being there, he applied first to Mr. Smith, and
threatened to reduce his tithes if he kept her; and after that he
spoke to Sir Timothy, who sent Mr. Smith a peremptory message by his
servant, that he should send back Meanwell's girl to be kept by her
relations, and not harbor her in the parish. This so distressed Mr.
Smith, that he shed tears, and cried, "Lord, have mercy on the poor!"

The prayers of the righteous fly upwards, and reach unto the throne of
heaven, as will be seen by the sequel.

Mrs. Smith was also greatly concerned at being thus obliged to
discard poor Little Margery. She kissed her, and cried, as did also
Mr. Smith; but they were obliged to send her away, for the people who
had ruined her father could at any time have ruined them.

IV

HOW LITTLE MARGERY LEARNED TO READ, AND BY DEGREES TAUGHT OTHERS

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 as they came from school, borrow their books, and sit down and
read till they returned. By this means she got more learning than any
of her playmates, and laid the following scheme for instructing those
who were more ignorant than herself. She found that only the following
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 of these:

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z.

And having got an old spelling book, she made her companions set up
all the words they wanted to spell, and after that she taught them to
compose sentences. "You know what a sentence is, my dear. 'I will be
good' is a sentence; and is made up, as you see, of several words."

I once went her rounds with her, and was highly diverted, as you may
see, if you please to look into the next chapter.

V

HOW LITTLE TWO-SHOES BECAME A TROTTING TUTORESS, AND HOW SHE TAUGHT
HER YOUNG PUPILS

It was about seven o'clock in the morning when we set out 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 wants you s