, was not that sort of man, the rich relation came to visit him; the kind had 

a gentleman and a clergyman who told him all about Tommy and Margaery, the kind 

gentleman pitied them in order to give Margaery a pair of shoes and give Mr. Smith 

money to buy her some clothes which she needed; Sadly, as for Tommy, he said 

it 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 a parting between the two children; poor Marjorie was very lonely indeed without

her brother, they might have cried herself sick, but for the new shoes it was brought 

home to her, they turned her thoughts from her grief, and as soon as she had put 

them on, she ran into Mrs. Smith and cried out, “to shoes, ma’am to shoes” 

These words showed Peter to everyone she met, and thus it was she got the name 

of goody-two-shoes.

Little Marjorie 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 Marjorie 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 which she went from house to house where 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 me c d e f g h I j k and so on until all the letters were in 

the right place; from there, goody-two-shoes trotted off to another cottage, 

and there were several children waiting for her. As soon as the little girl came in,

 they all crowded around her and were too eager to begin the lessons at once, 

then she threw the letters down and said to the boy next to her

“What did you have for dinner today?”, 

“bread,” answered a little boy,

“Well, put down the first letter,” said goody-two-shoes

then he put down “b” and the next child “r” and the following “e”  and the next “a” and 

the next “d,” and there was the whole word read,

“but what did you have for dinner? Polly drinks?”

“apple pie,” said Polly, upon which she laid down the first letter “a” and the next put 

down a “p,” and the next another “p,” and so on until the words apple and pie were 

united and stood thus apple pie.

Now it happened one evening that goody-two-shoes was going home rather late; 

she’d  made a longer round than usual, and everybody had kept her waiting 

so that night came on before her day’s work was done right glad was she to set out 

for her own home as she walked along contentedly to the fields and plains and roads

enjoying the quiet evening; the evening was not cool, however, but close and sultry and 

betokened a storm presently a drop fell, and goodies face; what should she do 

if she did not make haste? She would soon be wet to the skin. fortunately, there was 

an old barn down the road in which she could find shelter and goody-two-shoes 

gathered her skirts about her and took to her heels, and ran as if somebody was after

her, the owner of the barn had died lately, and a property was to be sold, and there was 

a lot of loose hay on the floor, which had not yet been taken away, goody-two-shoes 

cuddled down in the soft grass, glad of a chance to rest her weary limbs and quite out 

of breath, which had a long run and just then down rattled to rain, the thunder roared, 

the lightning flashed, and the old barn trembled, and so did goody-two-shoes,

she had not been there long before she heard footsteps, and three men came into the 

barn for shelter, dije was sparked up between her and them so that he could not see 

her and thought they were alone; they spoke pretty loudly; They were plotting to drop 

quite Truman, who lived in a great house in Marjorie’s village and was to break in 

and steal all he could that very night; this was quite enough a goody-two-shoes,

she waited for nothing but dashed out of the barn and ran through rain and mud till 

she came to this Squires’s house; he was at dinner with some friends and anyone else, 

but Kudi would have found it difficult to gain admission to him, but she was well 

known to the servants and was so kind and obliging, did even the big fat Butler could 

not refuse to do her bidding and went and told her 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 why she was in the bar; 

the  squire saw there was not a moment to lose, so he went back and told his friends 

she knew 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 begin 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 outhouse 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 in 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 Rafe, and he proved to be a 

very clever creature indeed, she taught him to spell and read, and he was so fond of 

playing with her large letters that the children called the rave’s alphabet.

Some days after Goody had met with a raven, she was passed into 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 Rafe the Raven took two large 

letters, Peter, the pigeon, took care of the small ones.

Mrs. Williams, who lived in Marjorie’s village, kept school and taught little ones their 

ABCs, showing us never wilt in feeble and wanted to give up this important trust; this 

being known to Sir William Dove, he asked Mrs. William to examine goody-two-shoes 

and see if she was not clever enough for the office; this was done, and Mrs. Williams 

reported that little Marjorie was the best scholar and had the best  heart of anyone 

who should ever examine?

All the country had a great opinion of Mrs. Williams, and this report made them think 

highly of Miss Marjorie, as we must now call her, so Marjorie, meanwhile, was now a 

schoolmistress and a Capital One; she made the children all love her, for she was 

never weary of making plans for happiness; the room in which she taught was large 

and lofty, and there was plenty of fresh air in it, and as she knew that children liked 

to move about; she placed her sets of letters all around the school so that everyone 

was obliged to get up to find a letter or spell a word when it came to their turn; this 

exercise not only kept the children in good health but fixed the letters firmly 

in their minds, the neighbors were very good to her, and one of them mater a present

of a little, Skylark was an early morning song totally easy for boys and girls that it was 

time they were out of bed sometime after this, a poor lamb lost its dam, and a farmer 

is about to kill it, bought it from him, and brought it home to play with the children; 

soon after this, a presentation was made to Miss Marjorie of a dog, and as he was 

always in good humor and always jumping about; the children gave him the name 

Jumper, it was his duty to go up the door, and no one could go out or come in 

without  leave from his mistress, Marjorie was so wise and good that some foolish 

people accused her of being a witch, and she was taken to court and tried before the 

judge, she soon proved that she was a most sensible woman, and Sir Charles Jones 

was so pleased with her that he offered her a large sum of money to take care

of his family and educate his daughter, at first she refused but afterward went and 

behaved so well and were so kind and tender that Sir Charles would not permit her to 

leave the house, and soon after meter, an offer of marriage to neighbors came in 

crowds to the wedding, and all were glad that one who had been such a good girl 

and had grown up such a good woman was to become a grand lady, just as

a clergyman had opened his book, but a gentleman richly dressed ran into the church 

and cried, “Stop, stop,” greater Long was felt especially by the bride and groom, with 

whom he said he wished to speak privately said. Claus stood motionless with 

surprise, and a bride fainted away in a stranger’s arms, for this richly dressed 

gentleman turned out to be little Tommy mean well, who had just come from the sea 

where he had made a large fortune.

Sir Charles and Lady Jones lived very happily together, and the great lady did not 

forget the children but was just as good to them as she had always been; she was 

always kind and good to the poor and the sick and a friend to all who were in distress; 

her love is a great blessing, and her death the greatest calamity that ever to praise 

in the neighborhood where she lived and was known as…. goody-two-shoes.

The End