Please handle this volume with care. The University of Connecticut Libraries, Storrs BOOK 823.8. D5550L c.2 DICKENS # OLIVER TWIST 3 T1S3 0Dlt,7E7a 3 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from Boston Library Consortium IVIember Libraries http://www.archive.org/details/olivertwist1907dick Everyman, I will go with thee, and be thy guide, In thy most need to go by thv side. This is No. 233 of Everyman's Library. A list of authors and their works in this series will be found at the end of this volume. The publishers will be pleased to send freely to all applicants a separate, annotated list of the Library. J. M. DENT & SONS LIMITED 10—13 BEDFORD STREET LONDON W.C.2 E. P. DUTTON & CO. INC. 286-302 FOURTH AVENUE NEW^ YORK EVERYMAN'S LIBRARY EDITED BY ERNEST RHYS FICTION OLIVER TWIST BY CHARLES DICKENS • INTRO- DUCTION BY G. K. CHESTERTON CHARLES DICKENS, bom at Landport (Portsea), near Portsmouth, in i8i2. From the humblest beginnings became a parlia- mentary reporter, and so entered journalism. Went to America in 1842 and 1867-8, and to Italy in 1844. First editor of The Daily News, 1846. ¥ound&d Household Words (later restarted as All the Year Round) in 1849. Died at Gad's Hill, Kent, on 9th June 1870. OLIVER TWIST O. { \\^ CHARLES DICKENS LONDON: ]. M. DENT & SONS LTD. NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON & CO. INC. All Tights^s^Y^^ Made in Great Britain at The Temple Press Letchworth and decorated by Eric Ravilious fir J. M. Dent Sl Sons Ltd. Aldine House Bedford St. London Toronto , Vancouver Melbourne . Wellington First Published in this Edition igoj Reprinted 1909, 1910, 1912, 1915, 1918, 1920, 1923, 1924, 1926, 1929, 1931 INTRODUCTION In considering Dickens, as we almost always must consider him, as a man of startling originality, we may possibly miss the forces from which he drew even his original energy. It is not well for man to be alone. We, in the modern world, are ready enough to admit that when it is applied to some problem of monasticism or of an ecstatic life. But we will not admit that our modern claim to absolute originality is really a claim to absolute unsociability; a claim to absolute loneliness. The anarchist is at least as much alone as the I ascetic. And the men of very violent vigour in literature, the imen such as Dickens, have generally displayed a large socia- ibility towards the society of literature, always expressed in ithe happy pursuit of pre-existent themes, sometimes expressed, jas in the cases of Moli^re or Sterne, in downright plagi- arism. For even theft is a confession of our dependence on society. In Dickens, however, this element of the original foundations on which he worked is quite especially difficult to determine. This is partly due to the fact that for the present reading public he is practically the only one of his long line that is read at all. He sums up Smollett and Gold- smith, but he also destroys them. This one giant, being closest to us, cuts off from our view even the giants that begat him. But much more is this difficulty due to the fact that Dickens mixed up with the old material, materials so subtly modern, so made of the French Revolution, that the whole is transformed. If we want the best example of this, the best example is "Oliver Twist." Relatively to the other works of Dickens " Oliver Twist '* is not of great value, but it is of great importance. Some parts of it are so crude and of so clumsy a melodrama, that one is almost tempted to say that Dickens would have been greater without it. But even if he had been greater without it he would still have been incomplete without it. With the exception of some gorgeous passages, both of humour and horror, the interest of the book lies not so much in its revela- tion of Dickens' literary genius as in its revelation of those vii viii Introduction moral, personal, and political instincts which were the make- up of his character and the permanent support of that literary genius. It is by far the most depressing of all his books; it is in some ways the most irritating; yet its ugliness gives the last touch of honesty to all that spontaneous and splendid output. Without this one discordant note all his merriment might have seemed like levity. But in order adequately to appreciate " Oliver Twist," we must first remember its place in biography and chronology. Dickens, it must be remembered, had just appeared upon the stage and set the whole world laughing with his first great story "Pickwick." "Oliver Twist" was his encore. It was the second opportunity given to him by those who had rolled about with laughter over Tupman and Jingle, Weller and Dowler. Under such circumstances a stagey reciter will some- times take care to give a pathetic piece after his humorous one; and with all his many moral merits, there was much that was stagey about Dickens. But this explanation alone is altogether inadequate and unworthy. There was in Dickens this other kind of energy, horrible, uncanny, barbaric, capable in another age of coarseness, greedy for the emblems of estab- lished ugliness, the coffin, the gibbet, the bones, the bloody knife. Dickens liked these things, and he was all the more of a man for liking them ; especially he was all the more of a boy. We can all recall with pleasure the fact that Miss Petowker (afterwards Mrs. Lillyvick) was in the habit of reciting a poem called "The Blood Drinker's Burial." I can- not express my regret that the words of this poem are not given ; for Dickens would have been quite as capable of writing " The Blood Drinker's Burial " as Miss Petowker was of reciting it. This strain existed in Dickens alongside of his happy laughter; both were allied to the same robust romance. Here as elsewhere Dickens is close to all the permanent human things. He is close to religion, which has never allowed the thousand devils on its churches to stop the dancing of its bells. He is allied to the people, to the real poor, who love nothing so much as to take a cheerful glass and to talk about funerals. The extremes of his gloom and gaiety are the mark of religion and democracy ; . they mark him off from the moderate happiness of philosophers, and from that stoicism which is the virtue and the creed of aristocrats There is nothing odd in the fact that the same man who conceived the humane hospitalities of Pickwick should also have imagined Introduction ix' the inhuman laughter of Fagin's den. They are both genuine and they are both exaggerated. And the whole human tradi- tion has tied up together in a strange knot these strands of festivity and fear. It is over the cups of Christmas Eve that men have always competed in telling ghost stories. This first element was present in Dickens, and it is very powerfully present in '* Oliver Twist." It had not been present with sufficient consistency or continuity in " Pickwick " to make it remain on the reader's memory at all, for the tale of " Gabriel Grubb " is grotesque rather than horrible, and the two gloomy stories of the *' Madman and the Queer Client " are so utterly irrelevant to the tale, that even if the reader remember them he probably does not remember that they occur in " Pickwick." Critics have complained of Shakespeare and others for putting comic episodes into a tragedy. It required a man with the courage and coarseness of Dickens actually to put tragic episodes into a farce. But they are not caught up into the story at all. In ** Oliver Twist," however, the thing broke out with an almost brutal inspiration, and those who had fallen in love with Dickens for his generous buffoonery may very likely have been startled at receiving such very different fare at the next helping. When you have bought a man's book because you like his writing about Mr. Wardle's punch-bowl and Mr. Winkle's skates, it may very well be surprising to open it and read about the sickening thuds that beat out the life of Nancy, or that mysterious villain whose face was blasted with disease. If there was any such disap- pointment it has left no mark in history; for after "Oliver Twist," as after *' Pickwick," Dickens' career continued to be a triumphal procession. ! But for the critic in our own time at any rate the first great element in the book is this first revelation of Dickens' power over the ghastly and the unnatural. For this specific and narrow purpose the work is really admirable. Characters which are not very clearly conceived as regards their own psychology are yet at certain moments managed so as to shake to its foundations our own psychology. Bill Sikes is not exactly a real man, but for all that he is a real murderer.' Nancy is not really impressive as a living woman ; but, as the phrase goes, she makes a lovely corpse. Something quite childish and eternal in us, something which is shocked with the mere simplicity of death, quivers when we read of those repeated blows or see Sikes cursing the tell-tale cur who will X Introduction follow his bloody foot-prints. And this curious, sublime melo- drama, which is melodrama and yet is painfully real, reaches its hideous height in that fine scene of the death of Sikes, the besieged house, the boy screaming within, the crowd scream- ing without, the murderer turned almost a maniac and drag- ging his victim uselessly up and down the room, the escape over the roof, the rope swiftly running taut, and death sudden, startling and symbolic; a man hanged. There is in this and similar scenes something of the quality of Hogarth and many other English moralists of the early eighteenth century. It is not easy to define this Hogarthian quality in words, beyond saying that it is a sort of alphabetical realism, like the cruel candour of children. But it has about it these two special principles which separate it from all that we call realism in our time. First, that with us a moral story means a story about moral people ; with them a moral story meant more often a story about immoral people. Second, that with us realism is always associated with some subtle view of morals ; with them realism was always associated with some simple view of morals. The end of Bill Sikes exactly in the way that the law would have killed him — this is a Hogarthian incident; it carries on that tradition of startling and shocking platitude. All this element in the book was a sincere thing in the author, but none the less it came from old soils, from the grave-yard and the gallows, and the lane where the ghost walked. Dickens was always attracted to such things, and (as Forster says with inimitable simplicity) " but for his strong sense might have fallen into the follies of spiritualism." As a matter of fact, like mos*t of the men of strong sense in his tradition, Dickens was left with a half belief in spirits which became in practice a belief in bad spirits. The great disad- vantage of those who have too much strong sense to believe in spiritualism, is that they keep last the low and little forms of the supernatural, such as omens, curses, spectres and retributions, but find a high and happy supernaturalism quite incredible. Thus the Puritans denied the sacraments, but went on burning witches. This shadow does rest, to some extent, upon the rational English writers like Dicktas ; supernatural- ism was dying, but its ugliest roots died last. Dickens would have found it easier to believe in a ghost than in a vision of the Virgin with angels. There, for good or evil, however, was the root of the old diablerie in Dickens, and there it is in Introduction xi "Oliver Twist." But this was only the first of the new- Dickens elements, which must have surprised those Dickensians who eagerly bought his second book. The second of the new Dickens elements is equally indisputable and separate. It swelled afterwards to enormous proportions in Dickens' work; but it really has its rise here. Again, as in the case of the element of diablerie, it would be possible to make technical exceptions in favour of '* Pickwick." Just as there were quite inappropriate scraps of the gruesome element in "Pickwick," so there are quite inappropriate allusions to this other topic in " Pickwick." But nobody by merely reading " Pickwick " would even remember this topic; no one by merely reading " Pickwick " would know what this topic is; this third great subject of Dickens; this second great subject of the Dickens of "Oliver Twist." This subject is social oppression. It is surely fair to say that no one could have gathered from " Pickwick " how this question boiled in the blood of the author of "Pickwick." There are, indeed, passages, particularly in connection with Mr. Pickwick in the debtor's prison, which prove to us, look- ing back on a whole public career, that Dickens had been from the beginning bitter and bold about the problem of our civilisation. No one could have imagined at the time that this bitterness ran in an unbroken river under all the surges of that superb gaiety and exuberance. With " Oliver Twist " this sterner side of Dickens was suddenly revealed. For the very first pages of " Oliver Twist " are stern even when they are funny. They amuse, but they cannot be enjoyed, as can the passages about the follies of Mr. Snodgrass or the humilia- tions of Mr. Winkle. The difference between the old easy humour and this new harsh humour is a difference not of degree but of kind. Dickens makes game of Mr. Bumble because he wants to kill Mr. Bumble; he made game of Mr. Winkle because he wanted him to live for ever. Dickens has taken the sword in hand ; against what is he declaring war? It is just here that the greatness of Dickens comes in; it is just here that the difference lies between the pedant and the poet. Dickens enters the social and political war, and the first stroke he deals is not only significant but even startling. Fully to see this we must appreciate the national situation. It was an age of reform, and even of radical reform; the world was full of radicals and reformers; but only too many xii Introduction of them took the line of attacking everything and anything that was opposed to some particular theory among the many political theories that possessed the end of the eighteenth century. Some had so much perfected the perfect theory of republicanism that they almost lay awake at night because Queen Victoria had a crown on her head. Others were so certain that mankind had hitherto been merely strangled in the bonds of the State that they saw truth only in the destruc- tion of tariffs or of bye-laws. The greater part of that genera- tion held that clearness, economy and a hard common-sense, would soon destroy the errors that had been erected by the superstitions and sentimentalities of the past. In pursuance of this idea many of the new men of the new century, quite con- fident that they were invigorating the new age, sought to destroy the old sentimental clericalism, the old sentimental feudalism, the old-w^orld belief in priests, the old-world belief in patrons, and among other things the old-world belief in beggars. They sought among other things to clear away the old visionary kindliness on the subject of vagrants. Hence those reformers enacted not only a new reform law but also a new poor law. In creating many other modern things they created the modern workhouse, and when Dickens came out to fight it was the first thing that he broke with his battle- axe. This is where Dickens' social revolt is of more value than mere politics and avoids the vulgarity of the novel with a purpose. His revolt is not a revolt of the commercialist against the feudalist, of the Nonconformist against the Churchman, of the Free-trader against the Protectionist, of the Liberal against the Tory. If he were among us now his revolt would not be the revolt of the Socialist against the Individualist, or of the Anarchist against the Socialist. His revolt was simply and solely the eternal revolt; it was the revolt of the weak against the strong. He did not dislike this or that argument for oppression; he disliked oppression. Me disliked a certain look on the face of a man when he looks down on another man. And that look on that face is the only thing in the world that we have really to fight between here and the fires of Hell. That which pedants of that time and this time would have called the sentimentalism of Dickens was really simply the detached sanity of Dickens. He cared no- thing for the fugitive explanations of the Constitutional Con- servatives; he cared nothing for the fugitive explanations of Introduction xiii the Manchester School. He would have cared quite as little for the fugitive explanations of the Fabian Society or of the modern scientific Socialist. He saw that under many forms there was one fact, the tyranny of man over man; and he struck at it when he saw it, whether it was old or new. When he found that footmen and rustics were too much afraid of Sir Leicester Dedlock, he attacked Sir Leicester Dedlock ; he did not care ' whether Sir Leicester Dedlock said he was attacking England or whether Mr. Rouncewell, the Iron- master, said he was attacking an effete oligarchy. In that case he pleased Mr. Rouncewell, the Ironmaster, and dis- pleased Sir Leicester Dedlock, the Aristocrat. But when he found that Mr. Rouncewell's workmen were much too frightened of Mr. Rouncewell, then he displeased Mr. Rounce- well in turn; he displeased Mr. Rouncewell very much by calling him Mr. Bounderby. When he imagined himself to be fighting old laws he gave a sort of vague and general approval to new laws. But when he came to the new laws they had a bad time. When Dickens found that after a hundred economic arguments and granting a hundred economic considerations, the fact remained that paupers in modern work- houses were much too afraid of the beadle, just as vassals in ancient castles were much too afraid of the Dedlocks, then he struck suddenly and at once. This is what makes the opening chapters of " Oliver Twist " so curious and important. The very fact of Dickens' distance from, and independence of, the elaborate financial arguments of his time, makes more definite and dazzling his sudden assertion that he sees the old human tyranny in front of him as plain as the sun at noon- day. Dickens attacks the modern workhouse with a sort of inspired simplicity as of a boy in a fairy tale who had wan- dered about, sword in hand, looking for ogres and who had found an indisputable ogre. All the other people of his time are attacking things because they are bad economics or because they are bad politics, or because they are bad science; he alone is attacking things because they are bad. iVll the others are Radicals with a large R; he alone is radical with a small one. He encounters evil with that beautiful surprise which, as it is the beginning of all real pleasure, is also the beginning of all righteous indignation. He enters the work- house just as Oliver Twist enters it, as a little child. This is the real power and pathos of that celebrated passage in the book which has passed into a proverb; but which has xiv Introduction not lost its terrible humour even in being hackneyed. T mean, of course, the everlasting quotation about Oliver Twist asking for more. The real poignancy that there is in this idea is a very good study in that strong school of social criticism which Dickens represented. A modern realist describ- ing the dreary workhouse would have made all the children utterly crushed, not daring to speak at all, not expecting anything, not hoping anything, past all possibility of affording even an ironical contrast or a protest of despair. A modern, in short, would have made all the boys in the workhouse pathetic by making them all pessimists. But Oliver Twist is not pathetic because he is a pessimist. Oliver Twist is pathetic because he is an optimist. The whole tragedy of that incident is in the fact that he does expect the universe to be kind to him, that he does believe that he is living in a just world. He comes before the Guardians as the ragged peasants of the French Revolution came before the Kings and Parliaments of Europe. That is to say, he comes, indeed, with gloomy experiences, but he comes with a happy philo- sophy. He knows that there are wrongs of man to be cursed; but he believes also that there are rights of man to be demanded. It has often been remarked as a singular fact that the French poor, who stand in historic tradition as typical of all the desperate men who have dragged down tyranny, were, as a matter of fact, by no means worse off than the poor of many other European countries before the Revolu- tion. The truth is that the French were tragic because they were better off. The others had known the sorrowful experi- ences ; but they alone had known the splendid expectation and the original claims. It was just here that Dickens was so true a child of them and of their happy theory so bitterly applied. They were the one oppressed people that innocently asked for justice ; they were the one Parish Boy who innocently asked for more. 1907. G. K. C. Introduction xv The following is a list of the works of Charles Dickens : — Sketches by Boz, 1835, 2nd series, 1836 (from "Monthly Magazine," "Morning Chronicle," "Evening Chronicle," "Bell's Life in London," and "The Library of Fiction") ; Sunday under Three Heads, &c., 1836 ; The Strange Gentleman, comic burletta, 1837 ; The Village Coquettes, comic opera, 1836; Is she his wife? or Something Singular? comic burletta, acted 1837 ; Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, monthly numbers, 1836-7; Mudfog Papers (Bentley's "Miscellany"), 1837-9; Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi, edited by Boz, 1838 ; Oliver Twist, or the Parish Bo5^s Progress, 1838 (from Bentley's "Miscellany"); Sketches of Young Gentlemen, 1838 ; Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, monthly numbers, 1838-9; Sketches of Young Couples, &c., 1840; Master Humphrey's Clock, weekly numbers, 1 840-1 ; volume form, 1840, 1841 (Old Curiosity Shop, Bamaby Rudge) ; The Pic-nic Papers (preface and first story), 1841 ; American notes for general circulation, 1842; A Christmas Carol in Prose, 1843 ; The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, monthly numbers, 1843-4; The Chimes: a Goblin Story of some Bells, &c., 1844; The Cricket on the Hearth: a Fairy Tale of Home, 1845; Pictures from Italy, 1846 (from "Daily News"); The Battle of Life : a Love Story, 1846 ; Dealings with the Firm of Dombey & Son, &c., monthly numbers, 1846-8; The Haunted Man, and the Ghost's Bargain, 1848 ; The Personal History of David Copperfield, monthly numbers, 1849-50; Christmas Stories in "Household Words" and "All the Year Round," 1850-67; Bleak House, monthly numbers, 1852-3 ; A Child's History of England, 1854 (from "Household Words"); Hard Times for these Times, 1854 (from "Household Words"); Little Dorritt, monthly numbers, 1855-57 ; A Tale of Two Cities, 1859 (from "All the Year Round"); Great Expectations, 1861 (from "All the Year Round"); Our Mutual Friend, monthly numbers, 1864-5; Religious Opinions of the late Rev. Chauncey Hare Townhend, ed. C. D., 1869; "Landor's Life," last contribution to "All the Year Round"; The Mystery of Edwin Drood (unfinished), in monthly numbers, April to September, 1870. Other papers were ccmtributed to "Household Words" and "All the Year Round." First Collective Ed,, 1847-74; Library Ed., 1857, &c. ; "Charles Dickens" Ed., 1868-70; Letters, ed. Miss Hogarth and Miss Dickens, 1886; Life, by Forster, 1872-74; "Men of Letters" Series, 1882: " Great Writers " Series, 1887. See also "Dickens, a Critical Study," try G. R. Gissing, 1926. PREFACE Once upon a time it was held to be a coarse and shocking circumstance, that some of the characters in these pages are chosen from the most criminal and degraded of London's population. As I saw no reason, when I wrote this book, why the dregs of life (so long as their speech did not offend the ear) should not serve the purpose of a moral, as well as its froth and cream, I made bold to believe that this same Once upon a time would not prove to be All- time or even a long time. I saw many strong reasons for pursuing my course. I had read of thieves by scores j seductive fellows (amiable for the most part), faultless in dress, plump in pocket, choice in horse-flesh, bold in bearing, fortunate in gallantry, great at a song, a bottle, pack of cards or dice-box, and fit companions for the bravest. But I had never met (except in Hogarth) with the miserable reality. It appeared to me that to draw a knot of such associates in crime as really did exist ; to paint them in all their deformity, in all their wretchedness, in all the squalid misery of their lives ; to show them as they really were, for ever skulking uneasily through the dirtiest paths of life, with the great black ghastly gallows closing up their prospect, turn them where they might ; it appeared to me that to do this, would be to attempt a something which was needed, and which would be a service to society. And I did it as I best could. In every book I know, where such characters are treated of, allurements and fascinations are thrown around them. Even in the Beggar's Opera, the thieves are represented as leading a life which is rather to be envied than otherwise : while Macheath, with all the captivations of command, and the devotion of the most beautiful girl and only pure character in the piece, is as much to be admired and emulated by weak beholders, as any fine gentleman in a red coat who has purchased, as Voltaire says, the right to command a couple of thousand men, or so, and to affront death at their head. Johnson's question, whether any man will turn thief because Macheath is reprieved, seems to me beside the matter. I ask myself, whether any man will be deterred from turning thief, because of Macheath's being sentenced to death, and because of the existence of Peachum and Lockit ; and remembering the captain's roaring life, great appearance, vast success, and strong xviii Preface advantages, I feel assured that nobody having a bent that way will take any warning from him, or will see anything in the play but a flowery and pleasant road, conducting an honourable ambition — in ':ourse of time — to Tyburn Tree. In fact, Gay's witty satire on society had a general object, which made him quite regardless of example in this respect, and gave him other and wider aims. The same may be said of Sir Edward Bulwer's admirable and powerful novel of Paul Clifford, which cannot be fairly considered as having, or as being intended to have, any bearing an this part of the subject, one way or other. What manner of life is that which is described in these pages, as the everyday existence of a Thief? What charms has it for the young and ill-disposed, what allurements for the most jolter-headed of juveniles? Here are no canterings on moonlit heaths, no merry- makings in the snuggest of all possible caverns, none of the attrac- tions of dress, no embroidery, no lace, no jack-boots, no crimson coats and ruffles, none of the dash and freedom with which " the road " has been time out of mind invested. The cold wet shelter- less midnight streets of London ; the foul and frowsy dens, where vice is closely packed and lacks the room to turn ; the haunts of hunger and disease ; the shabby rags that scarcely hold together ; where are the attractions of these things ? There are people, however, of so refined and delicate a nature, that they cannot bear the contemplation of such horrors. Not that they turn instinctively from crime ; but that criminal characters, to suit them, must be, like their meat, in delicate disguise. A Massaroni in green velvet is an enchanting creature ; but a Sikes in fustian is insupportable. A Mrs. Massaroni, being a lady in short petticoats and a fancy dress, is a thing to imitate in tableaux and have in lithograph on pretty songs ; but a Nancy, being a creature in a cotton gown and cheap shawl, is not to be thought of. It is wonderful how Virtue turns from dirty stockings ; and how Vice, married to ribbons and a little gay attire, changes her name, as wedded ladies do, and becomes Romance. But as the stem truth, even in the dress of this (in novels) much exalted race, was a part of the purpose of this book, I did not, for these readers, abate one hole in the Dodger's coat, or one scrap of curl-paper in Nancy's dishevelled hair. I had no faith in the delicacy which could not bear to look upon them. I had no desire to make proselytes among such