Young Folks' Treasury, Volume 3 — Little Goody Two-Shoes: How Little Margery Learned To Read, And By Degrees Taught Others

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.