Goody Two Shoes - Part 5

They were plotting to rob Squire Trueman, who lived in the great house in Margery’s village, and were to break in and steal all they could that very night. This was quite enough for Goody Two Shoes. She 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 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.