people. I had no respect for their opinion, good or bad ; did not covet their approval ; and did not write for their amusement. It has been observed of Nancy that her devotion to the brutal Preface xix house-breaker does not seem natural And it has been objected to Sikes in the same breath — with some inconsistency, as I venture to think — that he is surely over-drawn, because in him there would appear to be none of those redeeming traits which are objected to as unnatural in his mistress. Of the latter objection I will merely remark, that I fear there are in the world some insensible and callous natures, that do become utterly and incurably bad. \\Tiether this be so or not, of one thing I am certain : that there are such men as Sikes, who, being closely followed through the same space of time and through the same current of circumstances, would not give, by the action of a moment, the faintest indication of a better nature. Whether every gentler human feeling is dead within such bosoms, or the proper chord to strike has rusted and is hard to find, I do not pretend to know ; but that the fact is as I state it, I am sure. It is useless to discuss whether the conduct and character of the girl seems natural or unnatural, probable or improbable, right or wrong. It IS TRUE. Every man who has watched these melan- choly shades of life, must know it to be so. From the first intro- duction of that poor wretch, to her laying her blood-stained head upon the robber's breast, there is not a word exaggerated or over- wrought. It is emphatically God's truth, for it is the truth He leaves in such depraved and miserable breasts ; the hope yet lingering there ; the last fair drop of water at the bottom of the weed-choked well. It involves the best and worst shades of our nature ; much of its ugliest hues, and something of its most oeautiful ; it is a contradiction, an anomaly, an apparent impos- sibility ; but it is a truth. I am glad to have had it doubted, for in :hat circumstance I should find a sufficient assurance (if I wanted my) that it needed to be told. In the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty, it was publicly ieclared in London by an amazing Alderman, that Jacob's Island iid not exist, and never had existed. Jacob's Island continues to jxist (like an ill-bred place as it is) in the year one thousand eight lundred and sixty-seven, though improved and much changed* OLIVER TWIST CHAPTER I TREATS OF THE PLACE WHERE OLIVER TWIST WAS BORN, AND OF THE CIRCUMSTANCES ATTENDING HIS BIRTH Among other public buildings in a certain town, which for many reasons it will be prudent to refrain from men- tioning-, and to which I will assign no fictitious name, there is one anciently common to most towns, great or small: to wit, a workhouse; and in this workhouse was born ; on a day and date which I need not trouble myself to repeat, inasmuch as it can be of no possible consequence to the reader, in this stage of the business at all events ; the item of mortality whose name is prefixed to the head of this chapter. For a long time after it was ushered into this world of sorrow and trouble, by the parish surgeon, it remained a matter of considerable doubt whether the child would survive to bear any name at all ; in which case it is some- what more than probable that these memoirs would never have appeared ; or, if they had, that being comprised with- in a couple of pages, they would have possessed the in- estimable merit of being the most concise and faithful specimen of biography, extant in the literature of any age or country. Although I am not disposed to maintain that the being born in a workhouse, is in itself the most fortunate and enviable circumstance that can possibly befall a human being, I do mean to say that in this particular instance, it was the best thing for Oliver Twist that could by possi- bility have occurred. The fact is, that there was consider- able difficulty in inducing Oliver to take upon himself the office of respiration, — a troublesome practice, but one which custom has rendered necessary to our easy existence ; and for some time he lay gasping on a little flock mattress, rather unequally poised between this world and the next: the balance being decidedly in favour of the latter. Now, if, during this brief period, Oliver had been surrounded by 2 Oliver Twist careful grandmothers, anxious aunts, experienced nurses, and doctors of profound wisdom, he would most inevitably and indubitably have been killed in no time. There being nobody by, however, but a pauper old woman, who was rendered rather misty by an unwonted allowance of beer; and a parish surgeon who did such matters by contract; Oliver and Nature fought out the point between them. The result was, that, after a few struggles, Oliver breathed, sneezed, and proceeded to advertise to the inmates of the v/orkhouse the fact of a new burden having been imposed upon the parish, by setting up as loud a cry as could reasonably have been expected from a male infant who had not been possessed of that very useful appendage, a voice, for a much longer space of time than three minutes and a quarter. As Oliver gave this first proof of the free and proper action of his lungs, the patchwork coverlet which was carelessly flung over the iron bedstead, rustled; the pale face of a young woman was raised feebly from the pillow ; and a faint voice imperfectly articulated the words, " Let me see the child, and die." The surgeon had been sitting with his face turned to- wards the fire : giving the palms of his hands a warm and a rub alternately. As the young woman spoke, he rose, and advancing to the bed's head, said, with more kindness than might have been expected of him : '* Oh, you must not talk about dying yet." " Lor bless her dear heart, no!" interposed the nurse, hastily depositing in her pocket a green glass bottle, the contents of which she had been tasting in a corner with evident satisfaction. ** Lor bless her dear heart, when she has lived as long as I have, sir, and had thirteen children of her own, and all on 'em dead except two, and them in the workus with me, she'll know better than to take on in that way, bless her dear heart ! Think what it is to be a mother, there's a dear young lamb, do." Apparently this consolatory perspective of a mother's prospects failed in producing its due effect. The patient shook her head, and stretched out her hand towards the child. The surgeon deposited it in her arms. She imprinted her cold white lips passionately on its forehead ; passed her hands over her face ; gazed wildly round ; shuddered ; fell back — and died. They chafed her breast, hands, and Oliver Twist 3 temples ; but the blood had stopped for ever. They talked of hope and comfort. They had been strangers too long. "It's all over, Mrs. Thingummy!" said the surgeon at last. -^..,>....— -■-•• *' Ah, poor dear, so it is !** said the nurse, picking up the cork of the green bottle, which had fallen out on the pillow, as she stooped to take up the child. " Poor dear !" *' You needn't mind sending up to me, if the child cries, nurse," said the surgeon, putting on his gloves with great deliberation. ** It's very likely it will be troublesome. Give it a little gruel if it is." He put on his hat, and, pausing by the bed-side on his way to the door, added, She was a good-looking girl, too; where did she come from?" '* She was brought here last night," replied the old woman, ** by the overseer's order. She was found lying in the street. She had walked some distance, for her shoes were worn to pieces ; but where she came from, or where she was going to, nobody knows." The surgeon leaned over the body, and raised the left hand. *' The old story," he said, shaking his head : *' no wedding-ring, I see. Ah! Good-night!" The medical gentleman walked away to dinner ; and the nurse, having once more applied herself to the green bottle, sat down on a low chair before the fire, and proceeded to dress the infant. What an excellent example of the power of dress, young Oliver Twist was ! Wrapped in the blanket which had hitherto formed his only covering, he might have been the child of a nobleman or a beggar; it would have been hard for the haughtiest stranger to have assigned him his proper station in society. But now that he was enveloped in the old calico robes which had grown yellow in the same service, he was badged and ticketed, and fell into his place at once — a parish child — the orphan of a workhouse — the humble, half-star\^ed drudge — ^to be cuffed and buffeted through the world — despised by all, and pitied by none. Oliver cried lustily. If he could have known that he was an orphan, left to the tender mercies of churchwardens and overseers, perhaps h© would have cried the louder. Oliver Twist CHAPTER II TREATS OF OLIVER TWIST's GROWTH, EDUCATION, AND BOARD For the next eight or ten months, Oliver was the vict'm of a systematic course of treachery and deception. He was broug-ht up by hand. The hungry and destitute situa- tion of the infant orphan was duly reported by the work- house authorities to the parish authorities. The parish authorities inquired with dignity of the workhouse author- ities, whether there was no female then domiciled in ** the house " who was in a situation to impart to Oliver Twist, the consolation and nourishment of which he stood in need. The workhouse authorities replied with humility, that there was not. Upon this, the parish authorities magnanimously and humanely resolved, that Oliver should be "farmed," or, in other words, that he should be de- spatched to a branch-workhouse some three miles off, where twenty or thirty other juvenile offenders against the poor- laws, rolled about the floor all day, without the inconveni- ence of too much food or too much clothing, under the parental superintendence of an elderly female, who received the culprits at and for the consideration of sevenpence- halfpenny per sm.all head per week. Sevenpence-half- penny's worth per week is a good round diet for a child; a great deal may be got for sevenpence-halfpenny, quite enough to overload its stomach, and make it uncomfort- able. The elderly female was a woman of wisdom and experience ; she knew what was good for children ; and she had a very accurate perception of what was good for herself. So, she appropriated the greater part of the weekly stipend to her own use, anc^ consigned the rising parochial generation to even a shorter allowance than was originally provided for them. Thereby finding in the low- est depth a deeper still ; and proving herself a very great experimental philosopher. Everybody knows the stor}^ of another experimental philosopher who had a great theory about a horse being able to live without eating, and who demonstrated it so well, that he got his own horse down to a straw a day, and would unquestionably have rendered him a very spirited Oliver Twist 5 and rampacious animal on nothing- at all, if he had not died, four-and-twenty hours before he was to have had his first comfortable bait of air. Unfortunately for the experi- mental philosophy of the female to whose protecting care Oliver Twist was delivered over, a similar result usually attended the operation of her system ; for at the very moment when a child had contrived to exist upon the smallest possible portion of the weakest possible food, it did perversely happen in eight and a half cases out of ten, either that it sickened from want and cold, or fell into the fire from neglect, or got half-smothered by accident; in any one of which cases, the miserable little being- was usually summoned into another world, and there gathered to the fathers it had never known in this. , Occasionally, when there was some more than usually interesting inquest upon a parish child who had been over- looked in turning up a bedstead, or inadvertently scalded to death when there happened to be a washing — though the latter accident was very scarce, anything approaching to a washing being of rare occurrence in the farm — the jury would take it into their heads to ask troublesome questions, or the parishioners would rebelliously affix their signatures to a remonstrance. But these impertinences were speedily checked by the evidence of the surgeon, and the testimony of the beadle; the former of whom had always opened the body and found nothing inside (which was very probable indeed), and the latter of whom in- variably swore whatever the parish wanted ; which was very self-devotional. Besides, the board made periodical pilgrimages to the farm, and always sent the beadle the day before, to say they were going. The children were neat and clean to behold, when they went ; and what more would the people have ! It cannot be expected that this system of farming would produce any very extraordinary or luxuriant crop. Oliver Twist's ninth birth-day found him a pale thin child, some- what diminutive in stature, and decidedly small in circum- ference. But nature or inheritance had implanted a good sturdy spirit in Oliver's breast. It had had plenty of room to expand, thanks to the spare diet of the establishment; md perhaps to this circumstance may be attributed his [laving any ninth birth-day at all. Be this as it may, how- ver, it was his ninth birth-day ; and he was keeping it in [he coal -cellar with a select party of two other young 6 Oliver Twist gentlemen, who, after participating with him in a sound thrashing, had been locked up for atrociously presuming to be hungry, when Mrs. Mann, the good lady of the house, was unexpectedly startled by the apparition of Mr. Bumble, the beadle, striving to undo the wicket of the garden-gate. "Goodness gracious! Is that you, Mr. Bumble, sir?'* said Mrs. Mann, thrusting her head out of the window in well-affected ecstasies of joy. '* (Susan, take Oliver and them two brats up-stairs, and wash 'em directly.) My heart alive 1 Mr. Bumble, how glad I am to see you, sure-ly!" Now, Mr. Bumble was a fat man, and a choleric; so, instead of responding to this open-hearted salutation in a kindred spirit, he gave the little wicket a tremendous shake, and then bestowed upon it a kick which could have emanated from no leg but a beadle's. ** Lor, only think," said Mrs. Mann, running out, — for the three boys had been removed by this time, — "only think of that ! That I should have forgotten that the gate was bolted on the inside, on account of them dear children I Walk in, sir; walk in, pray, Mr. Bumble, do, sir." Although this invitation was accompanied with a curtsey that might have softened the heart of a churchwarden, it by no means mollified the beadle. ** Do you think this respectful or proper conduct, Mrs. Mann," inquired Mr. Bumble, grasping his cane, '* to keep the parish officers a waiting at your garden-gate, when they come here upon porochial business connected with the porochial orphans? Are you aweer, Mrs. Mann, that you are, as I may say, a porochial delegate, and a stipendiary?" "I'm sure, Mr. Bumble, that I was only a telling one or two of the dear children as is so fond of you, that it was you a coming," replied Mrs. Mann with great humility. Mr. Bumble had a great idea of his oratorical powers and his importance. He had displayed the one, and vindicated the other. He relaxed. " Well, well, Mrs. Mann," he replied in a calmer tone; "it may be as you say; it may be. Lead the way in, Mrs. Mann, for I come on business, and have something to say." Mrs. Mann ushered the beadle into a small parlour with a brick floor ; placed a seat for him ; and officiously de- posited his cocked hat and cane on the table before him. Mr. Bumble wiped from his forehead the perspiration which Oliver Twist 7 his walk had engendered, glanced complacently at the cocked hat, and smiled. Yes, he smiled. Beadles are but men ; and Mr. Bumble smiled. '* Now don't you be offended at what I'm a going to say," observed Mrs. Mann, with captivating sweetness. ** You've had a long walk, you know, or I wouldn't men- tion it. Now, will you take a little drop of somethink, Mr. Bumble?" " Not a drop. Not a drop," said Mr. Bumble, waving his right hand in a dignified, but placid manner. *' I think you will," said Mrs. Mann, who had noticed the tone of the refusal, and the gesture that had accom- panied it. " Just a leetle drop, with a little cold water, and a lump of sugar." Mr. Bumble coughed. ** Now, just a leetle drop," said Mrs. Mann persuasively. ** What is it?" inquired the beadle. ** Why, it's wha' I'm obliged to keep a little of in the house to put into the blessed infants' Daffy, when they ain't well, Mr. Bumble," replied Mrs. Mann as she opened a corner cupboard, and took down a bottle and glass. ** It's gin. I'll not deceive you, Mr. B. It's gin." ** Do you give the children Daffy, Mrs. Mann?" in- quired Bumble, following with his eyes the interesting process of mixing. •*Ah, bless 'em, that I do, dear as it is," rep'ied the nurse. '* I couldn't see 'em suffer before my very eyes, you know, sir." ** No," said Mr. Bumble approvingly; ** no, you could not. You are a humane woman, Mrs. Mann." (Here she set down the glass.) ** I shall take a early opportunity of mentioning it to the board, Mrs. Mann." (He drew it to- wards him.) " You feel as a mother, Mrs. Mann." (He stirred the gin-and-water.) ** I — I drink your health with dieerfulness, Mrs. Mann;" and he swallowed half of it. ** And now about business," said the beadle, taking out a t'eathern pocket-book. " The child that was half -baptized, Oliver Twist, is nine year old to-day." ** Bless him !" interposed Mrs. Mann, inflaming her left ;ye with the corner of her apron. ' And notwithstanding a offered reward of ten pound, vliich was afterwards increased to twenty pound. Not- vithstanding the most superlative, and, I may say, super- lat'ral exertions on the part of this parish," said Bumble, 8 Oliver Twist " we have never been able to discover who is his father, or what was his mother's settlement, name, or con — dition. " Mrs. Mann raised her hands in astonishment; but added, after a moment's reflection, *' How comes he to have any name at all, then?" The beadle drew himself up with great pride, and said, ** I inwented it." ''You, Mr. Bumble!" ** I, Mrs. Mann. We name our fondling-s in alphabetical order. The last was a S, — Swubble, I named him. This was a T, — Twist, I named him. The next one as comes will be Unwin, and the next Vilkins. I have got names ready made to the end of the alphabet, and all the way through it again, when we come to Z," "Why, you're quite a literary character, sir!" said Mrs. Mann. " W>11, well," said the beadle, evidently gratified with the compliment; ** perhaps I m>ay be. Perhaps I may be, Mrs. Mann." He finished the gin-and-water, and added, ** Oliver being now too old to remain here, the board have determined to have him back into the house. I have come out myself to take him there. So let me see him at once. " ** I'll fetch him directly," said Mrs. Mann, leaving the room for that purpose. Oliver, having had by this time as much of the outer coat of dirt which encrusted his face and hands, rem.oved, as could be scrubbed off in one washing, was led into the room by his benevolent protectress. " Make a bow to the gentleman, Oliver," said Mrs. Mann. Oliver made a bow, which was divided between the beadle on the chair, and the cocked hat on the table. '* Will you go along with me, Oliver?" said Mr. Bumble, in a majestic voice. Oliver was about to say that he would go along with anybody with great readiness, when, glancing upward, he caught sight of Mrs. Mann, who had got behind the beadle's chair, and was shaking her fist at him with a furious countenance. He took the hint at once, for the fist had been too often impressed upon his body not to be deeply impressed upon his recollection. " Will she go with me ?" inquired poor Oliver. ** No, she can't," replied Mr. Bumble. "But she'll come and see you sometimes." This was no very great consolation to the child. Young Oliver Twist 9 as he was, however, he had sense enough to make a feint of feeling great regret at going away. It was no very difficult matter for the boy to call tears into his eyes. Hunger and recent ill-usage are great assistants if you want to cry ; and Oliver cried very naturally indeed. Mrs. Mann gave him a thousand embraces, and, what Oliver wanted a great deal more, a piece of bread and butter, lest he should seem too hungry when he got to the workhouse. With the slice of bread in his hand, and the little brown- cloth parish cap on his head, Oliver was then led away by Mr. Bumble from the wretched home where one kind word or look had never lighted the gloom of his infant years. And yet he burst into an agony of childish grief, as the cottage-gate closed after him. Wretched as were the little companions in misery he was leaving behind, they were the only friends he had ever known ; and a sense of his loneliness in the great wide world, sank into the child's heart for the first time. Mr. Bumble walked on with long strides ; little Oliver, firmly grasping his gold-laced cuff, trotted beside him, inquiring at the end of every quarter of a mile whether they were ** nearly there." To these interrogations Mr. Bumble returned very brief and snappish replies ; for the temporary blandness which gin-and-water av^/akens in some bosoms had by this time evaporated; and he was once again a beadle. Oliver had not been within the walls of the workhouse a quarter of an hour, and had scarcely completed the demolition of a second slice of bread, when Mr. Bumble, who had handed him over to the care of an old woman, returned ; and, telling him it was a board night, informed him that the board had said he was to appear before it forthwith. Not having a very clearly defined notion of what a live board was, Oliver was rather astounded by this intelligence, and was not quite certain whether he ought to laugh or cry. He had no time to think about the matter, however ; for Mr. Bumble gave him a tap on the head, with his cane, to wake him up : and another on the back to make him lively : and bidding him follow, conducted him into a large white-washed room, where eight or ten fat gentlemen were sitting round a table. At the top of the table, seated in an arm-chair rather higher than the rest, was a particu- larly fat gentleman with a very round, red face. lo Oliver Twist "Bow to the board," said Bumble. Oliver brushed away two or three tears that were lingering- in his eyes; and seeing no board but the table, fortunately bowed to that. '* What's your name, boy?" said the gentleman in the high chair. Oliver was frightened at the sight of so many gentlemen, A^hich made him tremble : and the beadle gave him another tap behind, which made him cry. These two causes made him answer in a very low and hesitating voice ; whereupon a gentleman in a white waistcoat said he was a fool. Which was a capital way of raising his spirits, and putting him quite at his ease. ** Boy," said the gentleman in the high chair, ** listen to me. You know you're an orphan, I suppose?" *' What's that, sir?" inquired poor Oliver. ** The boy is a fool — I thought he was," said the gentle- man in the white waistcoat. '*Hush!" said the gentleman who had spoken first. " You know you've got no father or mother, and that you were brought up by the parish, don't you?" "Yes, sir," replied Oliver, weeping bitterly. ** W^hat are you crying for?" inquired the gentleman in the white waistcoat. And to be sure it was very extra- ordinary. What could the boy be crying for? " I hope you say your prayers every night," said another gentleman in a gruff voice; " and pray for the people who feed you, and take care of you — Hke a Christian." " Yes, sir," stammered the boy. The gentleman who spoke last was unconsciously right. It would have been very like a Christian, and a marvellously good Christian, too, if Oliver had prayed for the people who fed and took care of him. But he hadn't, because nobody had taught him. ** Well ! You have come here to be educated, and taught a useful trade," said the red-faced gentleman in the high chair. * So you'll begin to pick oakum to-morrow morning at six o'clock,'* added the surly one in the white waistcoat. For the combination of both these blessings in the one simple process of picking oakum, Oliver bowed low by the direction of the beadle, and was then hurried away to a large ward : where, on a rough, hard bed, he sobbed him- self to sleep. What a noble illustration of the tender laws df England ! They let the paupers go to sleep ! "" Poor Oliver ! He little thought, as he lay sleeping in Oliver Twist ii happy unconsciousness of all around him, tliat the board had that very day arrived at a decision which would exer- cise the most material influence over all his future fortunes. But they had. And this was it : "■^' '"^"\ The members of this board were very sage, deep, philo- ; sophical men ; and when they came to turn their attention to the workhouse, they found out at once, what ordinary- folks would never have discovered — the poor people liked it ! It was a regular place of public entertainment for the poorer classes ; a tavern where there was nothing to pay ; a public breakfast, dinner, tea, and supper all the year round ; a brick and mortar elysium, where it was all play and no work. '*Oho!" said the board, looking very knowing ; '* we are the fellows to set this to rights ; we'll stop it all, in no time." So, they established the rule, that all poor people should have the alternative (for they would compel nobody, not they), of being starved by a gradual process in the house, or by a quick one out of it. With this view, they contracted with the water-works to lay on an unlimited supply of water; and with a corn-factor to supply periodically small quantities of oatmeal ; and issued three meals of thin gruel a day, with an onion twice a week, and half a roll on Sundays. They made a great many other wise and humane regulations, having reference to the ladies, which it is not necessarj' to repeat; kindly under- took to divorce poor married people, in consequence of the o^reat expense of a suit in Doctors* Commons ; and, instead of compelling a man to support his family, as they had theretofore done, took his family away from him, and made him a bachelor ! There is no saying how many applicants for relief, under these last two heads, might have started up in all classes of society, if it had not been coupled with the workhouse; but the board were long-headed men, and had provided for this difficulty. The relief was inseparable from the workhouse and the gi-uel; and that frightened t people. . _/ For the first six months after Oliver Twist was removed, : the system was in full operation. It was rather expensive ' at first, in consequence of the increase in the undertaker's 1 bill, and the necessity of taking in the clothes of all the •jp)aupers, which fluttered loosely on their wasted, shrunken i Forms, after a week or two's gruel. But the number of workhouse inmates got thin as well as the paupers; and 1 the board were in ecstasies. 12 Oliver Twist The room in which the boys were fed, was a larg-e stone hall, with a copper at one end : out of which the master^ dressed in an apron for the purpose, and assisted by one or two women, ladled the gruel at meal-times. Of this festive composition each boy had one porringer, and no more — except on occasions of great public rejoicing, when he had two ounces and a quarter of bread besides. The bowls never wanted washing. The boys polished them with their spoons till they shone again ; and when they had performed this operation (which never took very long,, the spoons being nearly as large as the bowls), they would sit staring at the copper, with such eager eyes, as if they could have devoured the very bricks of which it was composed ; em- ploying themselves, meanwhile, in sucking their fingers most assiduously, with the view of catching up any stray splashes of gruel that might have been cast thereon. Boys have generally excellent appetites. Oliver Twist and his companions suffered the tortures of slow starvation for three months : at last they got so voracious and wild with hunger, that one boy, who was tall for his age, and hadn't been used to that sort of thing (for his father had kept a small cook-shop), hinted darkly to his companions, that un- less he had another basin of gruel per diem, he was afraid he might some night happen to eat the boy who slept next him, who happened to be a weakly youth of tender age. He had a wild, hungry eye; and they implicitly believed him. A council was held ; lots were cast who should v/alk up to the master after supper that evening, and ask for more ; and it fell to Oliver Twist. The evening arrived; the boys took their places. The master, in his cook's uniform, stationed himself at the copper; his pauper assistants ranged themselves behind him ; the gruel was served out ; and a long grace was said over the short commons. The gruel disappeared ; the boys whispered each other, and winked at Oliver; while his next neighbours nudged him. Child as he was, he was desperate with hunger, and reckless with misery. He rose from the table; and advancing to the master, basin and spoon in hand, said : somewhat alarmed at his own temerity : " Please, sir, I want some more.'* The master was a fat, healthy man ; but he turned very pale. He gazed in stupefied astonishment on the small rebel for some seconds, and then clung for support to the Oliver Twist 13 copper. The assistants were paralysed with wonder; the boys with fear. '* What !" said the master at length, in a faint voice. ** Please, sir," replied Oliver, ** I want some more." The master aimed a blow at Oliver's head with the ladle ; pinioned him in his arms ; and shrieked aloud for the beadle. The board were sitting in solemn conclave, when Mr. Bumble rushed into the room in great excitement, and addressing the gentleman in the high chair, said, ** Mr. Limbkins, I beg your pardon, sir! Oliver Twist has asked for more !" There was a general start. Horror was depicted on every countenance. ** For more!'' said Mr. Limbkins. ** Compose yourself, Bumble, and answer me distinctly. Do I understand that he asked for more, after he had eaten the supper allotted by the dietary?" ** He did, sir," replied Bumble. ** That boy will be hung," said the gentleman in tbe"y^ white waistcoat. ** I know that boy will be hung." / Nobody controverted the prophetic gentleman's opinion. An animated discussion took place. Oliver was ordered into instant confinement; and a bill was next morning pasted on the outside of the gate, offering a reward of five pounds to anybody who would take OHver Twist off the hands of the parish. In other words, five pounds and Oliver Twist were offered to any man or woman who wanted an apprentice to any trade, business, or calling. ** I never was more convinced of anything in my life," said the gentleman in the white waistcoat, as he knocked at the gate and read the bill next morning : "I never was more convinced of anything in my life, than I am that that boy will come to be hur^. " As I purpose to show in the sequel whether the white- waistcoated gentleman was right or not, I should perhaps mar the interest of this narrative (supposing it to possess any at all), if I ventured to hint just yet, whether the life of Oliver Twist had this violent termination or no. \ 14 Oliver Twist CHAPTER III RELATES HOW OLIVER TWIST WAS VERY NEAR GETTING A PLACE, WHICH WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN A SINECURE For a week after the commission of the impious and profane offence of asking for more, Oliver remained a close prisoner in the dark and solitary room to which he had been consigned by the wisdom and mercy of the board. It ap- pears, at first sight, not unreasonable to suppose, that, if he had entertained a becoming feeling of respect for the prediction of the gentleman in the white waistcoat, he would have established that sage individual's prophetic character, once and for ever, by tying one end of his pocket- handkerchief to a hook in the wall, and attaching himself to the other. To the performance of this feat, however, there was one obstacle : namely, that pocket-handkerchiefs being decided articles of luxury, had been, for all future times and ages, removed from the noses of paupers by the express order of the board, in council assembled ; solemnly given and pronounced under their hands and seals. There was a still greater obstacle in Oliver's youth and childish- ness. He only cried bitterly all day ; and, when the long, dismal night came on, spread his little hands before his eyes to shut out the darkness, and crouching in the corner, tried to sleep : ever and anon waking with a start and tremble, and drawing himself closer and closer to the wall, as if to feel even its cold hard surface were a protection in the gloom and loneliness which surrounded him. Let it not be supposed by the enemies of *' the, system,'* that, during the period of his solitary Incarceration, Oliver was denied the benefit of exercise,* the pleasure of society, or the advantages of religious consolation. As for exercise, it was nice cold weather, and he was allowed to perform his ablutions every morning under the pump, in a stone yard, in the presence of Mr. Bumble, who prevented his catching cold, and caused a tingling sensation to pervade his frame, by repeated applications of the cane. As for society, he was carried every other day into the hall where the boys dined, and there sociably flogged as a public warn- ing and example. And so far from being denied the ad- vantages of religious consolation, he was kicked into the Oliver Twist 15 same apartment every evening* at prayer-time, and there permitted to listen to, and console his mind with, a general supplication of the boys, containing a special clause, therein inserted by authority of the board, in which they entreated to be made good, virtuous, contented, and obedient, and to be guarded from the sins and vices of Oliver Twist : whom the supplication distinctly set forth to be under the exclusive patronage and protection of the powers of wicked- ness, and an article direct from the manufactory of the very Devil himself. It chanced one morning, while 01iver*s affairs were in this auspicious and comfortable state, that Mr. Gamfield, chimney-sweep, went his way down the HiglrStreet, deeply cogitating in his mind his ways and means of paying certain arrears of rent, for which his landlord had become rather pressing. Mr. Gamfield 's most sanguine estimate of his finances could not raise them within full five pounds of the desired amount; and, in a species of arithmetical desperation, he was alternately cudgelling his brains and his donkey, when, passing the workhouse, his eyes en- countered the bill on the gate. " Wo — o !" said Mr. Gamfield to the donkey. The donkey was in a state of profound abstraction : wondering, probably, whether he was destined to be re- galed with a cabbage-stalk or two when he had disposed of the two sacks of soot with which the little cart was laden ; so, without noticing the word of command, he jogged onward. Mr. Gamfield growled a fierce imprecation on the dor^key generally, but more particularly on his eyes ; and, running after him, bestowed a blow on his head, which would in- evitably have beaten in any skull but a donkey's. Then, catching hold of the bridle, he gave his jaw a sharp wrench, by way of gentle reminder that he was not his own master ; and by these means turned him round. He then gave him another blow on the head, just to stun him till he came back again. Having completed these arrangements, he walked up to the gate, to read the bill. The gentleman with the white waistcoat was standing at the gate with his hands behind him, after having delivered himself of some profound sentiments in the board-room. Having witnessed the little dispute between Mr. Gamfield and the donkey, he smiled joyously when that person came up to read the bill, for he saw at once that Mr. Gamfield 1 6 Oliver Twist was exactly the sort of master Oliver Twist wanted. Mr. Gamfield smiled, too, as he perused the document; for five pounds was just the sum he had been wishing for; and, as to the boy with which it was encumbered, Mr. Gamfield, knowing what the dietary of the workhouse was, well knew he would be a nice small pattern, just the very thing for register stoves. So, he spelt the bill through again, from beginning to end ; and then, touching his fur cap in token \ of humility, accosted the gentleman in the white waistcoat. , " This here boy, sir, wot the parish wants to 'prentis,'*' said Mr. Gamfield. *' Ay, my man," said the gentleman in the white waist- coat, with a condescending smile. *' What of him?" " If the parish vould like him to learn a right pleasant: trade, in a good 'spectable chimbley-sweepin' bisness," said ! Mr. Gamfield, ** I wants a 'prentis, and I am ready to take him.:' *' Walk in," said the gentleman in the white waistcoat. Mr. Gamfield having lingered behind, to give the donkey another blow on the head, and another wrench of the jaw, as a caution not to run away in his absence, followed the gentleman with the white waistcoat into the room where Oliver had first seen him. *' It's a nasty trade," said Mr. Limbklns, when Gamfield had again stated his wish. * * Young boys have been smothered in chimneys before now," said another gentleman. ** That's acause they damped the straw afore they lit It in i the chlmbley to make 'em come down agin," said Gam- field ; " that's all smoke, and no blaze ; vereas smoke ain't o' no use at all in making a boy come down, for it only sinds him to sleep, and that's wot he likes. Boys is wery obstinit, and wery lazy, gen'lmen, and there's nothink like: a good hot blaze to make 'em come down vlth a run. It's humane too, gen'lmen, acause, even If they've stuck in the chlmbley, roasting their feet makes 'em struggle to hextri- cate thelrselves. " The gentleman in the white waistcoat appeared very much amused by this explanation ; but his mirth was speedily checked by a look from Mr. Limbklns. The board then proceeded to converse among themselves for a few minutes, but in so low a tone, that the words ** saving of expenditure," '* looked well in the accounts," '* have a printed report published," were alone audible. These only Oliver Twist 17 chanced to be heard, indeed, on account of their being- very frequently repeated with great emphasis. At length the whispering ceased ; and the members of the board, having resumed their seats and their solemnity,, Mr. Limbkins said : '* We have considered your proposition, and we don't approve of it. ' ' i " Not at all," said the gentleman in the white waistcoat. ** Decidedly not," added the other members. As Mr. Gamfield did happen to labour under the slight imputation of having bruised three or four boys to death already, it occurred to him that the board had, perhaps, in some unaccountable freak, taken it into their heads that this extraneous circumstance ought to influence their pro- :eedings. It was very unlike their general mode of doing jusiness, if they had; but still, as he had no particular wish to revive the rumour, he twisted his cap in his hands, and walked slowly from the table. ** So you won't let me have him, gen'lmen?" said Mr. oramfield, pausing near the door. ** No," replied Mr. Limbkins; ** at least, as it's a nasty )usiness, we think you ought to take something less than he premium we offered." Mr. Gamfield 's countenance brightened, as, with a quick jtep, he returned to the table, and said : * What '11 you give, gen'lmen? Come! Don't be too lard on a poor man. What'll you give?" ' I should say, three pound ten was plenty," said Mr. Jmbkins. ' Ten shillings too much," said the gentleman in the vhite waistcoat. * Come !" said Gamfield; '* say four pound, gen'lmen. )av four pound, and you've got rid on him for good and 11.' There!" '* Three pound ten," repeated Mr. Limbkins, firmly. "Come! I'll split the difference, gen'lmen," urged iamfield. "Three pound fifteen." " Not a farthing more," was the firm reply of Mr. imbkins. ** You're desperate hard upon me, gen'lmen," said ramfield, wavering. ' Pooh! pooh! nonsense!" said the gentleman in the ^hite waistcoat. " He'd be cheap with nothing at all, as premium. Take him, you silly fellow I He's just the 1 8 Oliver Twist boy foi you. He wants the stick, now and then : it'll do him good ; and his board needn't come very expensive, for he hasn't been over-fed since he was bom. Ha ! ha ! ha!" Mr. Gamfield gave an arch look at the faces round the table, and, observing a smile on all of them, gradually broke into a smile himself. The bargain was made. Mr. Bumble was at once instructed that Oliver Twist and his indentures were to be conveyed before the magistrate, for signature and approval, that very afternoon. In pursuance of this determination, little Oliver, to hij excessive astonishment, was released from bondage, anc ordered to put himself into a clean shirt. He had hardl} achieved this very unusual gymnastic performance, wher Mr. Bumble brought him, with his own hands, a basin o; gruel, and the holiday allowance of two ounces and quarter of bread. At this tremendous sight, Oliver begai to cry very piteously : thinking, not unnaturally, that th< board must have determined to kill him for some usefu purpose, or they never would have begun to fatten hin up in that way. ** Don't make your eyes red, Oliver, but eat your foo( and be thankful," said Mr. Bumble, in a tone of impreSjH sive pomposity. ** You're a going to be made a 'prentic», of, Oliver." '^ " A 'prentice, sir!" said the child, trembling. "Yes, Oliver," said Mr. Bumble. •* The kind am blessed gentlemen which is so many parents to you, Oliver when you have none of your own : are a going to 'prentio you : and to set you up in life, and make a man of you although the expense to the parish is three pound ten !— three pound ten, Oliver ! — seventy shillins — one hundred s and forty sixpences ! — and all for a naughty orphan whicl nobody can't love." As Mr. Bumble paused to take breath, after delivering this address in an awful voice, the tears rolled down th poor child's face, and he sobbed bitterly. " Come," said Mr. Bumble, somewhat less pompously for it was gratifying to his feelings to observe the effect hi eloquence had produced ; *' Come, Oliver ! Wipe your eye with the cuffs of your jacket, and don't cry into you gruel; that's a very foolish action, Oliver." It certain!; was, for there was quite enough water in it already. On their way to the magistrate, Mr. Bumble instructed J aise i enti Oliver Twist 19 Oliver that all he would have to do, would be to look very hiappy, and say, when the gentleman asked him if he wanted to be apprenticed, that he should like it very much ndeed ; both of which injunctions Oliver promised to obey : he rather as Mr. Bumble threw in a gentle hint, that if he ailed in either particular, there was no telling what would )e done to him. When they arrived at the office, he was hut up in a little room by himself, and admonished by dr. Bumble to stay there, until he came back to fetch him. There the boy remained, with a palpitating heart, for lalf an hour. At the expiration of which time Mr. Bumble hrust in his head, unadorned with the cocked hat, and aid aloud : '* Now, Oliver, my dear, come to the gentleman.'* As Ar, Bumble said this, he put on k grim and threatening 3ok, and added, in a low voice, " Mind what I told you, ou young rascal !" Oliver stared innocently in Mr. Bumble's face at this omewhat contradictory style of address ; but that gentle- lan prevented his offering any remark thereupon, by lead- ig him at once into an adjoining room : the door of which 7SiS Open. It was a large room, with a great window. Jehind a desk, sat two old gentlemen with powdered eads : one of whom was reading the newspaper ; while he other was perusing, with the aid of a pair of tortoise- ell spectacles, a small piece of parchment which lay efore him. Mr. Limbkins was standing in front of the esk on one side; and Mr. Gamfield, with a partially cashed face, on the other ; while two or three bluff-looking len, in top-boots, were lounging about. The old gentleman with the spectacles gradually dozed [f , over the little bit of parchment ; and there was a short ause, after Oliver had been stationed by Mr. Bumble in ont of the desk. *' This is the boy, your worship," said Mr. Bumble. The old gentleman who was reading the newspaper lised his head for a moment, and pulled the other old entieman by the sleeve; whereupon, the last-mentioned d gentleman woke up. ** Oh, is this the boy?" said the old gentleman. ** This is him, sir," replied Mr. Bumble. ** Bow to the aglstrate, my dear." Oliver roused himself, and made his best obeisance. He id been wondering, with his eyes fixed on the mag is- 20 Oliver Twist trates* powder, whether all boards were born with that white stuff on their heads, and were boards from thence- forth on that account. ** Well," said the old gentleman, ** I suppose he's fond of chimney-sweeping-?" '* He doats on it, your worship," replied Bumble; giving Oliver a sly pinch, to intimate that he had better not say he did*n't. "And he will be a sweep, will he?" inquired the old gentleman. " If we was to bind him to any other trade to-morrow, he'd run away simultaneous, your worship," replied Bumble. ** And this man that's to be his master — you, sir — you'll treat him well, and feed him, and do all that sort of thing, will you?" said the old gentleman. ** When I says I will, I means I will," replied Mr. Gam field doggedly. "You're a rough speaker, my friend, but you look an honest, open-hearted man," said the old gentleman : turn ing his spectacles in the direction of the candidate forJ Oliver's premium, whose villanous countenance was a' regular stamped receipt for cruelty. But the magistrate was half blind and half childish, so he couldn't reasonabl) be expected to discern what other people did. " I hope I am, sir," said Mr. Gamfield, with an uglj leer. " I have no doubt you are, my friend," replied the olcfp gentleman : fixing his spectacles more firmly on his ncse and looking about him for the inkstand. It was the critical moment of Oliver's fate. If the ink stand had been where the old gentleman thought it was he would have dipped his pen into it, and signed the in dentures, and Oliver would have been straightway hurriec off. But, as it chanced to be immediately under his nose it followed, as a matter of course, that he looked all ovei p. his desk for it, without finding it; and happening in th< course of his search to look straight before him, his gazoke. ji, ** I hope," stammered Mr. Limbkins; "I hope the jj agistrates will not form the opinion that the authorities ■I ive been guilty of any improper conduct, on the unsup- 5 >rted testimony of a mere child." g ** The magistrates are not called upon to pronouncman, with a vixenish countenance. li " My dear," said Mr. Sowerberry, deferentially, " this the boy from the workhouse that I told you of. ' * Oliver i wed again. 28 Oliver Twist "Dear me!'* said the undertaker's wife, "he's vei small." "Why, he is rather small," replied Mr. Bumble: loo!^ ing at Oliver as if it were his fault that he was no h'lggei " he is small. There's no denying it. But he'll gro\ Mrs. Sowerberry — he'll grow." " Ah ! I dare say he will," replied the lady pettishl; *' on our victuals and our drink. I see no saving in paris children, not I ; for they always cost more to keep, th; they're worth. However, men always think they kno best. There I Get down stairs, little bag o' bones. With this, the undertaker's wife opened a side door, ar pushed Oliver down a steep flight of stairs into a stor cell, damp and dark : forming the ante-room to the coai cellar, and denominated "kitchen:" wherein sat a slai ternly girl, in shoes down at heel, and blue worsted stocl ings very much out of repair. " Here, Charlotte," said Mrs. Sowerberry, who ha^ followed Oliver down, " give this boy some of the co! bits that were put by for Trip. He hasn't come hour: since the morning, so he may go without 'em. I dare se the boy isn't too dainty to eat 'em, — are you, boy?" Oliver, whose eyes had glistened at the mention meat, and who was trembling with eagerness to devour il replied in the negative ; and a plateful of coarse broke) victuals was set before him. I wish some well-fed philosopher, whose meat and drio turn to gall within him ; whose blood is ice, whose heart iron ; could have seen Oliver Twist clutching at the daint viands that the dog had neglected. I wish he could ha^ witnessed the horrible avidity with which Oliver tore it bits asunder with all the ferocity of famine. There is onl! one thing I should like better; and that would be to se the Philosopher making the same sort of meal himsel with the same relish. "Well," said the undertaker's wife, when Oliver ha finished his supper : which she had regarded in siler horror, and with fearful auguries of his future appetite " have you done?" There being nothing eatable within his reach, 01iv< replied in the affirmative. * " Then come with me," said Mrs. Sowerberry: takin up a dim and dirty lamp, and leading the way up stairs " your bed's under the counter. You don't mind sleepin Oliver Twist 29 mong the coffins, I suppose? But it doesn't much matter i^hether ypu do or don't, for you can't sleep anywhere else, ^ome ; don't keep me here all night!" Oliver lingered no longer, but meekly followed his new iistress. CHAPTER V LIVER MINGLES WITH NEW ASSOCIATES. GOING TO A FUNERAL FOR THE FIRST TIME, HE FORMS AN UNFAVOUR- ABLE NOTION OF HIS MASTER'S BUSINESS ►liver, being left to himself in the undertaker's shop, et the lamp down on a workman's bench, and gazed midly about him with a feeling of awe and dread, which lany people a good deal older than he, will be at no loss ► understand. An unfinished coffin on black tressels, hich stood in the middle of the shop, looked so gloomy nd death-like that a cold tremble came over him, every me his eyes wandered in the direction of the disnl^l bject : from which he almost expected to see some fright- oil form slowly rear its head, to drive him mad with terror, gainst the wall were ranged, in regular array, a long row f elm boards cut into the same shape : looking in the dim ght, like high-shouldered ghosts with their hands in their n reeches-pockets. Coffin-plates, elm-chips, bright-headed ails, and shreds of black cloth, lay scattered on the floor; nd the wall behind the counter was ornamented with a ^ vely representation of two mutes in vei-y stiff neckcloths, ti duty at a large private door, with a hearse drawn by ur black steeds, approaching in the distance. The shop as close and hot. The atmosphere seemed tainted with 5€ smell of coffins. The recess beneath the counter in hich his flock mattress was thrust looked like a grave. Nor were these the only dismal feelings which depressed •liver. He was alone in a strange place ; and we all know ow chilled and desolate the best of us will sometimes feeJ such a situation. The boy had no friends to care for, • to care for him. The regret of no recent separation as fresh in his mind ; the absence of no loved and well- Ipfemembered face sank heavily into his heart. But his rj eart was heavy, notwithstanding ; and he wished, as he ept into his narrow bed, that that were his coffin, and 30 Oliver Twist that he could be lain in a calm and lasting sleep in the" church-yard ground, with the tall grass wavinij^ gentlyf' above his head, and the sound of the old deep bell to soothe him in his sleep. Oliver was awakened in the morning, by a loud kicking" at the outside of the shop-door ; which, before he could huddle on his clothes, was repeated, in an angry and impetuous manner, about twenty-five times. When he began to undo the chain, the legs desisted, and a voic€^ began. ** Open the door, will yer?" cried the voice which be-" longed to the legs which had kicked at the door. '* I will, directly, sir," replied Oliver : undoing the chain and turning the key. '* I suppose yer the new boy, ain't yer?" said the voic^' through the key-hole. " Yes, sir," replied Oliver. " How old are yer?" inquired the voice. " Ten, sir," replied Oliver. "Then I'll whop yer when I get in," said the voice;" '* you just see if I don't, that's all, my work 'us brat !" anci*' having made this obliging promise, the voice began tcf whistle. r Oliver had been too often subjected to the process tcj which the very expressive monosyllable just recorded bearff reference, to entertain the smallest doubt that the ownerl of the voice, whoever he might be, would redeem hisi pledge, most honourably. He drew back the bolts with af trembling hand, and opened the door. ^! For a second or two, Oliver glanced up the street, anc^ down the street, and over the way : impressed with thef belief that the unknown, who had addressed him through} the keyhole, had walked a few paces off, to warm himself ;; for nobody did he see but a big charity-boy, sitting on a post in front of the house, eating a slice of bread and butter: which he cut into wedges, the size of his mouth, with a clasp knife, and then consumed with great dexterity. " ** I beg your pardon, sir," said Oliver at length: see-^' ing that no other visitor made his appearance; " did youf, knock?" ■* I kicked," replied the charity-boy. ** Did you want a coffin, sir?" inquired Oliver, inno- cently. At this the charity-boy looked monstrous fierce; and Oliver Twist 31 aid that Oliver would want one before long, if he cut jokes 7ith his superiors in that v/ay. Yer don't know who I am, I suppose, Work'us?" aid the charity-boy, in continuation : descending from the 3p of the post, meanwhile, with edifying gravity. *' No, sir," rejoined Oliver. "I'm Mister Noah Claypole," said the charity-boy, and you're under me. Take down the shutters," yer idle oung ruffian!" With this, Mr. Claypole administered a ick to Oliver, and entered the shop with a dignified air, ^hich did him great credit. It is difficult for a large- eaded, small-eyed youth, of lumbering make and heavy Duntenance, to look dignified under any circumstances ; ut it is more especially so, when superadded to these ersonal attractions are a red nose and yellow smalls. Oliver, having taken down the shutters, and broken a ane of glass in his efforts to stagger away beneath the 'eight of the first one to a small court at the side of the ouse in which they were kept during the day, was raciously assisted by Noah : who having consoled him ith the assurance that *' he'd catch it," condescended ) help him. Mr. Sowerberry came down soon after, hortly afterwards, Mrs. Sowerberry appeared. Oliver aving "caught it," in fulfilment of Noah's prediction, )llowed that young gentleman down the stairs to breakfast. '* Come near the fire, Noah," said Charlotte. " I saved nice little bit of bacon for you from master's breakfast, 'liver, shut that door at Mister Noah's back, and take lem bits that I've put out on the cover of the bread-pan. here's your tea; take it away to that box, and drink it lere, and make haste, for they'll want you to mind the lop. D'ye hear?" D'ye hear, Work'us?" said Noah Claypole. Lor, Noah!" said Charlotte, "what a rum creature DU are ! Why don't you let the boy alone?" Let him alone!" said Noah. "Why everybody lets im alone enough, for the matter of that. Neither his ither nor his mother will ever interfere with him. All his ilations let him have his own way pretty well. Eh, harlotte? He! he! he!" Oh, you queer soul !" said Charlotte, bursting into a earty laugh, in which she was joined by Noah; after hich they both looked scornfully at poor Oliver Twist, ; he sat shivering on the box in the coldest corner of the 32 Oliver Twist ) room, and ate the stale pieces which had been specially reserved for him. Noah was a charity-boy, but not a workhouse orphan. No chance-child was he, for he could trace his genealogy all the way back to his parents, who lived hard by; his mother being a washerwoman, and his father a drunken soldier, discharged with a wooden leg, and a diurnal pension of twopence-halfpenny and an unstateable fraction. The shop-boys in the neighbourhood had long been in the habil of branding Noah, in the public streets, with the ignomini- ous epithets of "leathers," "charity," and the like; anc Noah had borne them without reply. But, now that for- tune had cast in his way a nameless orphan, at whom ever the meanest could point the finger of scorn, he retorted on him with interest. \ This affords charming food for con- templation. It shows us what a beautiful thing human nature may be made to be; and how impartially the same amiable qualities ai;e developed in the finest lord and the dirtiest charity-boy/) Oliver had b^eTTsojourning at the undertaker's some three weeks or a month. Mr. and Mrs. Sowerberry — the shop being shut up — were taking their supper in the little back-parlour, when Mr. Sowerberry, after several defer- ential glances at his wife, said, " My dear — " He was going to say more; but, Mrs. Sowerberry looking up, with a peculiarly unpropitious aspect, he stopped short. " Well," said Mrs. Sowerberry, sharply. *' Nothing, my dear, nothing," said Mr. Sowerberry. ** Ugh, you brute !" said Mrs. Sowerberry. "Not at all, my dear," said Mr. Sowerberry humbly. ** I thought you didn't want to hear, my dear. I wa£ only going to say " " Oh, don't tell me what you were going to say," inter posed Mrs. Sowerberry. "I am nobody; don't consult me, pray. 7 don't want to intrude upon your secrets." Aj Mrs. Sowerberry said this, she gave an hysterical laugh which threatened violent consequences. i " But, -ny dear," said Sowerberry, " I want to ask youi advice." " No, no, don't ask mine," replied Mrs. Sowerberry, ir an affecting manner: "ask somebody else's." Here there was another hysterical laugh, which frightened Mr Sowerberry very much. This is a very common and much Oliver Twist 33 approved matrimonial course of treatment, which is often very effective. It at once reduced Mr. Sowerberry to begging, as a special favour, to be allowed to say what Mrs. Sowerberry was most curious to hear. After a short altercation of less than three quarters of an hour's duration, the permission was most graciously conceded. '* It's only about young Twist, my dear," said Mr. Sowerberry. ** A very good-looking boy, that, my dear." *' He need be, for he eats enough," observed the lady. ** There's an expression of melancholy in his face, my dear," resumed Mr. Sowerberry, ** which is very interest- ing. He would make a delightful mute, my love." Mrs. Sowerberry looked up with an expression of con- siderable wonderment. Mr. Sowerberry remarked it; and, without allowing time for any observation on the good lady's part, proceeded. ** I don't mean a regular mute to attend grown-up people, my dear, but only for children's practice. It would be very new to have a mute in proportion, my dear. You may depend upon it, it would have a superb effect." Mrs. Sowerberry, who had a good deal of taste in the undertaking way, was much struck by the novelty of this idea ; but, as it would have been compromising her dignity to have said so, under existing circumstances, she merely inquired, with much sharpness, why such an obvious sug- gestion had not presented itself to her husband's mind before? Mr. Sowerberry rightly construed this, as an acquiescence in his proposition ; it was speedily determined, therefore, that Oliver should be at once initiated into the mysteries of the trade ; and, with this view, that he should accompany his master on the very next occasion of his services being required. The occasion was not long in coming. Half an hour after breakfast next morning, Mr. Bumble entered the shop; and supporting his cane against the counter, drew forth his large leathern pocket-book : from which he selected a small scrap of paper, which he handed over to Sowerberry. "Aha!" said the undertaker, glancing over it with a lively countenance ; '* an order for a coffin, eh?" ** For a coffin first, and a porochial funeral afterwards," replied Mr. Bumble, fastening the strap of the leathern pocket-book : which, like himself, was very corpulent. ** Bayton," said the undertaker, looking from the scrap of paper to Mr. Bumble. " I never heard the name before. " c 34 Oliver Twist Bumble shook his head, as he replied, " Obstinate people, Mr. Sowerberry; very obstinate. Proud, too, I'm afraid, sir." " Proud, eh?" exclaimed Mr. Sowerberry with a sneer. " Come, that's too much." ** Oh, it's sickening," replied the beadle. ** Antimonial, Mr. Sowerberry ! " ** So it is," acquiesced the undertaker. *• We only heard of the family the night before last," said the beadle; " and we shouldn't have known anything about them, then, only a woman who lodges in the same house made an application to the porochial committee for them to send the porochial surgeon to see a woman as was very bad. He had gone out to dinner ; but his 'prentice (which is a very clever lad) sent 'em some medicine in a blacking- bottle, off-hand." " Ah, there's promptness," said the undertaker. ** Promptness, indeed !" replied the beadle. *' But what's the consequence; what's the ungrateful behaviour of these rebels, sir? Why, the husband sends back word that the medicine won't suit his wife's complaint, and so she shan't take it — says she shan't take it, sir ! Good, strong, whole- some medicine, as was given with great success to two Irish labourers and a coalheaver, only a week before — sent 'em for nothing, with a blackin '-bottle in, — and he I sends back word that she shan't take it, sir !" As the atrocity presented itself to Mr. Bumble's mind in full force, he struck the counter sharply with his cane, and became flushed with indignation. ** Well," said the undertaker, '* I ne — ver — did " i "Never did, sir!" ejaculated the beadle. "No, nor nobody never did; but, now she's dead, we've got to bury her ; and that's the direction ; and the sooner it's done, the ijp better." Thus saying, Mr. Bumble put on his cocked hat wrong 'jT side first, in a fever of parochial excitement ; and flounced out of the shop. " Why, he was so angry, Oliver, that he forgot even to ask after you!" said Mr. Sowerberry, looking after the beadle as he strode down the street. j|0] *' Yes, sir," replied Oliver, who had carefully kept him- self out of sight, during the interview; and who was shaking from head to foot at the mere recollection of the sound of Mr. Bumble's voice. He needn't have taken the H Oliver Twist 35 trouble to shrink from Mr. Bumble's glance, however; for that functionary, on whom the prediction of the gentleman in the white waistcoat had made a very strong impression, thought that now the undertaker had got Oliver upon trial the subject was better avoided, until such time as he should be firmly bound for seven years, and all danger of his being returned upon the hands of the parish should be thus effectually and legally overcome. " Well," said Mr. Sowerberry, taking up his hat, " the sooner this job is done, the better. Noah, look after the shop. Oliver, put on your cap, and come with me. " Oliver obeyed, and followed his master on his professional^mission^ They walked on, for some time, through the most crowded and densely inhabited part of the town ; and then, striking down a narrow street more dirty and miserable than any they had yet passed through, paused to look for the house which was the object of their^earch. Thejiouses on either side were high and large, but very old^ and tenanted by people of the poorest class : as their neglected appearance would have sufficiently denoted, without the concurrent testimony afforded by the squalid looks of the few men and women who, with folded arms and bodies half doubled, occasionally skulked along. A great many of the tenements had shop-fronts ; but these were fast closed, and mouldering away ; only the upper rooms being inhabited. Some houses which had become insecure from age and decay, were prevented from falling into the street, by huge beams of wood reared against the walls, and firmlv olanted in the road ; but even these crazy dens seemed to lave been selected as the nightly haunts of some houseless wretches, for many of the rough boards which supplied he place of door and window, were wrenched from their positions, to afford an aperture wide enough for the passage )f a human body. The kennel was stagnant and filthy. The very ratSj which here and there lay putrefying in its 'ottenness, were hideous with famine. There was neither knocker nor bell-handle at the open loor where Oliver and his master stopped ; so, groping lis way cautiously through the dark passage, and bidding )liver keep close to him and not be afraid, the undertaker nounted to the top of the first flight of stairs. Stumbling igainst a door on the landing, he rapped at it with his nuckles. It was opened by a young girl of thirteen or fourteen. 36 Oliver Twist The undertaker at once saw enough of what the room contained, to know it was the apartment to which he had been directed. He stepped in ; Oliver followed him. There was no fire in the room ; but a man was crouching, mechanically, over the empty stove, /in old woman, too, had drawn a low stool to the cold hearth, and was sitting beside him. There were some ragged children in another corner; and in a small recess, opposite the door, there lay upon the ground, sorrietbing covered with an old blanket. Oliver shuddered as he cast his eyes towards the place, and crept involuntarily closer to his master ; for though it was covered up, the boy felt that it was a corpse. The man's face was thin and very pale; his hair and beard were grizzly ; his eyes were bloodshot. The old woman's face was wrinkled; her two remaining teeth protruded over her under lip; and her eyes were bright and piercing. Oliver was afraid to look at either her or the man. They seemed so like the rats he had seen outside. ** Nobody shall go near her," said the man, starting fiercely up, as the undertaker approached the recess. " Keep back ! Damn you, keep back, if you've a life to lose!" " Nonsense, my good man," said the undertaker, who was pretty well used to misery in all its shapes. " Nonsense !" " I tell you," said the man: clenching his hands, and stamping furiously on the floor, — ** I tell you I won't have her put into the ground. She couldn't rest there. The i worms would worry her — not eat her — she is so worn j away. * ' The undertaker offered no reply to this raving ; but pro- ducing a tape from his pocket, knelt down for a moment by the side of the body. " Ah !" said the man : bursting into tears, and sinking on his knees at the feet of the dead woman ; ** kneel down, kneel down — kneel round her, every one of you, and mark my words ! I say she was starved to death. I never knew how bad she was, till the fever came upon her; and then her bones were starting through the skin. There was neither fire nor candle ; she died in the dark — in the dark ! She couldn't even see her children's faces, though we heard, her gasping out their names. I begged for her in the^ streets : and they sent me to prison. When I came back, she was dying ; and all the blood in my heart has dried up, Oliver Twist 37 for they starved her to death. I swear it before the God that saw it' They starved her!" He twined his hands in his hair ; and, with a loud scream, rolled grovelling upon the floor : his eyes fixed, and the foam covering his lips. The terrified children cried bitterly; but the old woman, who had hitherto remained as quiet as if she had been wholly deaf to all that passed, menaced them into silence. Having unloosed the cravat of the man who still remained extended on the ground, she tottered towards the undertaker. *' She was my daughter,*' said the old woman, nodding her head in the direction of the corpse ; and speaking with an idiotic leer, aiore ghastly than even the presence of death in suc h_a_place. *' Lord, Lord ! Well it is strange that I who'^ave birth to her, and was a woman then, should be alive and merry now, and she lying there : so cold and stiff! Lord, Lord ! — to think of it; it's as good) as a play — as good as a play !" r- — ^ As the wretched creature mumbled and chuckled in her hideous merriment, the undertaker turned to go away. " Stop, stop!" said the old woman in a loud whisper. ** Will she be buried to-morrow, or next day, or to-night? I laid her out ; and I must walk, you know. Send me a large cloak : a good warm one : for it is bitter cold. We should have cake and wine, too, before we go ! Never mind ; send some bread — only a loaf of bread and a cup of water. Shall we have some bread, dear?" she said eagerly : catching at the undertaker's coat, as he once more moved towards the door. " Yes, yes," said the undertaker, " of course. Anything you like !" He disengaged himself from the old woman's grasp; and, drawing Oliver after him, hurried away. The next day, (the family having been meanwhile relieved with a half-quartern loaf and a piece of cheese, left with them by Mr. Bumble himself,) Oliver and his master re- turned to the miserable abode; where Mr. Bumble had already arrived, accompanied by four men from the work- house, who were to act as bearers. An old black cloak had been thrown over the rags of the old woman and the man ; and the bare coffin having been screwed down, was hoisted on the shoulders of the bearers, and carried into the street. ** Now, you must put your best leg foremost, old lady !" whispered Sowerberry in the old woman's ear; " we arc 38 Oliver Twist rather late; and it won't do, to keep th3 clergyman wait- ing. Move on, my m«n, — as quick as you like !" Thus directed, the bearers trotted on under their light burden; and the two mourners kept as near them, as they could. Mr. Bumble and Sowerberry walked at a good smart pace in front ; and Oliver, whose legs were not so long as his master's, ran by the side. There was not so great a necessity for hurrying as Mr. Sowerberry had anticipated, however ; for when they reached the obscure corner of the churchyard Jn which the nettles grew, and where tKe^paris^r graves were mad^e, the clergyman had not arrived ; and the clerk, who was sitting by the vestry-room fire, seemed to think it by no means improbable that it might be an hour or so, before he came. So, they put the bier on the brink of the grave; and the two mourners waited patiently in the damp clay, with a cold rain drizzling down, while the ragged boys whom the spectacle had attracted into the churchyard played a noisy game at hide-and-seek among the tombstones, or varied their amusements by jumping backwards and forwards over the coffin. Mr. Sowerberry and Bumble, being per- sonal friends of the clerk, sat by the fire with him, and read the paper. At length, after a lapse of something more than an hour, Mr. Bumble, and Sowerberry, and the clerk, were seen running towards the grave. Immediately afterwards, the clergyman appeared : putting on his surplice as he came along. Mr. Bumble then thrashed a boy or two, to keep up appearances ; and the reverend gentleman, having read as much ot the burial service as could be compressed into four minutes, gave his surplice to the clerk, and walked away again. "Now, Bill!" said Sowerberry to the grave-digger. \ " Fill up!" !i ( It was no very difficult task ; for the grave was so full, >^fthat the uppermost coffin was within a few feet of the / surface. The grave-digger shovelled in the earth ; stamped / it loosely down with his feet : shouldered his spade ; and walked off, followed by the boys, who murmured very loud complaints at the fun being over so soon. ** Come, my good fellow!" said Bumble, tapping the man on the back. ** They want to shut up the yard." The man, who had never once moved, since he had taken his station by the grave-side, started, raised his head, Oliver Twist 39 stared at the person who had addressed him, walked for- ward for a few paces ; and fell down in a swoon. The crazy old woman was too much occupied in bewailing the loss of her cloak (which the undertaker had taken off), to pay him any attention ; so they threw a can of cold water over him ; and when he came to, saw him safely out of the churchyard, locked the gate, and departed on their different ways. ** Well, Oliver," said Sowerberry, as they walked nome, how do you like it?" ** Pretty well, thank you, sir," replied Oliver, with con- siderable hesitation. ** Not very much, sir." " Ah, you'll get used to it in time, Oliver," said Sower- berry. ** Nothing when you are used to it, my boy." Oliver wondered, in his own mind, whether it had taken a very long time to get Mr. Sowerberry used to it. But he thought it better not to ask the question ; and walked back to the shop; thinking over all he had seen and heard. CHAPTER VI OLIVER, BEING GOADED BY THE TAUNTS OF NOAH, ROUSES INTO ACTION, AND RATHER ASTONISHES HIM The month's trial over, Oliver was formally apprenticed. It was a nice sickly season just at this time. In com- nercial phrase, coffins were looking up; and, in the course Df a few weeks, Oliver acquired a great deal of experience. rhe success of Mr. Sowerberry 's ingenious speculation, xceeded even his most sanguine hopes. The oldest in- habitants recollected no period at which measles had been 50 prevalent, or so fatal to infant existence ; and many were the mournful processions which little Oliver headed, in a hat-band reaching down to his knees, to the indescrib- able admiration and emotion of all the mothers in the town. As Oliver acompanied his master in most of his adult xpeditions, too, in order that he might acquire that equanimity of demeanour and full command of nerve which are essential to a finished undertaker, he had many oppor- tunities of observing the beautiful resignation and fortitude with which some strong-minded people bear their trials and losses. 40 Oliver Twist For instance; when Sowerberry had an order for the burial of some rich old lady or gentleman, who was sur- rounded by a great number of nephews and nieces, who had been perfectly inconsolable during the previous illness, and whose grief had been wholly irrepressible even on the most public occasions, they would be as happy among them- selves as need be — quije cheerful and contented — con vers - Tng^together with asjnuch freedom and gaiety, as if nothing whatever had happened to disturb them. Husbands, too, bor€ The loss of their wives with the most heroic calmness. Wives, again, put on weeds for their husbands, as if, so far from grieving in the garb of sorrow, they had made up their minds to render it as becoming and attractive as possible. It was observable, too, that ladies and gentlemen who were in passions of anguish during the ceremony of interment, recovered almost as soon as they reached home, and became quite composed before the tea-drinking was over. All this was very pleasant and improving to see ; and Oliver beheld it with great admiration. That Oliver Twist was moved to resignation by the example of these good people, I cannot, although I am his biographer, undertake to affirm with any degree of confi- dence ; but I can most distinctly say, that for many months he continued meekly to submit to the domination and ill- treatment of Noah Claypole : who used him far worse than before, now that his jealousy was roused by seeing the new boy promoted to the black stick and hat-band, while he, the old one, remained stationary in the muffin-cap and leathers. Charlotte treated him ill, because Noah did ; and Mrs. Sowerberry was his decided enemy, because Mr. Sower-j berry was disposed to be his friend ; so, between these three on one side, and a glut of funerals on the other, Oliver was not altogether as comfortable as the hungry pig was, when he was shut up, by mistake, in the grain department of a brewery. __„,J^And now I come to a very important passage in Oliver's Cl.history ; for I have to record an act, slight and unimportant perhaps in appearance, but which indirectly produced i material change in all his future prospects and proceedings One day, Oliver and Noah had descended into the kitchen at the usual dinner-hour, to banquet upon a small joint of mutton — a pound and a half of the worst end of the neck — • when Charlotte being called out of the way, there ensued a brief interval of time, which Noah Claypole, being hungry Oliver Twist 41 and vicious, considered he could not possibly devote to a worthier purpose than aggravating and tantalising young Oliver Twist. Intent upon this innocent amusement, Noah put his feet on the table-cloth; and pulled Oliver's hair; and twitched his ears ; and expressed his opinion that he was a *' sneak ;" and furthermore announced his intention of coming to see him hanged, whenever that desirable event should take place ; and entered upon various other topics of petty annoyance, like a malicious and ill-conditioned charity-boy as he was. But, none of these taunts producing the desired effect of making Oliver cry, Noah attempted to be more facetious still ; and in this attempt, did what many small wits, with far greater reputations than Noah, sometimes do to this day, when they want to be funny. He got rather person aL__ " Work 'us," said Noah, ** how's your mother?" ** She's dead," repHed Oliver; ** don't you say anything about her to me !" Oliver's colour rose as he said this ; he breathed quickly ; and there was a curious working of the mouth and nostrils, which Mr. Claypole thought must be the immediate pre- cursor of a violent fit of crying. Under this impression he returned to the charge. *' What did she die of, Work'us?" said Noah. ** Of a broken heart, some of our old nurses told me," replied Oliver : more as if he were talking to himself, than answering Noah. ** I think I know what it must be to die of that." ** Tol de rol lol lol, right fol lairy, Work'us," said Noah, as a tear rolled down Oliver's cheek. ** What's set you a snivelling now?" ** Not you,*' replied Oliver, hastily brushing the tear away. ** Don't think it." '* Oh, not me, eh !" sneered Noah. " No, not you," replied Oliver, sharply. " There ; that's enough. Don't say anything more to me about her; you'd better not !" ** Better not !" exclaimed Noah. " Well ! Better not ! Work'us, don't be impudent. Your mother, too ! She was a nice 'un, she was. Oh, Lor!" And here, Noah nodded his head expressively ; and curled up as much of his small red nose as muscular action could collect together, for the occasion. 42 Oliver Twist '* Yer know, Work 'us," continued Noah, emboldened by Oliver's silence, and speaking in a jeering tone of affected pity : of all tones the most annoying : *' Yer know, Work 'us, it can't be helped now ; and of course yer couldn't help it then; and I'm very sorry for it; and I'm sure we all are, and pity yer very much. But yer must know, Work'us, yer mother was a regular right-down bad 'un. " " What did you say?" inquired Oliver, looking up very quickly. " A regular right-down bad 'un, Work'us," replied Noah, coolly. ** And it's a great deal better, Work'us, that she died when she did, or else she'd have been hard labour- ing in Bridewell, or transported, or hung; which is more likely than either, isn't it?" Crimson with fury, Oliver started up, overthrew the chair and table ; seized Noah by the throat ; shook him, in the violence of his rage, till his teeth chattered in his head ; and, collecting his whole force into one heavy blow, felled him to the ground. A minute ago, the boy had looked the quiet, mild, de- jected creature that harsh treatment had made him. But his spirit was roused at last ; the cruel insult to his dead mother had set his blood on fire. His breast heaved ; his attitude was erect ; his eye bright and vivid ; his whole person changed, as he stood glaring over the cowardly tormentor who now lay crouching at his feet ; and defied him with an energy that he had never known before. "He'll murder' me!" blubbered Noah. "Charlotte! missis ! Here's the new boy a murdering of me ! Help ! help ! Oliver's gone mad ! Char — lotte !" Noah's shouts were responded to, by a loud scream from Charlotte, and a louder from Mrs. Sowerberry ; the former of whom rushed into the kitchen by a side-door, while the latter paused on the staircase till she was quite certain that it was consistent with the preservation of human Hfe, to come further down. "Oh, you little wretch!" screamed Charlotte: seizing Oliver with her utmost force, which was about equal to that of a moderately strong man in particularly good training, " Oh, you little un-grate-ful, mur-de-rous, hor-rid villain !" And between every syllable, Charlotte gave Oliver a blow with all her might : accompanying it with ^ scream, for the benefit of society. Charlotte's fist was by no means a light one; but, lest it Oliver Twist 43 should not be effectual in calming Oliver's wrath, Mrs. Sowerberry plunged into the kitchen, and assisted to hold him with one hand, while she scratched his face with the other. In this favourable position of affairs, Noah rose from the ground, and pommelled him behind. This was rather too violent exercise to last long. When they were all wearied out, and could tear and beat no longer, they dragged Oliver, struggUng and shouting, but nothing daunted, into the dust-cellar, and there locked him up. This being done, Mrs. Sowerberry sunk into a chair, and burst into tears. ** Bless her, she's going off !" said Charlotte. ** A glass of water, Noah, dear. Make haste!" ** Oh ! Charlotte," said Mrs. Sowerberry; speaking as I well as she could, through a deficiency of breath, and a sufficiency of cold water, which Noah had poured over her head and shoulders. '* Oh ! Charlotte, what a mercy we have not all been murdered in our beds !" ** Ah ! mercy indeed, ma'am," was the reply. " I only hope this '11 teach master not to have any more of these dreadful creaturs, that are born to be murderers and rob- bers from their very cradle. Poor Noah ! He was all but killed, ma'am, when I come in." ** Poor fellow !" said Mrs. Sowerberry : looking piteously on the charity-boy. Noah, whose top waistcoat-button might have been somewhere on a level with the crown of Oliver's head, rubbed his eyes with the inside of his wrists while this commiseration was bestowed upon him, and performed some affecting tears and sniffs. "What's to be done!" exclaimed Mrs. Sowerberry. "Your master's not at home; there's not a man in the house, and he'll kick that door down in ten minutes." Oliver's vigorous plunges against the bit of timber in question, rendered this occurrence highly probable. "Dear, dear! I don't know, ma'am," said Charlotte, " unless we send for the police-officers." ^" Or the millingtary," suggested Mr. Claypole. " No, no," said Mrs. Sowerberry : bethinking herself of Oliver's old friend. " Run to Mr. Bumble, Noah, and tell him to come here directly, and not to lose a minute ; never mind your cap ! Make haste ! You can hold a knife to that black eye, as you run along. It'll keep the swelling down." 44 Oliver Twist Noah stopped to make no reply, but started off at his fullest speed ; and very much it astonished the people who were out walking-, to see a charity-boy tearing through the streets pell-mell, with no cap on his head, and a clasp-knife at his eve. CHAPTER VII OLIVER CONTINUES REFRACTORY Noah Claypole ran along the streets at his swiftest pace, and paused not once for breath, until he reached the work- house-gate. Having rested here, for a minute or so, to collect a good burst of sobs and an imposing show of tears and terror, he knocked loudly at the wicket ; and presented such a rueful face to the aged pauper who opened it, that even he, who saw nothing but rueful faces about him at the best of times, started back in astonishment. " Why, what's the matter with the boy !" said the old pauper. "Mr. Bumble! Mr. Bumble!" cried Noah, with well- affected dismay : and in tones so loud and agitated, that they not only caught the ear of Mr. Bumble himself, who happened to be hard by, but alarmed him so much that he rushed into the yard without his cocked hat, — which is a very curious and remarkable circumstance : as showing that even a beadle, acted upon by a sudden and powerful impulse, may be afflicted with a momentary visitation of loss oi self-possession, and forgetfulness of personal dignity. "Oh, Mr. Bumble, sir!" said Noah: ** Oliver, sir,— Oliver has " "What? W^hat?" interposed Mr. Bumble: with a gleam of pleasure in his metallic eyes: ** Not run away; he hasn't run away, has he, Noah?" " No, sir, no. Not run away, sir, but he's turned wicious," replied Noah. " He tried to murder me, sir; and then he tried to murder Charlotte ; and then missis. Oh ! what dreadful pain it is ! Such agony, please, sir !" And here, Noah writhed and twisted his body into an ex- tensive variety of eel-like positions ; thereby giving Mr. Bumble to understand that, from the violent and sanguin- Oliver Twist 45 ary onset of Oliver Twist, he had sustained severe internal injury and damage, from which he was at that moment suffering the acutest torture. When Noah saw that the intelligence he communicated perfectly paralysed Mr. Bumble, he imparted additional effect thereunto, by bewailing his dreadful wounds ten times louder than before ; and when he observed a gentle- man in a white waistcoat crossing the yard, he was more tragic in his lamentations than ever : rightly conceiving it highly expedient to attract the notice, and rouse the indignation, of the gentleman aforesaid. The gentleman's notice was very soon attracted; foi he had not walked three paces, when he turned angrily round, and inquired what that young cur was howling for, and why Mr. Bumble did not favour him with something which would render the series of vocular exclamations so desig- nated, an involuntary process? ** It's a poor boy from the free-school, sir," replied Mr. Bumble, '* who has been nearly murdered — all but murdered, sir, — by young Twist." "By Jove!" exclaimed the gentleman in the white waistcoat, stopping short. " I knew it ! I felt a strange presentiment from the very first, that that audacious young savage would come to be hung!" " He has likewise attempted, sir, to murder the female servant," said Mr. Bumble, with a face of ashy paleness. '* And his missis," interposed Mr. Claypole. ** And his master, too, I think you said, Noah?" added Mr. Bumble. " No ! he's out, or he would have murdered him," replied Noah. ** He said he v^^anted to." "Ah! Said he wanted to, did he, my boy?" inquired the gentleman in the white waistcoat. " Yes, sir," replied Noah. " And please, sir, missis wants to know whether Mr. Bumble can spare time to step up there, directly, and flog him — 'cause master's out." "Certainly, my boy; certainly," said the gentleman in the white waistcoat: smiling benignly, and patting Noah's head, which was about three inches higher than his own. ** You're a good boy — a very good boy. Here's a penny for you. Bumble, just step up to Sowerberry's with your cane, and see what's best to be done. Don't spare him, Bumble." ** No, I will not, sir," replied the beadle: adjusting the 46 Oliver Twist wax-end which was twisted round the bottom of his cane, for purposes of parochial flagellation. " Tell Sowerberry not to spare him either. They'll never do anything with him, without stripes and bruises," said the gentleman in the white waistcoat. " I'll take care, sir," replied the beadle. And the cocked hat and cane having been, by this time, adjusted to their owner's satisfaction, Mr. Bumble and Noah Claypole betook themselves with all speed to the undertaker's shop. Here the position of aifairs had not at all improved. Sowerberry had not yet returned, and Oliver continued to kick, with undiminished vigour, at the cellar-door. The accounts of his ferocity, as related by Mrs. Sowerberry and Charlotte, were of so startling a nature, that Mr. Bumble judged it prudent to parley, before opening the door. With this view he gave a kick at the outside, by way of prelude ; and, then, applying his mouth to the keyhole, said, in a deep and impressive tone : ''Oliver!" "Come; you let me out!" replied Oliver, from the inside. " Do you know this here voice, Oliver?" said Mr. Bumble. '* Yes," replied Oliver. ** Ain't you afraid of It, sir? Ain't you a-trembling while I speak, sir?" said Mr. Bumble. " No !" replied Oliver, boldly. An answer so different from the one he had expected to elicit, and was in the habit of receiving, staggered Mr. Bumble not a little. He stepped back from the keyhole; drew himself up to his full height; and looked from one to another of the three by-standers, in mute astonishment. "Oh, you know, Mr. Bumble, he must be mad," said Mrs. Sowerberry. ** No boy in half his senses could venture to speak so to you. " " It's not Madness, ma'am," replied Mr. Bumble, after a few moments of deep meditation. " It's Meat." " What?" exclaimed Mrs. Sowerberry. " Meat, ma'am, meat," replied Bumble, with stern em- phasis. " You've over-fed him, ma'am. You've raised a artificial soul and spirit in him, ma'am, unbecoming a person of his condition : as the board, Mrs. Sowerberry, who are practical philosophers, will tell you. What have paupers to do with soul or spirit? It's quite enough that Oliver Twist 47 we let 'em have live bodies. If you had kept the boy on gruel, ma'am, this would never have happened." "Dear, dear!" ejaculated Mrs. Sowerberry, piously raising her eyes to the kitchen ceiling : '* this comes of being liberal !" The liberality of Mrs. Sowerberry to Oliver, had consisted in a profuse bestowal upon him of all the dirty odds and ends which nobody else would eat ; so there was a great deal of meekness and self-devotion in her voluntarily re- maining under Mr. Bumble's heavy accusation. Of which, to do her justice, she was wholly innocent, in thought, word, or deed. "Ah!" said Mr. Bumble, when the lady brought her eyes down to earth again; " the only thing that can be done now, that I know of, is to leave him in the cellar for a day or so, till he's a little starved down ; and then to take him out, and keep him on gruel all throueh his apprentice- ship. He comes of a bad family. Excitable natures, Mrs. Sowerberry ! Both the nurse and doctor said, that that mother of his made her way here, against difficulties and pain that would have killed any well-disposed woman, weeks before. ' ' At this point of Mr. Bumble's discourse, Oliver, just hearing enough to know that some new allusion was being made to his mother, recommenced kicking, with a violence that rendered every other sound inaudible. Sowerberry returned at this juncture. Oliver's oifence having been explained to him, with such exaggerations as the ladies thought best calculated to rouse his ire, he unlocked the cellar-door in a twinkling, and dragged his rebellious ap- prentice out, by the collar. Oliver's clothes had been torn in the beating he had received ; his face was bruised and scratched ; and his hair scattered over his forehead. The angry flush had not dis- appeared, however; and when he was pulled out of his prison, he scowled boldly on Noah, and looked quite undis- mayed. ** Now, you are a nice young fellow, ain't you?" said Sowerberry; giving Oliver a shake, and a box on the ear. " He called my mother names," replied Oliver. " Well, and what if he did, you little ungrateful wretch?" said Mrs. Sowerberry. " She deserved what he said, and worse." " She didn't," said Oliver. 4-8 Oliver Twist ** She did," said Mrs. Sowerberry. ** It's a lie," said Oliver. Mrs. Sowerberry burst into a flood of tears* This flood of tears left Mr. Sowerberry no alternative. If he had hesitated for one instant to punish Oliver most severely, it must be quite clear to every experienced reader that he would have been, according to all precedents in disputes of matrimony established, a brute, an unnatural husband, an insulting- creature, a base imitation of a man, and various other agreeable characters too numerous for recital within the limits of this chapter. To do him justice, he was, as far as his power went — it was not very extensive — kindly disposed towards the boy; perhaps, because it was his interest to be so; perhaps, because his wife disliked him. The flood of tears, however, left him no resource; so he at once gave him a drubbing, which satisfied even Mrs. Sowerberry herself, and rendered Mr. Bumble's sub- sequent application of the parochial cane, rather unneces- sary. For the rest of the day, he was shut up in the back kitchen, in company with a pump and a slice of bread ; and, at night, Mrs. Sowerberry, after making various remarks outside the door, by no means complimentary to the memory of his mother, looked into the room, and, amidst the jeers and pointings of Noah and Charlotte, ordered him up stairs to his dismal bed. It was not until he was left alone in the silence and stillness of the gloomy workshop of the undertaker, that Oliver gave way to the feelings which the day's treatment may be supposed likely to have awakened in a mere child. He had listened to their taunts with a look of contempt; he had borne the lash without a cry : for he felt that pride swelling in his heart which would have kept down a shriek to the last, though they had roasted him alive. But now, when there were none to see or hear him, he fell upon his knees on the floor; and, hiding his face in his hands, wept such tears as, God send for the credit of our nature, few so young may ever have cause to pour out before him ! For a long time, Oliver remained motionless in this attitude. The candle was burning low in the socket when he rose to his feet. Having gazed cautiously round him, and listened intently, he gently undid the fastenings of the door, and looked abroad. It was a cold, dark night. The stars seemed, to the boy's eyes, farther from the earth than he had ever seen Oliver Twist 49 them before ; there was no wind ; and the sombre shadows thrown by the trees upon the ground, looked sepulchral and deathlike, from being so still. He softly reclosed the door. Having availed himself of the expiring light of the candle to tie up in a handkerchief the few articles of wearing apparel he had, sat himself down upon a bench, to wait for morning. With the first ray of light that struggled through the crevices in the shutters, Oliver arose, and again unbarred the door. One timid look around — one moment's pause ot hesitation — he had closed it behind him, and was in the open street. He looked to the right and to the left, uncertain whither to fly. He remembered to have seen the waggons, as they went out, toiling up the hill. He took the same route ; and arriving at a footpath across *he fields : which he knew, after some distance, led out aga^n into the road : struck into it, and walked quickly on. Along this same footpath, Oliver well remembered he had trotted beside Mr. Bumble, when he first carried him to the workhouse from the farm. His way lay directly in front of the cottage. His heart beat quickly when he be- thought himself of this ; and he half resolved to turn back. He had come a long way though, and should lose a great deal of time by doing so. Besides, it was so early that there was very little fear of his being seen; so he walked on. He reached the house. There was no appearance of its inmates stirring at that early hour. Oliver stopped, and peeped into the garden. A child was weeding one of the little beds; as he stopped, he raised his pale face and dis- closed the features of one of his former companions. Oliver felt glad to see him, before he went ; for, though younger than himself, he had been his little friend and playmate. They had been beaten and starved, and shut up together, many and many a time. *' Hush, Dick !" said Oliver, as the boy ran to the gate, and thrust his thin arm between the rails to greet him. " Is any one up?*"" ** Nobody but me," replied the child. " You mustn't say you saw me, Dick," said Oliver. " I am running away. They beat and ill-use me, Dick ; and I am going to seek my fortune, some long way off. I don't know where. How pale you are I" 50 Oliver Twist " I heard the doctor teH them I was dyings," replied the child with a faint smile. " I am very glad to see you, I dear; but don't stop, don't stop !" " Yes, yes, I will, to say good-b'ye to you," replied Oliver. " I shall see you again, Dick. I know I shall ! You will be well and happy !" "I hope so," replied the child. ** After I am dead, but not before. I know the doctor must be right, Oliver, be- •cause I dream so much of Heaven, and Angels, and kind faces that I never see when I am awake. Kiss me," said the child, climbing up the low gate, and flinging his little arms round Oliver's neck. " Good-b'ye, dear! God bless you ! ' ' The blessing was from a young child's lips, but it was the first that Oliver had ever heard invoked upon his head ; and through the struggles and sufferings, and troubles and changes, of his after life, he never once forgot it. CHAPTER VHI OLIVER WALKS TO LONDON. HE ENCOUNTERS ON THE ROAD A STRANGE SORT OF YOUNG GENTLEMAN Oliver reached the stile at which the by-path terminated; and once more gained the high-road. It was eight o'clock now. Though he was nearly five miles away from the town, he ran, and hid behind the hedges, by turns, till noon : fearing that he might be pursued and overtaken.i Then he sat down to rest by the side of the milestone, and began to think, for the first time, where he had better go and try to live. The stone by which he was seated, bore, in large characters, an intimation that it was just seventy miles from that spot to London. The name awakened a new train of ideas in the boy's mind. London ! — that great large place ! — nobody — not even Mr. Bumble — could ever find him there ! He had often heard the old men in the work- house, too, say that no lad of spirit need want in London ; and that there were ways of living in that vast city, which those who had been bred up in country parts had no idea of. It was the very place for a homeless boy, who must die in the streets unless some one helped him. As these Oliver Twist 51 thing's passed through his thoughts, he jumped upon his feet, and again walked forward. He had diminished the distance between himself and London by full four miles more, before he recollected how much he must undergo ere he could hope to reach his place of destination. As this consideration forced itself upon him, he slackened his pace a little, and meditated upon his means of getting there. He had a crust of bread, a coarse shirt, and two pairs of stockings, in his bundle. He had a penny too — a gift of Sowerberry's after some funeral in ivhich he had acquitted himself more than ordinarily well — in his pocket. " A clean shirt," thought Oliver, ** is a i^ery comfortable thing; and so are two pairs of darned stockings ; and so is a penny ; but they are small helps :o a sixty-five miles' walk in winter time." But Oliver's :houghts, like those of most other people, although they Lvere extremely ready and active to point out his difficulties, ivere wholly at a loss to suggest any feasible mode of sur- rnounting them ; so, after a good deal of thinking to no ^articular purpose, he changed his little bundle over to the >ther shoulder, and trudged on. Oliver walked twenty miles that day ; and all that time lasted nothing but the crust of dry bread, and a few Iraughts of water, which he begged at the cottage-doors )y the roadside. When the night came, he turned into a neadow; and, creeping close under a hay-rick, deter- nined to lie there, till morning. He felt frightened at first, or the wind moaned dismally over the empty fields : and le was cold and hungry, and more alone than he had ever "elt before. Being very tired with his walk, however, he >oon fell asleep and forget his troubles. He felt cold and stiff, when he got up next morning, and ;o hungry that he was obliged to exchange the penny for I small loaf, in the very first village through which he massed. He had walked no more than twelve miles, wher^ light closed in again. His feet were sore, and his legs 50 weak that they trembled beneath him. Another night Dassed in the bleak damp air, made him worse ; when he set forward on his journey next morning, he could hardly :rawl along. He waited at the bo'ttom of a steep hill till a stage-coach i:ame up, and then begged of the outside passengers; but there were very few who took any notice of him : and even those told him to wait till they got to the top of the hill, 52 Oliver Twist and then let them see how far he could run for a halfpenny. Poor Oliver tried to keep up with the coach a little way, but was unable to do it, by reason of his fatigue and sore feet. When the outsides saw this, they put their halfpence back into their pockets again, declaring that he was an idle young dog, and didn't deserve anything; and the coach rattled away and left only a cloud of dust behind. In some villages, large painted boards were fixed up : warning all persons who begged within the district, that they would be sent to jail. This frightened Oliver very much, and made him glad to get out of those villages with all possible expedition. In others, he would stand about the inn-yards, and look mournfully at every one who passed : a proceeding which generally terminated in the landlady's ordering one of the post-boys who were lounging about, to drive that strange boy out of the place, for she was sure he had come to steal something. If he begged at a farmer's house, ten to one but they threatened to set the dog on him ; and when he showed his nose in a shop, they talked about the beadle— which brought Oliver's heart into his mouth, — very often the only thing he had there, for many hours together. In fact, if it had not been for a good-hearted turnpike- man, and a benevolent old lady, Oliver's troubles would have been shortened by the very same process which had put an end to his mother's ; in other words, he would most assuredly have fallen dead upon the king's highway. But the turnpike-man gave him a meal of bread and cheese ; and the old lady, who had a shipwrecked grandson wandering barefoot in some distant part of the earth, took pity upon the poor orphan, and gave him what little she could afford — and more — with such kind and gentle words, and such tears of sympathy and compassion, that they sank deeper into Oliver's soul, than all the sufferings he had ever under- gone. Early on the seventh morning after he had left his native place, Oliver limped slowly into the little town of Barnet. The window-shutters were closed ; the street was empty ; not a soul had awakened to the business of the day. The sun was rising in all its splendid beauty ; but the light only served to show the boy his own lonesomeness and desola- tion, as he sat, with bleeding feet and covered with dust, upon a door-step. By d'^grees, the shutters were opened; the window- Oliver Twist 53 blinds were drawn up ; and people began passing to and fro. Some few stopped to gaze at Oliver for a moment or two, or turned round to stare at him as they hurried by; but none relieved him, or troubled themselves to inquire how he came there. He had no heart to beg. And there he sat. He had been crouching on the step for some time : wondering at the great number of public-houses (every other house in Barnet was a tavern, large or small), gazing listlessly at the coaches as they passed through, and think- ing how strange it seemed that they could do, with ease, in a few hours, what it had taken him a whole week of courage and determination beyond his years to accomplish : when he was roused by observing that a boy, who had passed him carelessly some minutes before, had returned, and was now surveying him most earnestly from the op- posite side of the way. He took little heed of this at first ; but the boy remained in the same attitude of close obser- vation so long, that Oliver raised his head, and returned his steady look. Upon this, the boy crossed over; and, walking close up to Oliver, said, '* Hullo, my covey ! What's the row?" The boy who addressed this inquiry to the young way- farer, was about his own age : but one of the queerest looking boys that Oliver had ever seen. He was a snub- nosed, flat-browed, common-faced boy enough ; and as dirty a juvenile as one would wish to see ; but he had about him all the airs and manners of a man. He was short of his age : with rather bow-legs, and little, sharp, ugly eyes. His hat was stuck on the top of his head so lightly, that it threatened to fall off every moment — and would have done so, very often, if the wearer had not had a knack of every now and then giving his head a sudden twitch, which brought it back to its old place again. He wore a man's coat, which reached nearly to his heels. He had turned the cuffs back, half-way up his arm, to get his hands out of the sleeves : apparently with the ultimate view of thrust- ing them into the pockets of his corduroy trousers ; for there he kepj them. Ke was, altogether, as roystering and swaggering a young gentleman as ever stood four feet six, or something less, in his bluchers. ** Hullo, my covey ! What's the row?'' said this strange jroung gentleman to Oliver. " I am very hungry and tired," replied Oliver : the tears 54 - Oliver Twist standing in his eyes as he spoke. '* I have walked a long way. I have been walking- these seven days." " Walking for sivin days !" said the young gentleman., *' Oh, I see. Beak's order, eh? But," he added, noticing Oliver's look of surprise, ** I suppose you don't know what a beak is, my flash com-pan-i-on?" Oliver mildly replied, that he had always heard a bird's? mouth described by the term in question. *' My eyes, how green!" exclaimed the young gentle- man. '* Why, a beak's a madgst'rate; and when you walk by a beak's order, it's not straight forerd, but always; a going up, and nivir a coming down agin. Was you neveri on the mill?" " What mill?" inquired Oliver. " What mill! Why, the mill — the mill as takes up so little room that it'll work inside a Stone Jug ; and always goes better when the wind's low with people, than when it's high ; acos then they can't get workmen. But come," said the young gentleman ; ** you want grub, and you shall have it. I'm at low-water-mark myself — only one bob and a magpie; but, as far as it goes, I'll fork out and stump. Up with you on your pins. There ! Now then ! Morrice ! ' ' Assisting Oliver to rise, the young gentleman took him to an adjacent chandler's shop, where he purchased a suffi- ciency of ready-dressed ham and a half-quartern loaf, or, as he himself expressed it, ** a fourpenny bran !" the ham being kept clean and preserved from dust, by the ingenious expedient of making a hole in the loaf by pulling out a portion of the crumb, and stuffing it therein. Taking the bread under his arm, the young gentleman turned into a small public-house, and led the way to a tap-room in the rear of the premises. Here, a pot of beer was brought in, by direction of the mysterious youth ; and Oliver, falling to, at his new friend's bidding, made a long and hearty meal, during the progress of which, the strange boy eyed him from time to time with great attention. '* Going to London?" said the strange boy, when Oliver had at length concluded. "Yes." " Got any lodgings?" **No." *' Money?" "No." Oliver Twist 55 The strange boy whistled; and put his arms into his pockets, as far as the big coat sleeves would let them go. " Do you live in London?" inquired Oliver. " Yes. I do, when I'm at home," repHed the boy. *'l suppose you want some place to sleep in to-night, don't you ? ' ' " I do, indeed," answered Oliver. " I have not slept under a roof since I left the country." " Don't fret your eyelids on that score," said the young gentleman. " I've got to be in London to-night; and I know a 'spectable old genelman as lives there, wot '11 give you lodgings for nothink, and never ask for the change — that is, if any genelman he knows interduces you. And don't he know me? Oh, no! Not in the least! By no means. Certainly not ! " ; The young gentleman smiled, as if to intimate that the; latter fragments of discourse were playfully ironical ; and finished the beer as he did so. I This unexpected offer of shelter was too tempting to be resisted ; especially as it was immediately followed up, by the assurance that the old gentleman referred to, would doubtless provide Oliver with a comfortable place, without loss of time. This led to a more friendly and confidential dialogue; from which Oliver discovered that his friend's' name was Jack Dawkins, and that he was a peculiar pet and protege of the elderly gentleman before mentioned. Mr. Dawkins 's appearance did not say a vast deal in favour of the comforts which his patron's interest obtained for those which he took under his protection; but, as he had a rather flighty and dissolute mode of conversing, and furthermore avowed that among his intimate friends he was better known by the sobriquet of "The artful Dodger,'* Oliver concluded that, being of a dissipated and careless turn, the moral precepts of his benefactor had hitherto been thrown away upon him. Under this impression, he secretly resolved to cultivate the good opinion of the old gentleman as quickly as possible ; and, if he found the Dodger incor- rigible, as he more than half suspected he should, to decline the honour of his farther acquaintance. "^ As John Dawkins objected to their entering London be- fore nightfall, it was nearly eleven o'clock when they reached the turnpike at Islington. They crossed from the Angel into St. John's Road; struck down the small street which terminates at Sadler's Wells Theatre; through 56 Oliver Twist Exmouth Street and Coppice Row ; down the little court by the side of the workhouse ; across the classic ground which once bore the name of Hockley-in-the-Hole ; thence into Little Saffron Hill ; and so into Saffron Hill the Great : along which the Dodger scudded at a rapid pace, directing Oliver to follow close at his heels. Although Oliver had enough to occupy his attention in keeping sight of his leader, he could not help bestowing a few hasty glances on either side of the way, as he passed along. A dirtier or more wretched place he had never seen. The street was very narrow and muddy, and the air was impregnated with filthy odours. There were a good many small shops ; but the only stock in trade appeared to be heaps of children, who, even at that time of night, were crawling in and out at the doors, or screaming from the inside. The sole places that seemed to prosper amid the general blight of the place, were the public-houses; and! in them, the lowest orders of Irish were wrangling with might and main. Covered ways and yards, which here and there diverged from the main street, disclosed little knots of houses, where drunken men and women werei positively wallowing in filth ; and from several of the door- ways, great ill-looking fellows were cautiously emerging,; bound, to all appearance, on no very well-disposed or harmless errands. Oliver was just considering whether he hadn't better run, away, when they reached the bottom of the hill. His con- ductor, catching him by the arm, pushed open the door ofl a house near Field Lane; and, drawing him into the pas-| sage, closed it behind them. *' Now, then !" cried a voice from below, in reply to a whistle from the Dodger. ** Plummy and slam !" was the reply. This seemed to be some watchword or signal that all was right ; for the light of a feeble candle gleamed on the wall at the remote end of the passage; and a man's face peeped out, from where a balustrade of the old kitchen staircase had been broken away. "There's two on you," said the man, thrusting the candle farther out, and shading his eyes with his hand. "Who's the t'other one?" " A new pal," replied Jack Dawkins, pulling Oliver forward. ** Where did he come from?" Oliver Twist 57 " Greenland. Is Fag in up stairs?" " Yes, he's a sortin' the wipes. Up with you!** The candle was drawn back, and the face disappeared. Oliver, groping his way with one hand, and having the other firmly grasped by his companion, ascended with much difficulty the dark and broken stairs : which his conductor mounted with an ease and expedition that showed he was well acquainted with them. He threw open the door of a back-room, and drew Oliver in after him. The walls and ceiling of the room were perfectly black with age and dirt. There was a deal table before the fire : upon which were a candle, stuck in a ginger-beer bottle, two or three pewter pots, a loaf and butter, and a plate. In a frying-pan, which was on the fire, and which was secured to the mantelshelf by a string, some sausages were cooking ; and standing over them, with a toasting-fork in his hand, was a very old shrivelled Jew, whose villanous-look- ing and repulsive face was obscured by a quantity of matted red hair. He was dressed in a greasy flannel gown, with his throat bare; and seemed to be dividing his attention between the frying-pan and a clothes-horse, over which a great number of silk handkerchiefs were hanging. Several rough beds made of old sacks, were huddled side by side on the floor. Seated round the table were four or five boys, none older than the Dodger, smoking long clay pipes, and drinking spirits with the air of middle-aged men. These all crowded about their associate as he whispered a few words to the Jew; and then turned round and grinned at Oliver. So did the Jew himself, toasting-fork in hand. " This is him, Fagin," said Jack Dawkins ; ** my friend Oliver Twist." The Jew grinned ; and, making a low obeisance to Oliver, took him by the hand, and hoped he should have the honour o^ his intimate acquaintance. Upon this, the young gentle- men with the pipes came round him, and shook both his hands very hard — especially the one in which he held his little bundle. One young gentleman was very anxious to hang up his cap for him ; and another was so obliging as to put his hands in his pockets, in order that, as he was very tired, he might not have the trouble of emptying them, himself, when he went to bed. These civilities v^ould pro- bably have been extended much farther, but for a liberal exercise of the Jew's toasting-fork on the' heads and shoulders of the affectionate youths who offered them. 58 Oliver Twist " We are very glad to see you, Oliver, very," said the Jew. ** Dodger, take off the sausages; and draw a tub near the fire for Oliver. Ah, you're a-staring at the pocket- handkerchiefs ! eh, my dear ! There are a good many of 'em, ain't there? We've just looked 'em out, ready for the wash; that's all, Oliver; that's all. Ha! ha! ha!" The latter part of this speech, was hailed by a boisterous shout from all the hopeful pupils of the merry old gentle- man. In the midst of which, they went to supper. Oliver ate his share, and the Jew then mixed him a glass of hot gin and water : telling him he must drink it off directly, because another gentleman wanted the tumbler. Oliver did as he was desired. Immediately afterwards he felt himself gently lifted on to one of the sacks; and then he sunk into a deep sleep. CHAPTER IX CONTAINING FURTHER PARTICULARS CONCERNING THE PLEASANT OLD GENTLEMAN AND HIS HOPEFUL PUPILS It was late next morning when Oliver awoke, from a sound, long sleep. There was no other person in the room but the old Jew, who was boiUng some coffee in a saucepan for breakfast, and whistling softly to himself as he stirred it round and round, with an iron spoon. He would stop every now and then to listen when there was the least noise below : and when he had satisfied himself, he would go on, whistling and stirring again, as before. Although Oliver had roused himself from sleep, he was not thoroughly awake. There is a drowsy state, between sleeping and waking, when you dream more in five minutes with your eyes half open, and yourself half conscious of everything that is passing around you, than you would in five nights with your eyes fast closed, and your senses wrapt in perfect unconsciousness. jT At such times, a mortal knows just enough of what his mihd is doing, to form some glimmering conception of its mighty powers, its bounding from earth and spurning time and space, when freed from the restraint of its corporeal associate. ? Oliver was precisely in this condition. He saw the Jew Oliver Twist 59 with his half-closed eyes ; heard his low whistling ; and recognised the sound of the spoon grating against the saucepan's sides; and yet the self -same senses were mentally engaged, at the same time, in busy action with almost everybody he had ever known. When the coffee was done, the Jew drew the saucepan -to the hob. Standing, then, in an irresolute attitude for a few minutes, as if he did not well know how to employ himself, he turned round and looked at Oliver, and called him by his name. He did not answer, and was to all appearance asleep. After satisfying himself upon this head, the Jew stepped gently to the door : which he fastened. He then drew forth : as it seemed to Oliver, from some trap in the floor : a small box, which he placed carefully on the table. His eyes glistened as he raised the lid, and looked in. Drag- ging an old chair to the table, he sat down ; and took from it a magnificent gold watch, sparkling with jewels. " Ah !" said the Jew, shrugging up his shoulders, and distorting every feature with a hideous grin. * * Clever dogs ! Clever dogs ! Staunch to the last ! Never told the old parson where they were. Never peached upon old Fagin ! And why should they ? It wouldn't have loosened the knot, or kept the drop up, a minute longer. No, no, no! Fine fellows! Fine fellows!" With these, and other muttered reflections of the like nature, the Jew once more deposited the watch in its place of safety. At least half a dozen more were severally drawn forth from the same box, and surveyed with equal pleasure ; besides rings, brooches, bracelets, and other articles of jewellery, of such magnificent materials, and costly work- manship, that Oliver had no idea, even of their names. Having replaced these trinkets, the Jew took out an- other : so small that it lay in the palm of his hand. There seemed to be some very minute inscription on it ; for the Jew laid it flat upon the table, and, shading it with his hand, pored over it, long and earnestly. At length he put it down, as if despairing of success; and, leaning back in his chair, muttered : ** What a fine thing capital punishment is ! Dead men never repent ; dead men never bring awkward stories to light. Ah, it's a fine thing for the trade ! Five of 'em strung up in a row, and none left to play booty, or turn white-livered I" 6o Oliver Twist As the Jew uttered these words, his bright dark eyes, which had been staring vacantly before him, fell on Oliver's face; the boy's eyes were fixed on his in mute curiosity; and although the recognition was only for an instant — for the briefest space of time that can possibly be conceived — it was enough to show the old man that he had been ob- served. He closed the lid of the box with a loud crash ; and, laying his hand on a bread knife which was on the table, started furiously up. He trembled very much though ; for, even in his terror Oliver could see that the knife quivered in the air. " What's that?" said the Jew. " What do you watch me for? Why are you awake? What have you seen? Speak out, boy! Quick — quick! for your life!** ** I wasn't able to sleep any longer, sir," replied Oliver, meekly. '* I am very sorry if I have disturbed you, sir." *' You were not awake an hour ago?" said the Jew, scowling fiercely on the boy. " No ! No, indeed !" replied Oliver. '* Are you sure?" cried the Jew : with a still fiercer look than before : and a threatening attitude. ** Upon my word I was not, sir,** replied Oliver, earnestly. ** I was not, indeed, sir." ** Tush, tush, my dear!" said the Jew, abruptly resum- ing his old manner, and playing with the knife a little, before he laid it down; as if to induce the belief that he had caught it up, in mere sport. ** Of course I know that, my dear. I only tried to frighten you. You're a brave boy. Ha! ha! you're a brave boy, Oliver!" The Jew rubbed his hands with a chuckle, but glanced uneasily at the box, notwithstanding. " Did you see any of these pretty things, my dear?" said the Jew, laying his hand upon it after a short pause. " Yes, sir," replied Oliver. **Ah!" said the Jew, turning rather pale. ** They — they're mine, Oliver; my little property. All I have to live upon, in my old age. The folks call me a miser, my dear. Only a miser; that's all." Oliver thought the old gentleman must be a decided miser to live in such a dirty place, with so many watches ; but, thinking that perhaps his fondness for the Dodger and the other boys, cost him a good deal of money, he only cast a deferential look at the Jew, and asked if he might get up. Oliver Twist 61 "Certainly, my dear, certainly," replied the old gentle- man. ** Stay. There's a pitcher of water in the corner by the door. Bring it here; and I'll give you a basin to wash in, my dear.** Oliver got up ; walked across the room ; and stooped for an instant to raise the pitcher. When he turned his head, the box was gone. He had scarcely washed himself, and made everything tidy, by emptying the basin out of the window, agreeably to the Jew's directions, when the Dodger returned : accom- panied by a very sprightly young friend, whom Oliver had seen smoking on the previous night, and who was now formally introduced to him as Charley Bates. The four sat down, to breakfast, on the coffee, and some hot rolls and ham which the Dodger had brought home in the crown of his hat. "Well," said the Jew, glancing slyly at Oliver, and addressing himself to the Dodger, ** I hope you've been at work this morning, my dears?" " Hard," replied the Dodger. " As Nails," added Charley Bates. " Good boys, good boys !" said the Jew. ** W^hat have you got. Dodger?" "A couple of pocket-books," replied that young gentle- man. *' Lined?" inquired the Jew, with eagerness. *' Pretty well," said the Dodger, producing two pocket- books ; one green, and the other red. *' Not so heavy as they might be," said the Jew, after looking at the insides carefully; ** but very neat and nicely made. Ingenious workman, ain't he, Oliver?" " Ver}% indeed, sir," said Oliver. At which Mr. Charles Bates laughed uproariously ; very much to the amazement of Oliver, who saw nothing to laugh at, in anything that had passed. " And what have you got, my dear?" said Fagin to Charley Bates. ** Wipes," replied Master Bates; at the sam.e time pro- ducing four pocket-handkerchiefs. ** Well," said the Jew, inspecting them closely; " they're very good ones, very. You haven't marked them well, though, Charley ; so the marks shall be picked out with a needle, and we'll teach Oliver how to do it. Shall us, Oliver, eh? Ha ! ha ! ha!" 62 Oliver Twist " If you please, sir," said Oliver. " You'd like to be able to make pocket-handkerchiefs as easy as Charley Bates, wouldn't you, my dear?" said the Jew. " Very much, indeed, if you'll teach me, sir," replied Oliver. Master Bates saw something so exquisitely ludicrous in this reply that he burst into another laugh ; which laugh, meeting the coffee he was drinking, and carrying it down some wrong channel, very nearly terminated in his pre- mature suffocation. " He is so jolly green !" said Charley when he recovered, as an apology to the company for his unpolite behaviour. The Dodger said nothing, but he smoothed Oliver's hair over his eyes, and said he'd know better, by-and-bye; upon which the old gentleman, observing Oliver's colour mount- ing, changed the subject by asking whether there had been much of a crowd at the execution that morning? This made him wonder more and more ; for it was plain from the replies of the two boys that they had both been there ; and Oliver naturally wondered how they could possibly have found time to be so very industrious. When the breakfast was cleared away, the merry old gentleman and the two boys played at a very curious and uncommon game, which was performed in this way. The merry old gentleman, placing a snuff-box in one pocket of his trousers, a note-case in the other, and a watch in his waistcoat pocket, with a guard-chain round his neck, and sticking a mock diamond pin in his shirt : buttoned his coat tight round him, and putting his spectacle-case and handkerchief in his pockets, trotted up and down the room with a stick, in imitation of the manner in which old gentlemen walk about the streets any hour in the day. Sometimes he stopped at the fire-place, and sometimes at the door, making believe that he was staring with all his might into shop-windows. At such times he would look constantly round him, for fear of thieves, and would keep slapping all his pockets in turn, to see that he hadn't lost anything, in such a very funny and natural manner, that Oliver laughed til! the tears ran down his face. All this time, the two boys followed him closely about : getting out of his sight, so nimbly, every time he turned round, that it was impossible to follow their motions. At last, the Dodger trod upon his toes, or ran upon his boot accident- Oliver Twist 63 ally, while Charley Bates stumbled up against him behind ; and In that one moment they took from him, with the most extraordinary rapidity, snuff-box, note-case, watch-guard, chain, shirt-pin, pocket-handkerchief, even the spectacle- case. If the old gentleman felt a hand in any one of his pockets, he cried out where it was; and then the game began all over again. When this game had been played a great many times, a couple of young ladies called to see the young gentlemen ; one of whom was named Bet, and the other Nancy. They wore a good deal of hair, not very neatly turned up behind, and were rather untidy about the shoes and stockings. They were not exactly pretty, perhaps; but they had a great deal of colour in their faces, and looked quite stout and hearty. Being remarkably free and agreeable in their manners, Oliver thought them very nice g-irls indeed. As there is no doubt they were. These visitors stopped a long time. Spirits were pro- duced, in consequence of one of the young ladies complain- ing of a coldness in her inside ; and the conversation took a very convivial and improving turn. At length, Charley Bates expressed his opinion that it was time to pad the hoof. This, it occurred to OHver, must be French for going out ; for, directly afterwards, the Dodger, and Charley, and the two young ladies, went away together, having been kindly furnished by the amiable old Jew with money to spend. " There, my dear," said Fagin. ** That's a pleasant life, isn't it? They have gone out for the day." '* Have they done work, sir?" inquired Oliver. "Yes," said the Jew; "that is, unless they should unexpectedly come across any, when they are out ; and they won't neglect it, if they do, my dear, depend upon it. Make 'em your models, my dear. Make 'em your models," tapping the fire-shovel on the hearth to add force to his words; *' do everything they bid you, and take their advice in all matters — especially the Dodger's, my dear. He'll be a great man himself, and will make you one too, if you take pattern by him. — Is my handkerchief hanging out of my pocket, my dear?" said the Jew, stopping short. " Yes, sir," said Oliver. ** See if you can take it out, without my feeling it : as you saw them do, when we were at play this morning. ' ' Oliver held up the bottom of the pocket with one hand, 64 Oliver Twist as he had seen the Dodger hold it, and drew the handker- chief lightly out of it with the other. *' Is it gone?" cried the Jew. ** Here it is, sir," said Oliver, showing it in his hand. ** You're a clever boy, my dear," said the playful old gentleman, patting Oliver on the head approvingly. "I never saw a sharper lad. Here's a shilling for you. If you go on, in this way, you'll be the greatest man of the time. And now come here, and I'll show you how to take the marks out of the handkerchiefs." Oliver wondered what picking the old gentleman's pocket in play, had to do with his chances of being a great man. But, thinking that the Jew, being so much his senior, must know best, he followed him quietly to the table, and was soon deeply involved in his new study. CHAPTER X OLIVER BECOMES BETTER ACQUAINTED WITH THE CHARACTERS OF HIS NEW ASSOCIATES ; AND PURCHASES EXPERIENCE AT A HIGH PRICE. BEING A SHORT, BUT VERY IMPORTANT! CHAPTER, IN THIS HISTORY For many days, Oliver remained in the Jew's room, pick- ing the marks out of the pocket-handkerchiefs, (of which ai great number were brought home,) and sometimes taking: part in the game already described : which the two boys and the Jew played, regularly, every morning. At length, he began to languish for fresh air, and took many occa- sions of earnestly entreating the old gentleman to allowv him to go out to work, with his two companions. Oliver was rendered the more anxious to be actively employed, by what he had seen of the stern morality of the old gentleman's character. Whenever the Dodger or Charley Bates came home at night, empty-handed, he would expatiate with great vehemence on the misery of idle and lazy habits ; and would enforce upon them the Necessity of an active life, by sending them supperless to bed. On one occasion, indeed, he even went so far as to knock them both down a flight of stairs ; but this was carry- ing out his virtuous precepts to an unusual extent. At length, one morning, Oliver obtained the permission Oliver Twist 65 he had so eagerly sought. There had been no handker- chiefs to work upon, for two or three days, and the dinners had been rather meagre. Perhaps these were reasons for the old gentleman's giving his assent; but, whether they were or no, he told Oliver he might go, and placed him under the joint guardianship of Charley Bates, and his friend the Dodger. The three boys sallied out; the Dodger with his coat- sleeves tucked up, and his hat cocked, as usual ; Master Bates sauntering along with his hands in his pockets ; and Oliver between them, wondering where they were going, and what branch of manufacture he v/ould be instructed in, first. The pace at which they went, was such a very lazy, ill- looking saunter, that Oliver soon began to think his com- panions were going to deceive the old gentleman, by not going to work at all. The Dodger had a vicious pro- pensity, too, of pulling the caps from the heads of small boys and tossing them down areas ; while Charley Bates exhibited some very loose notions concerrting the rights of property, by pilfering divers apples and onions from the stalls at the kennel sides, and thrusting them into pockets which were so surprisingly capacious, that they seemed to undermine his whole suit of clothes in every direction. These things looked so bad, that Oliver was on the point of declaring his intention of seeking his way back, in the best way he could; when his thoughts were suddenly directed into another channel, by a very mysterious change of behaviour on the part of the Dodger. They were just emerging from a narrow court not far from the open square in Clerkenwell, which is yet called, by some strange perversion of terms, *' The Green :" when the Dodger made a sudden stop; and, laying his finger on his lip, drew his companions back again, with the greatest caution and circumspection. '• What's the matter?" demanded Oliver. ** Hush!" replied the Dodger. " Do you see that old cove at the book-stall?" " The old gentleman over the way?" said Oliver. *' Yes, I see him." •* He'll do," said the Dodger. " A prime plant," observed Master Charley Bates. Oliver looked from one to the other, with the greatest surprise; but he was not permitted to make any inquiries; 66 Oliver Twist for the two boys walked stealthily across the road, and slunk close behind the old gentleman towards whom his attention had been directed. Oliver walked a few paces after them ; and, not knowing whether to advance or retire, stood looking on in silent amazement. The old gentleman was a very respectable-looking per- sonage, with a powdered head and gold spectacles. He was dressed in a bottle-green coat with a black velvet collar ; wore white trousers ; and carried a smart bamboo cane under his arm. He had taken up a book from the stall, and there he stood, reading away, as hard as if he were in his elbow-chair, in his own study. It is very pos- sible that he fancied himself there, indeed ; for it was plain, from his abstraction, that he saw not the book-stall, nor the street, nor the boys, nor, in short, anything but the book itself : which he was reading straight through : turn- ing over the leaf when he got to the bottom of a page, beginning at the top line of the next one, and going regularly on, with the greatest interest and eagerness. What was Oliver's horror and alarm as he stood a few paces off, looking on with his eyelids as wide open as they would possibly go, to see the Dodger plunge his hand into the old gentleman's pocket, and draw from thence a hand- kerchief ! To see him hand the same to Charley Bates ; and finally to behold them, both, running away round the corner at full speed. in an instant the whole mystery of the handkerchiefs, and the watches, and the jewels, and the Jew, rushed upon the boy's mind. He stood, for a moment, with the blood so tingling through all his veins from terror, that he felt as if he were in a burning fire ; then, confused and frightened, he took to his heels; and, not knowing what he did, made off as fast as he could lay his feet to the ground. This was all done in a minute's space. In the very instant when Oliver began to run, the old gentleman, put- ting his hand to his pocket, and missing his handkerchief, turned sharp round. Seeing the boy scudding away at such a rapid pace, he very naturally concluded him. to be the depredator; and, shouting " Stop thief!" with all his . might, made off after him, book in hand. But the old gentleman was not the only person who raised the hue-and-cry. The Dodger and Master Bates, unwilling to attract public attention by running down the Oliver Twist 67 open street, had merely retired into the very first doorway -ound the corner. They no sooner heard the cry, and saw Dliver running, than, guessing exactly how the matter stood, they issued forth with great promptitude; and, shouting "Stop thief!" too, joined in the pursuit like ^^ood citizens. Although Oliver had been brought up by philosophers, he was not theoretically acquainted with the beautiful axiom that self-preservation is the first law of nature. If he had been, perhaps he would have been prepared for this. Not being prepared, however, it alarmed him the more ; so away he went like the wind, with the old gentleman and the two boys roaring and shouting behind him. "Stop thief! Stop thief!" There is a magic in the sound. The tradesman leaves his counter, and the carman tiis waggon ; the butcher throws down his tray ; the baker bis basket ; the milkman his pail ; the errand-boy his parcels ; the school-boy his marbles ; the paviour his pick- axe; the child his battledore. Away they run, pell-mell, belter-skelter, slap-dash : tearing, yelling, screaming, knocking down the passengers as they turn the corners, •ousing up the dogs, and astonishing the fowls : and streets, squares, and courts, re-echo with the sound. " Stop thief ! Stop thief !" The cry is taken up by a hundred voices, and the crowd accumulate at every turn- ing. Away they fly, splashing through the mud, and rattling along the pavements : up go the windows, out run the people, onward bear the mob, a whole audience desert Punch in the very thickest of the plot, and, joining the rushing throng, swell the shout, and lend fresh vigour to the cry, " Stop thief ! Stop thief !" " Stop thief ! Stop thief !" There is a passion for hunt- ing something deeply implanted in the human breast. One wretched breathless child, panting with exhaustion ; terror n his looks ; agony in his eyes ; large drops of perspiration streaming down his face ; strains every nerve to make head jpon his pursuers ; and as they follow on his track, and gain upon him every instant, they hail his decreasing strength ivith still louder shouts, and whoop and scream with joy. " Stop thief i" Ay, stop him for God's sake, were it only n mercy ! Stopped at last ! A clever blow. He is down upon the Davement ; and the crowd eagerly gather round him : each lew comer, jostling and struggling with the others to catch 68 Oliver Twist a glimpse. ** Stand aside!" ** Give him a little air!'' '* Nonsense ! he don't deserve it." " Where's the gentle- man?" *' Here he is, coming down the street." " Make room there for the gentleman !" "Is this the boy, sir !'' **Yes." Oliver lay, covered with mud and dust, and bleeding fron: the mouth, looking wildly round upon the heap of faces that surrounded him, when the old gentleman was officiousl} dragged and pushed into the circle by the foremost of the pursuers. '* Yes," said the gentleman, '* I am afraid it is the boy.' ** Afraid !" murmured the crowd. '* That's a ^ood 'un !* '* Poor fellow !" said the gentleman, ** he has hurt him- self." ** / did that, sir," said a great lubberly fellow, stepping forward; "and preciously I cut my knuckle agin' h'n mouth. I stopped him, sir." The fellow touched his hat with a grin, expecting some thing for his pains ; but, the old gentleman, eyeing hin with an expression of dislike, looked anxiously round, a: if he contemplated running away himself : which it is ver} possible he might have attempted to do, and thus have afforded another chase, had not a police officer (who i< generally the last person to arrive in such cases) at tha moment made his way through the crowd, and seized Olivei by the collar. " Come, get up," said the man, roughly. '* It wasn't me indeed, sir. Indeed, indeed, it was tw( other boys," said Oliver, clasping his hands passionately and looking round. " They are here somewhere. " " Oh no, they ain't," said the officer. He meant this t( be ironical, but it was true besides; for the Dodger anc Charley Bates had filed off down the first convenient cour they came to. ** Come, get up !" '* Don't hurt him," said the old gentleman, compas- sionately. " Oh no, I won't hurt him," replied the officer, tearing his jacket half off his back, in proof thereof. " Come, ' know you; it won't do. Will you stand upon your legs you young devil?" Oliver, who could hardly stand, made a shift to raise him self on his feet, and was at once lugged along the streetf by the jacket-collar, at a rapid pace. The gentlemar walked on with them by the officer's side; and as many o: Oliver Twist 69 the crowd as could achieve the feat, got a little a-head, and stared back at Oliver from time to time. The boys shouted in triumph ; and on they went. CHAPTER XI TREATS OF MR. FANG THE POLICE MAGISTRATE ; AND FURNISHES A SLIGHT SPECIMEN OF HIS MODE OF ADMINISTERING JUSTICE The offence had been committed within the district, and indeed in the immediate neighbourhood of, a very notorious netropolitan police office. The crowd had only the satisfac- :ion of accompanying Oliver through two or three streets, md down a place called Mutton Hill, when he was led Deneath a low archway, and up a dirty court, into this dispensary of summary justice, by the backway. It was i small paved yard into which they turned; and here they ncountered a stout man with a bunch of whiskers on his ace, and a bunch of keys in his hand. ** What's the matter now?" said the man carelessly. ** A young f ogle-hunter, " replied the man who had Oliver n charge. '* Are you the party that's been robbed, sir?" inquired he man with the keys. ** Yes, 1 am," replied the old gentleman; " but I am not ;ure that this boy actually took the handkerchief. I — I ivould rather not press the case." * Must go before the magistrate now, sir," replied the nan. " His worship will be disengaged in half a minute. ^Jow, young gallows !" This was an invitation for Oliver to enter through a door which he unlocked as he spoke, and which led into a stone ;ell. Here he was searched ; and nothing being found upon lim, locked up. This cell was in shape and size something like an area cellar, only not so light. It was most intolerably dirty ; for t was Monday morning ; and it had been tenanted by six irunken people, who had been locked up, elsewhere, since Saturday night. But this is little. In our station-houses, nen and women are every night confined on the most rivial charges — the word is worth noting — in dungeons, 70 Oliver Twist compared with which, those in Newgate, occupied by the most atrocious felons, tried, found guilty, and under sen- tence of death, are palaces. Let any one who doubts this, compare the two. The old gentleman looked almost as rueful as Oliver^ when the key grated in the lock. He turned with a sigh to the book, which had been the innocent cause of ail this; disturbance. " There is something in that boy's face," said the old gentleman to himself as he walked slowly away, tapping his chin with the cover of the book, in a thoughtful manner ; " something that touches and interests me. Can he bej innocent? He looked like. — By the bye," exclaimed the old gentleman, halting very abruptly, and staring up into the; sky, '* Bless my soul ! Where have I seen something like that look before?" After musing for some minutes, the old gentleman walked, with the same meditative face, into a back ante- room opening from the yard ; and there, retiring into a corner, called up before his mind's eye a vast amphitheatre; of faces over which a dusky curtain had hung for many years. ** No," said the old gentleman, shaking his head 'J ** it must be imagination. " He wandered over them again. He had called them into! view, and it was not easy to replace the shroud that had so long concealed them. There were the faces of friends, and] foes, and of many that had been almost strangers peering! intrusively from the crowd; there were the faces of young and blooming girls that were now old women ; there were faces that the grave had changed and closed upon, but which the mind, superior to its power, still dressed in their old freshness and beauty, calling back the lustre of the eyes, the brightness of the smile, the beaming of the soul through its mask of clay, and whispering of beauty beyond the tomb, changed but to be heightened, and taken from earth only to be set up as a light, to shed a soft and gentle glow upon the path to Heaven. But the old gentleman could recall no one countenance ol which Oliver's features bore a trace. So, he heaved a sigt over the recollections he had awakened ; and being, happih for himself, an absent old gentleman, buried them again ir the pages of the musty book. He was roused by a touch on the shoulder, and a requesi from the man with the keys to follow him into the office. Oliver Twist 71 He closed his book hastily ; and was at once ushered into ;he imposing presence of the renowned Mr. Fang. The office was a front parlour, with a panelled wall. Mr. Fang sat behind a bar, at the upper end ; and on one side :he door was a sort of wooden pen in which poor little Dliver was already deposited : trembling very much at the iwfulness of the scene. Mr. Fang was a lean, long-backed, stiff-necked, middle- ized man, with no great quantity of hair, and what he had, growing on the back and sides of his head. His face was tern, and much flushed. If he were really not in the habit )f drinking rather more than was exactly good for him, he night have brought an action against his countenance for ibel, and have recovered heavy damages. The old gentleman bowed respectfully ; and advancing to :he magistrate's desk, said, suiting the action to the word, * That is my name and address, sir." He then withdrew I pace or two; and, with another polite and gentlemanly nclination of the head, waited to be questioned. Now, it so happened that Mr. Fang was at that moment jerusing a leading article in a newspaper of the morning, idverting to some recent decision of his, and commending lim, for the three hundred and fiftieth time, to the special md particular notice of the Secretary of State for the Home Department. He was out of temper; and he looked up vith an angry scowl. ** Who are you?" said Mr. Fang. The old gentleman pointed, with some surprise, to his :ard. "Officer!" said Mr. Fang, tossing the card contemp- uously away with the newspaper. " Who is this fellow?" ** My name, sir," said the old gentleman, speaking like I gentleman, '* my name, sir, is Brownlow. Permit me to nquire the name of the magistrate who offers a gratuitous ind unprovoked insult to a respectable person, under the )rotection of the bench." Saying this, Mr. Brownlow ooked round the office as if in search of some person who vould afford him the required information. "Officer!" said Mr. Fang, throwing the paper on one ide, " what's this fellow charged with?" " He's not charged at all, your worship," replied the )fficer. " He appears against the boy, your worship. " His worship knew this perfectly well ; but it was a good uanoyance, and a safe one. 72 Oliver Twist " Appears against the boy, does he?" said Fang, survey- ing Mr. Brownlow contemptuously from head to foot. " Swear him !" " Before I am sworn, I must beg to say one word," said Mr. Brownlow: " and that is, that I really never, without actual experience, could have believed " '* Hold your tongue, sir !" said Mr. Fang, peremptorily. " I will not, sir !" replied the old gentleman. " Hold your tongue this instant, or I'll have you turned out of the office !" said Mr. Fang. ** You're an insolent, impertinent fellow. How dare you bully a magistrate!" '* What !" exclaimed the old gentleman, reddening. ** Swear this person !" said Fang to the clerk. *' I'll not hear another word. Swear him. " Mr. Brownlow's indignation was greatly roused; but reflecting perhaps, that he might only injure the boy by giving vent to it, he suppressed his feelings and submitted to be sworn at once. " Now," said Fang, ** what's the charge against this boy? What have you got to say, sir?" ** I was standing at a book-stall " Mr. Brownlow began. " Hold your tongue, sir," said Mr. Fang. ** Policeman ! Where's the policeman? Here, swear this policeman. Now, policeman, what is this?" The policeman, with becoming humility, related how he had taken the charge ; how he had searched Oliver, and found nothing on his person ; and how that was all he knew about it. " Are there any witnesses?" inquired Mr. Fang. " None, your worship," replied the policeman. Mr. Fang sat silent for some minutes, and then, turning round to the prosecutor, said in a towering passion, " Do you mean to state what your complaint against this boy is, man, or do you not? You have been sworn. Now, if you stand there, refusing to give evidence, I'll punish you for disrespect to the bench ; I will, by " By what, or by whom, nobody knows, for the clerk and jailer coughed very loud, just at the right moment ; and the former dropped a heavy book upon the floor, thus prevent- ing the words from being heard — accidentally, of course. With many interruptions, and repeated insults, Mr. Brownlow contrived to state his case ; observing that, in the surprise of the moment, he had run after the boy because Oliver Twist 73 he saw him running away ; and expressing his hope that, if the magistrate should believe him, although not actually the thief, to be connected with thieves, he would deal as leniently with him as justice would allow. " Ke has been hurt already," said the old gentleman in conclusion. "And I fear," he added, with great energy, looking towards the bar, " I really fear that he is ill." " Oh ! yes, I dare say !" said Mr. Fang, with a sneer. ** Come, none of your tricks here, you young vagabond; they won't do. What's your name?" Oliver tried to reply, but his tongue failed him. He was deadly pale ; and the whole place seemed turning round and round. '* What's your name, you hardened scoundrel?" de- manded- Mr. Fang. " Officer, what's his name?" This was addressed to a bluff old fellow, in a striped waistcoat, who was standing by the bar. He bent over Oliver, and repeated the inquiry ; but finding him really incapable of understanding the question ; and knowing that his not replying would only infuriate the magistrate the more, and add to the severity of his sentence ; he hazarded a guess. " He says his name's Tom White, your worship," said this kind-hearted thief-taker. " Oh, he won't speak out, won't he?" said Fang. '* Very well, very well. Where does he live?" •'Where he can, your worship," replied the officer; again pretending to receive Oliver^'s answer. *' Has he any parents?" inquired Mr. Fang. " He says they died in his infancy, your worship," replied the officer : hazarding the usual reply. At this point of the inquiry, Oliver raised his head ; and, looking round with imploring eyes, murmured a feeble prayer for a draught of water. '* Stuff and nonsense!" said Mr. Fang: "don't try to make a fool of me." '• I think he really is ill, your worship," remonstrated the officer. " I know better," said Mr. Fang. "Take care of him, officer," said the old gentleman, raising his hands instinctively; " he'll fall down." "Stand away, officer,'* cried Fane; "let him, if he likes." Oliver availed himself of the kind permission, and fell to 74 Oliver Twist the floor in a fainting fit. The men in the office looked at each other, but no one dared to stir. " I knew he was shamming," said Fang, as if this were incontestable proof of the fact. ** Let him lie there; he'll soon be tired of that." " How do you propose to deal with the case, sir?" in- quired the clerk in a low voice. " Summarily," replied Mr. Fang. *' He stands com- mitted for three months — hard labour of course. Clear the office. ' ' The door was opened for this purpose, and a couple of men were preparing to carry the insensible boy to his cell ; when an elderly man of decent but poor appearance, clad in an old suit of black, rushed hastily into the office, and advanced towards the bench. "Stop, stop! Don't take him away! For Heaven's sake stop a moment!" cried the new-comer, breathless with haste. Although the presiding Genii in such an office as this, exercise a summary and arbitrary power over the liberties, the good name, the character, almost the lives, of Her Majesty's subjects, especially of the poorer class; and although, within such walls, enough fantastic tricks are daily played to make the angels blind with weeping ; they are closed to the public, save through the medium of the daily press. ^ Mr. Fang was consequently not a little in- dignant to see an unbidden guest enter in such irreverent disorder. ** What is this? Who is this? Turn this man out. Clear the office !" cried Mr, Fang. '* I will speak," cried the man; ** I will not be turned out. I saw it all. I keep the book-stall. I demand toi be sworn. I will not be put down. Mr. Fang, you must; hear me. You must not refuse, sir." The man was right. His manner was determined; and the matter was growing rather too serious to be hushed up. ** Swear the man," growled Mr. Fang, with a very ill grace. ** Now, man, what have yoj got to say?" '* This," said the man : " I saw three boys : two others and the prisoner here : loitering on the opposite side of the way, when this gentleman was reading. The robbery was * Or were virtually, then. Oliver Twist 75 committed by another boy. I saw it done ; and I saw that this boy was perfectly amazed and stupefied by it." Having by this time recovered a little breath, the worthy 30ok-stall keeper proceeded to relate, in a more coherent manner, the exact circumstances of the robbery. '* Why didn't you come here before?" said Fang-, after a pause. *' I hadn't a soul to mind the shop," replied the man. " Everybody who could have helped me, had joined in the Dursuit. I could get nobody till five minutes ago ; and I 've run here all the way." ** The prosecutor was reading, was he?" inquired Fang, after another pause. ** Yes," replied the man. " The very book he has in his band." ** Oh, that book, eh?" said Fang. '* Is it paid for?" ** No, it is not," replied the man, with a smile. ** Dear me, I forgot all about it !" exclaimed the absent old gentleman, innocently. ** A nice person to prefer a charge against a poor boy !" said Fang, with a comical effort to look humane. '* I con- sider, sir, that you have obtained possession of that book, under very suspicious and disreputable circumstances ; and you may think yourself very fortunate that the owner of the property declines to prosecute. Let this be a lesson to you, my man, or the law will overtake you yet. The boy is discharged. Clear the oflfice. " ** D — n me !" cried the old gentleman, bursting out with the rage he had kept down so long, ** d — n me ! I'll " *' Clear the office !" said the magistrate. " Officers, do you hear? Clear the office!" The mandate was obeyed ; and the indignant Mr. Brown- low was conveyed out, with the book in one hand, and the bamboo cane in the other : in a perfect phrenzy of rage and defiance. He reached the yard ; and his passion vanished in a moment. Little Oliver Twist lay on his back on the pavement, with his shirt unbuttoned, and his temples bathed with water; his face a deadly white; a.c:d a cold tremble convulsing his whole frame. '* Poor boy, poor boy!" said Mr. Brownlow, bending over him. " Call a coach, somebody, pray. Directly !" A coach was obtained, and Oliver, having been carefully laid on one seat, the old gentleman got in and sat himself on the other. 76 Oliver Twist ** May I accompany you?" said the book-stall keeper, looking in. ** Bless me, yes, my dear sir," said Mr. Brownlow quickly. " I forgot you. Dear, dear! I have this un- happy book still ! Jump in. Poor fellow ! There's no time to lose." The book-stall keeper got into the coach ; and away they ■ drove. CHAPTER XII IN WHICH OLIVER IS TAKEN BETTER CARE OF THAN HE EVER WAS BEFORE. AND IN WHICH THE NARRATIVE REVERTS TO THE MERRY OLD GENTLEMAN AND HIS YOUTHFUL FRIENDS The coach rattled away, over nearly the same ground as that which Oliver had traversed when he first entered London in company with the Dodger; and, turning a dif- ferent way when it reached the Angel at Islington, stopped at length before a neat house, in a quiet shady street near Pentonville. Here, a bed was prepared, without loss of time, in which Mr. Brownlow saw his young charge care- fully and comfortably deposited ; and here, he was tended with a kindness and solicitude that knew no bounds. But, for many days, Oliver remained insensible to all the goodness of his new friends. The sun rose and sank, and rose and sank again, and many times after that ; and still the boy lay stretched on his uneasy bed, dwindling away beneath the dry and wasting heat of fever. The worm does not his work more surely on the dead body, than does this slow creeping fire upon the living frame. Weak, and thin, and pallid, he awoke at last from what I seemed to have been a long and troubled dream. Feebly raising himself in the bed, with his head resting on his trembling arm, he looked anxiously around. *' What room is this? Where have I been brought to?" said Oliver. ** This is not the place I went to sleep in." He uttered these words in a feeble voice, being very faint and weak; but they were overheard at once. The curtain at the bed's head was hastily drawn back, and a motherly Oliver Twist 77 old lady, very neatly and precisely dressed, rose as she undrew it, from an arm-chair close by, in which she had been sitting at needle-work. *' Hush, my dear," said the old lady softly. " You must be very quiet, or you will be ill again ; and you have been rery bad, — as bad as bad could be, pretty nigh. Lie down again; there's a dear!" With those words, the old lady very gently placed Oliver's head upon the pillow; and, smoothing back his hair from his forehead, looked so kindly and lovingly in his face, that he could not help placing his little withered hand in hers, and drawing it round his neck. ** Save us !" said the old lady, with tears in her eyes, " What a grateful little dear it is. Pretty creetur ! What would his mother feel if she had sat by him as I have, and could see him now !" ** Perhaps she does see me," whispered Oliver, folding bis hands together; '* perhaps she has sat by me. I almost feel as if she had." " That was the fever, my dear," said the old lady mildly. '* I suppose it was," replied Oliver, ** because heaven is a long way off; and they are too happy there, to come down to the bedside of a poor boy. But if she knew I was ill, she must have pitied me, even there ; for she was very ill herself before she died. She can't know anything about ■ne though," added Oliver after a moment's silence. " If she had seen me hurt, it would have made her sorrowful ; and her face has always looked sweet and happy, when T have dreamed of her." The old lady made no reply to this ; but wiping her eyes first, and her spectacles, which lay on the counterpane, ifterwards, as if they were part and parcel of those Features, brought some cool stuff for Oliver to drink ; and then, patting him on the cheek, told him he must lie very quiet, or he would be ill again. So, Oliver kept very still ; partly because he was anxious to obey the kind old lady in all things ; and partly, to tell the truth, because he was completely exhausted with what he had already said. He soon fell into a gentle dose, from which he was awakened by the light of a candle : which, being brought near the bed, showed him a gentleman with a very large and loud-ticking gold watch in his hand, who felt his pulse, and said he was a great deal better. 78 Oliver Twist '' You are a great deal better, are you not, my dear?" said the gentleman. " Yes, thank you, sir," replied Oliver. ^ ** Yes, I know you are," said the gentleman : " You're hungry too, a'n't you?" *' No, sir," answered Oliver. ** Hem !" said the gentleman. " No, I know you're not. He is not hungry, Mrs. Bed win," said the gentleman: looking very wise. The old lady made a respectful inclination of the head, which seemed to say that she thought the doctor was a very clever man. The doctor appeared much of the same opinion himself. ** You feel sleepy, don't you, my dear?" said the doctor. '* No, sir," replied Oliver. " No," said the doctor, with a very shrewd and satisfied; look. "You're not sleepy. Nor thirsty. Are you?" ** Yes, sir, rather thirsty," answered Oliver. "Just as I expected, Mrs. Bedwin," said the doctor. " It's very natural that he should be thirsty. You mayi give him a little tea, ma'am, and some dry toast withouti any butter. Don't keep him too warm, ma'am; but be; careful that you don't let him be too cold; will you havei the goodness?" The old lady dropped a curtsey. The doctor, afteri tasting the cool stuff, and expressing a qualified approval of it, hurried away : his boots creaking in a very important and wealthy manner as he went down stairs. Oliver dosed off again, soon after this ; when he awoke, it was nearly twelve o'clock. The old lady tenderly bade him good-night shortly afterwards, and left him in charge of a fat old woman who had just come : bringing with her, in a little bundle, a small Prayer Book and a large nightcap. Putting the latter on her head and the former on the table, the old woman, after telling Oliver that she had come to sit up with him, drew her chair close to the fire and went off into a series of short naps, chequered at frequent intervals with sundry tumblings forward, and divers moans and chokings. These, however, had no worse effect than causing her to rub her nose very hard, and then fall asleep again. And thus the night crept slowly on. Oliver lay awake for some time, counting the little circles of light which the reflection of the rushlight-shade threw upon the ceiling ; or Oliver Twist 79 I tracing with his languid eyes the intricate pattern of the paper on the wall. The darkness and the deep stillness of the room were very solemn ; as they brought into the boy's mind the thought that death had been hovering there, for nany days and nights, and might yet fill it with the gloom and dread of his awful presence, he turned his face upon the pillow, and fervently prayed to Heaven. Gradually, he fell into that deep tranquil sleep which ease from recent suffering alone imparts ; that calm and peaceful rest which it is pain to wake from. Who, if this were death, would be roused again to all the struggles and tur- moils of life; to all its cares for the present; its anxieties for the future; more than all, its weary recollections of the past ! It had been bright day, for hours, when Oliver opened his eyes ; he felt cheerful and happy. The crisis of the disease was safely past. He belonged to the world again. In three days' time he was able to sit in an easy-chair, well propped up with pillows ; and, as he was still too weak to walk, Mrs. Bedwin had him carried down stairs into the little housekeeper's room, which belonged to her. Having him set, here, by the fireside, the good old lady sat herself down too; and, being in a state of considerable delight at seeing him so much better, forthwith began to cry most violently. " Never mind me, my dear," said the old lady. ''I'm only having a regular good cry. There; it's all over now ; and I'm quite comfortable." " You're very, very kind to me, ma'am," said Oliver. "Well, never you mind that, my dear," said the old iauy; ** that's got nothing to do with your broth; and it's full time you had it; for the doctor says Mr. Brownlow may come in to see you this morning ; and we must get up our best looks, because the better we look, the more he'll be pleased." And with this, the old lady applied herself to warming up, in a little saucepan, a basin full of broth : strong enough, Oliver thought, to furnish an ample dinner, when reduced to the regulation strength, for three hundred and fifty paupers, at the lowest computation. ** Are you fond of pictures, dear?" inquired the old lady, seeing that Oliver had fixed his eyes, most intently, on a portrait which hung against the wall ; just opposite his chair. *' I don't quite know, ma'am," said Oliver, without 8o Oliver Twist taking his eyes from the canvas; " I have seen so few, that I hardly know. What a beautiful, mild face that lady's is!" " Ah !" said the old lady, *' painters always make ladies out prettier than they are, or they wouldn't get any custom, child. The man that invented the machine for taking like- nesses might have known that would never succeed ; it's a deal too honest. A deal," said the old lady, laughing very heartily at her own acuteness. ** Is — is that a likeness, ma'am?" said Oliver. *' Yes," said the old lady, looking up for a moment from the broth; "that's a portrait." " Whose, ma'am?" asked Oliver. " Why, really, my dear, I don't know," answered the old lady in a good-humoured manner. ** It's not a likeness of anybody that you or I know, I expect. It seems to strike your fancy, dear." " It is so very pretty," replied Oliver. ** Why, sure you're not afraid of it?" said the old lady : observing, in great surprise, the look of awe with which the child regarded the painting. ** Oh no, no," returned Oliver quickly; "but the eyes look so sorrowful ; and where I sit, they seem fixed upon me. It makes my heart beat," added Oliver in a low voice, "as if it was alive, and wanted to speak to me, but couldn't." "Lord save us!" exclaimed the old lady, starting; " don't talk in that way, child. You're weak and nervous after your illness. Let me wheel your chair round to the other side; and then you won't see it. There!" said the old lady, suiting the action to the word ; " you don't see it now, at all events." Oliver did see it in his mind's eye as distinctly as if he had not altered his position ; but he thought it better not to worry the kind old lady ; so he smiled gently when she looked at him ; and Mrs. Bedwin, satisfied that he felt more comfortable, salted and broke bits of toasted bread into the broth, with all the bustle befitting so solemn a preparation. Oliver got through it with extraordinary expedition. He had scarcely swallowed the last spoonful, when there came a soft rap at the door. " Come in," said the old lady; and in walked Mr. Brownlov/. Now, the old gentleman came in as brisk as need be; but he had no sooner raised his spectacles on his forehead, Oliver Twist 8i and thrust his hands behind the skirts of his dressing- gown to take a good long look at Oliver, than his coun- tenance underwent a very great variety of odd contortions. Oliver looked very worn and shadowy from sickness, and made an ineffectual attempt to stand up, out ©f respect to his benefactor, which terminated in his sinking back into the chair again ; and the fact is, if the truth must be told, that Mr. Brownlow's heart, being large enough for any six ordinary old gentlemen of humane disposition^ forced a supply of tears into his eyes, by some hydraulic process which we are not sufficiently philosophical to be in a condition to explain. " Poor boy, poor boy !" said Mr. Brownlow, clearing his throat. ** I'm rather hoarse this morning, Mrs. Bedwin. I'm afraid I have caught cold." ** I hope not, sir," said Mrs. Bedwin. ** Everything you have had, has been well aired, sir." " I don't know, Bedwin. I don't know," said Mr. Brownlow; ** I rather think I had a damp napkin at dinner- time yesterday; but never mind that. How do you feel, my dear?" " Very happy, sir," replied Oliver. " And very grateful indeed, sir, for your goodness to me." '* Good boy," said Mr. Brownlow, stoutly. " Have you given him any nourishment, Bedwin? Any slops, eh?" '* He has just had a basin of beautiful strong broth, sir," replied Mrs. Bedwin : drawing herself up slightly, and laying a strong enfphasis on the last word : to intimate that between slops, and broth well compounded, there existed no affinity or connexion whatsoever. '' Ugh !" said Mr. Brownlow, with a slight shudder; ** a couple of glasses of port wine would have done him a great deal more good. Wouldn't they, Tom White, eh?" " My name is Oliver, sir," replied the little invalid : with a look of great astonishment. '* Oliver," said Mr. Brownlow; " Oliver what? Oliver White, eh?" "No, sir. Twist, Oliver Twist." ** Queer name !" said the old gentleman. ** W^hat made you tell the magistrate your name was White?" *' I never told him so, sir," returned Oliver m amaze- ment. This sounded so like a falsehood, that the old gentleman looked somewhat sternly in Oliver's face. It was impossible 82 Oliver Twist to doubt him ; there was truth in every one of its thin and sharpened lineaments. " Some mistake," said Mr. Brownlow. But, although his motive for looking- steadily at Oliver no longer existed, the old idea of the resemblance between his features and some familiar face came upon him so strongly, that he could not withdraw his gaze. " 1 hope you are not angry with me, sir?" said Oliver, raising his eyes beseechingly. ** No, no," replied the old gentleman. " Why ! what's this? Bedwin, look there !" As he spoke, he pointed hastily to the picture above Oliver's head, and then to the boy's face. There was its living copy. The eyes, the head, the mouth ; every feature was the same. The expression was, for the instant, so precisely alike, that the minutest line seemed copied with startling accuracy ! Oliver knew not the cause of this sudden exclamation ; for, not being strong enough to bear the start it gave him, he fainted away. A weakness on his part, which affords the narrative an opportunity of relieving the reader from suspense, in behalf of the two young pupils of the Merry Old Gentleman ; and of recording — That w'hen the Dodger, and his accomplished friend Master Bates, joined in the hue-and-cry which was raised at Oliver's heels, in consequence of their executing an illegal conveyance of Mr. Brownlow's personal property, as has been already described, they ':»ere actuated by a very laudable and becoming regard for themselves; and forasmuch as the freedom of the subject and the liberty of the individual are among the first and proudest boasts of a true-hearted Englishman, so, I need hardly beg the reader to observe, that this action should tend to exalt them in the opinion of all public and patriotic men, in almost as great a degree as this strong proof of their anxiety for their own preservation and safety goes to cor- roborate and confirm the little code of laws which certain profound and sound-judging philosophers have laid down as the mainsprings of all Nature's deeds and actions : the said philosophers very wisely reducing the good lady's proceedings to matters of maxim and theory : and, by a very neat and pretty compliment tc her exalted wisdom and understanding, putting entirely out of sight any con- siderations of heart, or generous impulse and feeling. For, Oliver Twist 83 these are matters totally beneath a female who is acknow- ledged by universal admission to be far above the numerous little foibles and weaknesses of her sex. If I wanted any further proof of the strictly philosophical nature of the conduct of these young gentlemen in their very delicate predicament, I should at once find it in the fact (also recorded in a foregoing part of this narrative), of their quitting the pursuit, when the general attention was fixed upon Oliver; and making immediately for their home by the shortest possible cut. Although I do not mean to assert that it is usually the practice of renowned and learned sages, to shorten the road to any great con- clusion (their course indeed being rather to lengthen the distance, by various circumlocutions and discursive stag- gerings, like unto those in which drunken men under the pressure of a too mighty flow of ideas, are prone to in- dulge) ; still, I do mean to say, and do say distinctly, that it is the invariable practice of many mighty philosophers, in carrying out their theories, to evince great wisdom and foresight in providing against every possible contingency which can be supposed at all likely to affect themselves. Thus, to do a great right, you may do a little wrong ; and you may take any means which the end to be attained will justify; the amount of the right, or the amount of the wrong, or indeed the distinction between the two, being left entirely to the philosopher concerned, to be settled and determined by his clear, comprehensive, and impartial view of his own particular case. It was not until the two boys had scoured, with great rapidity, through a most intricate maze of narrow streets and courts, that they ventured to halt beneath a low and dark archway. Having remained silent here, just long enough to recover breath to^^speak, Master Bates uttered an exclamation of amusement and delight; and, bursting into an uncontrollable fit of laughter, flung himself upon a door-step, and rolled thereon in a transport of mirth. " What's the matter?" inquired the Dodger. "Ha! ha! ha!" roared Charley Bates. " Hold your noise," remonstrated the Dodger, looking cautiously round. ** Do you want to be grabbed, stupid?" " I can't help it," said Charley, *' I can't help it ! To see him splitting away at that pace, and cutting round the corners, and knocking up again the posts, and starting on again as if he was made of iron as well as them, and me 84 Oliver Twist with the wipe in my pocket, singing out arter him — oh, my eye !*' The vivid imagination of Master Bates presented the scene before him in too strong colours. As he arrived at this apostrophe, he again rolled upon the door-step, andl laughed louder than before. " What'll Fagin say?" inquired the Dodger; taking advantage of the next interval of breathlessness on the part of his friend to propound the question. " What?" repeated Charley Bates, " Ah, what?" said the Dodger. ** Why, what should he say?" inquired Charley: stop-- ping rather suddenly in his merriment; for the Dodger's manner was impressive. "What should he say?" Mr. Dawkins whistled for a couple of minutes ; then, taking off his hat, scratched his head, and nodded thrice. ** What do you mean?" said Charley. ** Toor rul lol loo, gammon and spinnage, the frog he wouldn't, and high cockolorum," said the Dodger: with a slight sneer on his intellectual countenance. J This was explanatory, but not satisfactory. Master 'I Bates felt it so; and again said, ** What do you mean?" The Dodger made no reply ; but putting his hat on again, and gathering the skirts of his long-tailed coat under his arm, thrust his tongue into his cheek, slapped the bridge of his nose some half-dozen times in a familiar but expressive manner, and turning on his heel, slunk down the court. Master Bates followed, with a thoughtful i| countenance. The noise of footsteps on the creaking stairs, a few minutes after the occurrence of this conversation, roused ' the merry old gentleman as he sat over the fire with a saveloy and a small loaf in his left hand ; a pocket-knife in his right ; and a pewter pot on the trivet. There was a rascally smile on his white face as he turned round, and, looking sharply out from under his thick red eyebrows, bent his ear towards the door, and listened. ** Why, how's this?" muttered the Jew, changing coun- tenance; "only two of 'em? Where's the third? They can't have got into trouble. Hark !" The footsteps approached nearer ; they reached the land- ing. The door was slowly opened ; and the Dodger and Charley Bates entered, closing it behind them. Oliver Twist 85 CHAPTER XIII »OME NEW ACQUAINTANCES ARE INTRODUCED TO THE INTELLI- GENT READER ; CONNECTED WITH WHOM VARIOUS PLEA- SANT MATTERS ARE RELATED, APPERTAINING TO THIS HISTORY ' Where's Oliver?" said the Jew, rising with a menacing 00k. '• Where's the boy?" The young thieves eyed their preceptor as if they were ilarmed at his violence ; and looked uneasily at each other. But they made no reply. * What's become of the boy?" said the Jew, seizing tht Oodger tightly by the collar, and threatening him with lorrid imprecations. ** Speak out, or I'll throttle you !" Mr. Fagin looked so very much in earnest, that Charley Bates, who deemed it prudent in all cases to be on the safe side, and who conceived it by no means improbable that it [night be his turn to be throttled second, dropped upon lis knees, and raised a loud, well-sustained, and continuous roar — something between a mad bull and a speaking trumpet. * Will you speak?" thundered the Jew: shaking the Dodger so much that his keeping in the big coat at all, seemed perfectly miraculous. ** Why, the traps have got him, and that's all about it," aid the Dodger, sullenly. *' Come, let go o' me, will you!" And, swinging himself, at one jerk, clean out of the big coat, which he left in the Jew's hands, the Dodger snatched up the toasting fork, and made a pass at the merry old gentleman's waistcoat; which, if it had taken effect, would have let a little more merriment out, than could have been easily replaced. The Jew stepped back in this emergency, with more agility than could have been anticipated in a man of his apparent decrepitude; and, seizing up the pot, prepared to hurl it at his assailant's head. But Charley Bates, at this moment, calling his attention by a perfectly terrific howl, he suddenly altered its destination, and flung it full at that young gentleman. ** Why, what the blazes is in the wind now!" growled a deep voice. ** Who pitched that 'ere at me? It's well 86 Oliver Twist ':t's the beer, and not the pot, as hit me, or I'd have settled somebody. I might have know'd, as nobody but an in- fernal, rich, plundering, thundering old Jew could afford to throw away any drink but water — and not that, unless he done the River Company every quarter. Wot's it all about, Fagin? D — me, if my neck-handkerchief a 'n't lined with beer ! Come in, you sneaking warmint ; wot are you stopping outside for, as if you was ashamed of "'our master ! Come in !" The man who growled out these words, was a stoutly- built fellow of about five-and-thirty, in a black velveteen coat, very soiled drab breeches, lace-up half boots, and grey cotton stockings, which inclosed a bulky pair of legs, with large swelling calves ; — the kind of legs, which in such costume, always look in an unfinished and incomplete state without a set of fetters to garnish them. He had a brown hat on his head, and a dirty belcher handkerchief round his neck : with the long frayed ends of which he smeared the beer from his face as he spoke. He disclosed, when he had done so, a broad heavy countenance with a beard of three days' growth, and two scowling eyes; one of which displayed various parti-coloured symptoms of having been recently damaged by a blow. ** Come in, d'ye hear?" growled this engaging ruffian. A white shaggy dog, with his face scratched and torn in twenty different places, skulked into the room. " Why didn't you come in afore?" said the man. *' You're getting too proud to own me afore company, are you? Lie down !" This command was accompanied with a kick, which sent the animal to the other end of the room. He appeared well used to it, however ; for he coiled himself up in a corner very quietly, without uttering a sound, and wink- ing his very ill-looking eyes twenty times in a minute, appeared to occupy himself in taking a survey of the apartment. " What are you up to? Ill-treating the boys, you covetous, avaricious, in-sa-ti-a-ble old fence?" said the man, seating himself deliberately. ** I wonder they don't murder you ! 7 would if I was them. If I'd been your 'prentice, I'd have done it long ago, and — no, I couldn't have sold you afterwards, for you're fit for nothing but keeping as a curiosity of ugliness in a glass bottle, and I suppose they don't blow glass bottles large enough." Oliver Twist 87 "Hush! hush! Mr. Sikes," said the Jew, trembling; don't speak so loud." "None of your mistering," replied the ruffian; ** you always mean mischief when you come that. You know my name : out with it ! I shan't disgrace it when the time comes." " Well, well, then — Bill Sikes," said the Jew, with abject humility. *' You seem out of humour, Bill." " Perhaps I am," replied Sikes; ** I should think you was rather out of sorts too, unless you mean as little harm when you throw pewter pots about, as you do when you blab, and " " Are you mad?" said the Jew, catching the man by the sleeve, and pointing towards the boys. Mr. Sikes contented himself with tying an imaginary knot under his left ear, and jerking his head over on tht right shoulder ; a piece of dumb show which the Jew ap- peared to understand perfectly. He then, in cant terms, with which his whole conversation was plentifully be- sprinkled, but which would be quite unintelligible if they were recorded here, demanded a glass of liquor. " And mind you don't poison it," said Mr. Sikes, laying his hat upon the table. This was said in jest ; but if the speaker could have seen the evil leer with which the Jew bit his pale lip as he turned round to the cupboard, he might have thought the caution not wholly unnecessary, or the wish (at all events) to improve upon the distiller's ingenuity not very far from the old gentleman's merry heart. After swallowing two or three glasses of spirits, Mr. Sikes condescended to take some notice of the young gentlemen ; which gracious act led to a conversation, in which the cause and manner of Oliver's capture were cir- cumstantially detailed, with such alterations and improve- ments on the truth, as to the Dodger appeared most advisable under the circumstances. "I'm afraid," said the Jew, " that he may say some- thing which will get us into trouble." "That's very likely," returned Sikes with a malicious grin. " You're blowed upon, Fagin." "And I'm afraid, you see," added the Jew, speaking as if he had not noticed the interruption ; and regarding the other closely as he did so, — " I'm afraid that, if the game was up with us, it might be up with a good many 88 Oliver Twist more, and that it would come out rather worse for you than it would for me, my dear." The man started, and turned round upon the Jew. But the old gentleman's shoulders were shrugged up to his ears ; and his eyes were vacantly staring on the opposite wall. There was a long pause. Every member of the respect- able coterie appeared plunged in his own rejections ; not excepting the dog, who by a certain malicious licking of his lips seemed to be meditating an attack upon the legs of the first gentleman or lady he might encounter in the streets when he went out. ** Somebody must find out wot's been done at the office," said Mr. Sikes in a much lower tone than he had taken since he came in. The Jew nodded assent. ** If he hasn't peached, and is committed, there's no fear till he comes out again," said Mr. Sikes, ** and then he must be taken care on. You must get hold of him somehow." Again the Jew nodded. The prudence of this line of action, indeed, was obvious ; but, unfortunately, there was one very strong objection to j its being adopted. This was, that the Dodger, and Charley Bates, and Fagin, and Mr. William Sikes, happened, one and all, to entertain a violent and deeply-rooted antipathy to going near a police-office on any ground or pretext whatever. j How long they might have sat and looked at each other, | in a state of uncertainty not the most pleasant of its kind, it is difficult to guess. It is not necessary to make any guesses on the subject, however ; for the sudden entrance of the two young ladies whom Oliver had seen on a former occasion, caused the conversation to flow afresh. ** The very thing !" said the Jew. " Bet will go; won't you, my dear?" ** Wheres?" inquired the young lady. *' Only just up to the office, my dear," said the Jew coaxingly. It is due to the young lady to say that she did not positively affirm that she would not, but that she merely expressed an emphatic and earnest desire to be ** blessed " if she would ; a polite and delicate evasion of the request, which shows the young lady to have been possessed of that Oliver Twist 89 natural good breeding which cannot bear to inflict upon a fellow-creature the pain of a direct and pointed refusal. The Jew's countenance fell. He turned from this young lady, who was gaily, not to say gorgeously attired, in a red gown, green boots, and yellow curl-papers, to the other female. " Nancy, my dear," said the Jew in a soothing manner, " what do you say?" '* That it won't do; so it's no use a-trying it on, Fagin," replied Nancy. ** What do you mean by that?" said Mr. Sikes, looking up in a surly manner. " What I say. Bill," replied the lady collectedly. ** Why, you're just the very person for it," reasoned Mr. Sikes : *' nobody about here knows anything of you." " And as I don't want 'em to, neither," replied Nancy in the same composed manner, ** it's rather more no than •^s with me, Bill." "^ ** She'll go, Fagin," said Sikes. ** No, she won't, Fagin," said Nancy. " Yes, she will, Fagin," said Sikes. And Mr. Sikes was right. By dint of alternate threats, promises, and bribes, the lady in question was ultimately prevailed upon to undertake the commission. She was not, indeed, withheld by the same considerations as her agreeable friend ; for, having recently removed into the neighbourhood of Field Lane from the remote but genteel suburb of Ratcliffe, she was not under the same appre- hension of being recognised by any of her numerous acquaintance. Accordingly, with a clean white apron tied over her gown, and her curl-papers tucked up under a straw bonnet, — both articles of dress being provided from the Jew'? inexhaustible stock, — Miss Nancy prepared to issue forth on her errand. ** Stop a minute, my dear," said the Jew, producing a little covered basket. ** Carry that in one hand. It looks more respectable, my dear." ** Give her a door-key to carry in her t'other one, Fagin," said Sikes; ** it looks real and genivine like." *' Yes, yes, my dear, so it does," said the Jew, hanging a large street-door key on the forefinger of the young lady's right hand. "There; very good! Very good indeed, my dear!" said the Jew, rubbing his hands. 90 Oliver Twist *' Oh, my brother ! My poor, dear, sweet, innocent little brother !" exclaimed Nancy, bursting into tears, and wring- ing the little basket and the street-door key in an agony of distress. *' What has become of him ! Where have they taken him to ! Oh, do have pity, and tell me what's been done with the dear boy, gentlemen; do, gentlemen, if you please, gentlemen!" Having uttered these words in a most lamentable and heart-broken tone to the immeasurable delight of her hearers, Miss Nancy paused, winked to the company, nodded smilingly round, and disappeared. "Ah! she's a clever girl, my dears," said the Jew, turning round to his young friends, and shaking his head gravely, as if in mute admonition to them to follow the bright example they had just beheld. ** She's a honour to her sex," said Mr. Sikes, filling his glass, and smiting the table with his enormous fist. " Here's her health, and wishing they was all like her!" While these, and many other encomiums, were being passed on the accomplished Nancy, that young lady made the best of her way to the police-office ; whither, notwith- standing a little natural timidity consequent upon walking through the streets alone and unprotected, she arrived in perfect safety shortly afterwards. Entering by the back way, she tapped softly with the key at one of the cell-doors, and listened. There was no sound within : so she coughed and listened again. Still there was no reply : so she spoke. "Nolly, dear?" murmured Nancy in a gentle voice; " Nolly?" There was nobody inside but a miserable shoeless criminal, who had been taken up for playing the flute, and who, the offence against society having been clearly proved, had been very properly committed by Mr. Fang to the House of Correction for one month; with the appro- priate and amusing remark that since he had so much breath to spare, it would be more wholesomely expended on the treadmill than in a musical instrument. He made no answer : being occupied in mentally bewailing the loss of the flute, which had been confiscated for the use of the county ; so Nancy passed on to the next cell, and knocked there. *' Well !" cried a faint and feeble voice. Oliver Twist 91 ** Is there a little boy here?" inquired Nancy, with a preliminary sob. " No," replied the voice; " God forbid." This was a vagrant of sixty-five, who was going to prison for not playing the flute; or, in other words, for begging in the streets, and doing nothing for his liveli- hood. In the next cell, was another man, who was going to the same prison for hawking tin saucepans without a license ; thereby doing something for his living, in defiance of the Stamp-office. But, as neither of these criminals answered to the name of Oliver, or knew anything about him, Nancy made straight up to the bluff officer in the striped waistcoat; and with the most piteous wailings and lamentations, ren- dered more piteous by a prompt and efficient use of the street-door key and the little basket, demanded her own dear brother. *' 7 haven't got him, my dear," said the old man. " Where is he?" screamed Nancy, in a distracted manner. " Why, the gentleman's got him," replied the officer. * ' What gentleman ? Oh, gracious heavens ! What gentleman?" exclaimed Nancy. In reply to this incoherent question, the old man in- formed the deeply affected sister that Oliver had been taken ill in the office, and discharged in consequence of a wit- ness having proved the robbery to have been committed by another boy, not in custody; and that the prosecutor had carried him away, in an insensible condition, to his own residence : of and concerning which, all the informant knew was, that it was somewhere at Pentonville, he hav- ing heard that word mentioned in the directions to the coachman. In a dreadful state of doubt and uncertainty, the agonised young woman staggered to the gate, and then, exchang- ing her faltering walk for a swift run, returned by the most devious and complicated route she could think of, to the domicile of the Jew. Mr. Bill Sikes no sooner heard the account of the ex- pedition delivered, than he very hastily called up the white dog, and, putting on his hat, expeditiously departed : with- out devoting any time to the formality of wishing the company good-morning. *'We must know where he is. mv dears: he must be 92 Oliver Twist found," said the Jew, greatly excited. ** Charley, do no- thing but skulk about, till you bring home some news of him ! Nancy, my dear, I must have him found. I trust to you, my dear, — to you and the Artful for everything ! Stay, stay," added the Jew, unlocking a drawer with a shaking hand; "there's money, my clears. I shall shut up this shop to-night. You'll know where to find me! Don't stop here a minute. Not an instant, my dears !" With these words, he pushed them from the room : and carefully double-locking and barring the door behind them, drew from its place of concealment the box which he had unintentionally disclosed to Oliver. Then, he hastily proceeded to dispose the watches and jewellery beneath his clothing. A rap at the door startled him in this occupation. ** Who's there?" he cried in a shrill tone. "Me!" replied the voice of the Dodger, through the key-hole. ** What now?" cried the Jew impatiently. ** Is he to be kidnapped to the other ken, Nancy says?" inquired the Dodger. " Yes," replied the Jew, ** wherever she lays hands on him. Find him, find him out, that's all ! I shall know what to do next; never fear." The boy murmured a reply of intelligence ; and hurried down stairs after his companions. " He has not peached so far," said the Jew as he pursued his occupation. ** If he means to blab us among his new friends, we may stop his mouth yet." CHAPTER XIV COMPRISING FURTHER PARTICULARS OF OLIVER'S STAY AT MR. BROWNLOW'S, WITH THE REMARKABLE PREDICTION WHICH ONE MR. GRIMWIG UTTERED CONCERNING HIM, WHEN HE WENT OUT ON AN ERRAND Oliver soon recovering from the fainting-fit into wb'ch Mr. Brownlow's abrupt exclamation had thrown him, the subject of the picture was carefully avoided, both by the old gentleman and Mrs. Bedwin, in the conversation that ensued : which indeed bore no reference to Oliver's history Oliver Twist 93 or prospects, but was confined to such topics as might amuse without exciting him. He was still too weak to get up to breakfast ; but, when he came down into the house- keeper's room next day, his first act was to cast an eager glance at the wall, in the hope of again looking on the face of the beautiful lady. His expectations were disappointed, however, for the picture had been removed. " Ah !" said the housekeeper, watching the direction of Oliver's eyes. ** It is gone, you see." '* I see it is, ma'am," replied Oliver. " Why have they taken it away?" '* It has been taken down, child, because Mr. Brown- low said, that as it seemed to worry you, perhaps it might prevent your getting well, you know," rejoined the old lady. '* Oh, no, indeed. It didn't worry me, ma'am," said Oliver. ** I liked to see it. I quite loved it." "Well, well!" said the old lady, good-humouredly ; " you get well as fast as ever you can, dear, and it shall be hung up again. There ! I promise you that ! Now, let us talk about something else." This was all the information Oliver would obtain about the picture at that time. As the old lady had been so kind to him in his illness, he endeavoured to think no more of the subject just then ; so he listened attentively to a great many stories she told him, about an amiable and handsome daughter of hers, who was married to an amiable and hand- some man, and lived in the country; and about a son. who was clerk to a merchant in the West Indies ; and who was, also, such a good young man, and wrote such dutiful letters home four times a-year, that it brought the tears into her eyes to talk about them. When the old lady had expatiated, a long time, on the excellences of her children, and the merits of her kind good husband besides, who had been dead and gone, poor dear soul ! just six-and-twenty years, it was time to have tea. After tea she began to teach Oliver cribbage : which he learnt as quickly as she could teach : and at which game they played, with great interest and gravity, until it was time for the invahd to have some warm wine and water, with a slice of dry toast, and then to go cosily to bed. They were happy days, those of Oliver's recovery. Everything was so quiet, and neat, and orderly; every- body was kind and gfentle ; that after the noise and turbu- \ 94 Oliver Twist lence in the midst of which he had always lived, it seemed like Heaven itself. He was no sooner strong enough to put his clothes on, properly, than Mr. Brownlow caused a complete new suit, and a new cap, and a new pair of shoes, to be provided for him. As Oliver was told that he might do what he liked with the old clothes, he gave them to a servant who had been very kind to him, and asked her to sell them to a Jew, and keep the money for herself. This she very readily did ; and, as Oliver looked out of the parlour window, and saw the Jew roll them up in his bag and walk away, he felt quite delighted to think that they were safely gone, and that there was now no possible danger of his ever being able to wear them again. They were sad rags, to tell the truth ; and Oliver had never had a new suit before. One evening, about a week after the affair of the picture, as he was sitting talking to Mrs. Bedwin, there came a message down from Mr. Brownlow, that if Oliver Twist felt pretty well, he should like to see him in his study, and talk to him a little while. '* Bless us, and save us ! Wash your hands, and let me part your hair nicely for you, child," said Mrs. Bedwin. ** Dear heart alive ! If we had known he would have asked for you, we would have put you a clean collar on, and made you as smart as sixpence!" Oliver did as the old lady bade him ; and, although she lamented grievously, meanwhile, that there was not even time to crimp the little frill that bordered his shirt-collar; he looked so delicate and handsome, despite that important personal advantage, that she went so far as to say : looking at him with great complacency from head to foot, that she really didn't think it would have been possible, on the longest notice, to have made much difference in him for the better. Thus encouraged, Oliver tapped at the study door. On Mr. Brownlow calling to him to come in, he found himself in a little back room, quite full of books, with a window, looking into some pleasant little gardens.^ There was a table drawn up before the window, at which Mr. Brownlow was seated reading. When he saw Oliver, he pushed the book away from him, and told him to come near the table, and sit down. Oliver complied ; marvelling where the people could be found to read such a great number of books as seemed to be written to make the world wiser. Oliver Twist 95 Which is still a marvel to more experienced people than Oliver Twist, every day of their lives. " There are a good many books, are there not, my boy?" said Mr. Brovimlow, observing the curiosity with which Oliver surveyed the shelves that reached from the floor to the ceiling. " A great number, sir," replied Oliver. ** I never saw- so many." '* You shall read them, if you behave well," said the old gentleman kindly; "and you will like that, better than looking at the outsides, — that is, in some cases ; because there are books of which the backs and covers are by far the best parts." " I suppose they are those heavy ones, sir," said Oliver, pointing to some large quartos, with a good deal of gilding about the binding. "Not always those," said the old gentleman, patting Oliver on the head, and smiling as he did so; " there are other equally heavy ones, though of a much smaller size. How should you like to grow up a clever man, and write books, eh?" " I think I would rather read them, sir," replied Oliver. " What! wouldn't you like to be a book-writer?" said the old gentleman. Oliver considered a little while ; and at last said, he should think it would be a much better thing to be a book- seller ; upon which the old gentleman laughed heartily, and declared he had said a very good thing. Which Oliver felt glad to have done, though he by no means knew what it was. " Well, well," said the old gentleman, composing his ' features. " Don't be afraid ! We won't make an author of you, while there's an honest trade to be learnt, or brick- rrt^ktng to turn to." " Thank you, sir," said Oliver. At the earnest manner of his reply, the old gentleman laughed again ; and said something about a curious instinct, which Oliver, not understanding, paid no very great attention to. " Now," said Mr. Brownlow, speaking if possible in a kinder, but at the same time in a much more serious manner, than Oliver had ever known him assume yet, " I want you to pay great attention, my boy, to what I am going to say. I shall talk to you without any reserve ; because I am sure you are as well able to understand me, as many older persons would be." 96 Oliver Twist ** Oh, don't tell me you are going to send me away, s'u, pray!" exclaimed Oliver, alarmed at the serious tone of the old gentleman's commencement ! ** Don't turn me out of doors to wander in the streets again. Let me stay here, and be a servant. Don't send me back to the wretched place I came from. Have mercy upon a poor boy, sir!" " My dear child," said the old gentleman, moved by the warmth of Oliver's sudden appeal; " you need not be afraid of my deserting you, unless you give me cause." ** I never, never will, sir," interposed Oliver. ** I hope not," rejoined the old gentleman, " I do not think you ever will. I have been deceived, before, in the objects whom I have endeavoured to benefit; but 1 feel strongly disposed to trust you, nevertheless ; and I am more interested in your behalf than I can well account for, even to myself. The persons on whom I have bestovi/ed my dearest love, lie deep in their graves ; but, although the happiness and delight of my life lie buried there too, I have not made a coffin of my heart, and sealed it up, for ever, on my best affections. Deep afjfliction has but strength- ened and refined them." As the old gentleman said this in a low voice : more to himself than to his companion : and as he remained; silent for a short time afterwards : Oliver sat quite still. "Well, well!" said the old gentleman at length, in sa more cheerful tone, '* I only say this, because you have a young heart ; and knowing that I have suffered great pain and sorrow, you will be more careful, perhaps, not to wound me again. You say you are an orphan, without a friend in the world ; all the inquiries I have been able to make, confirm the statement. Let me hear your stor) ; where you come from ; who brought you up ; and how you got into the company in which I found you. Speak the truth, and you shall not be friendless while I live." Oliver's sobs checked his utterance for some minutes ; when he was on the point of beginning to relate how he had been brought up at the farm, and carried to the work- house by Mr. Bumble, a peculiarly impatient little double- knock was heard at the street-door : and the servant, running up stairs, announced Mr. