"Because it is not right to say--'there they goes'; nobody says so, but
very ignorant people indeed; I heard the butcher's boy say so one day;
but then, you know, he is a poor ignorant boy and I dare say has never
learnt any thing."

"How did you know that he was an ignorant boy, Charles?"

"I knew it by his speaking wrong, papa."

"Then you see it was true what I told you that if you speak wrong,
people will directly think you are an ignorant person, as you thought
the butcher's boy."

"But I should never say, 'there they goes,'" said Charles, "I know
better than that."

"Ah, Charles," said his papa, "you must learn a little more grammar, and
then you will know that you made exactly the same blunder as the
butcher's boy, when you said, 'there _goes_ two white horses,' you
should have said, 'there _go_ two white horses.'"

"Should I? I did not know that," said Charles.

"Which shews how necessary it is, that you should learn grammar, my
boy, and then you will know that go is plural, and goes is singular, so
that if you are speaking of more than one horse, it is proper to say go,
because we say, 'they go;' but if you are speaking of only one, it is
proper to say goes, because we should say, 'he goes.'"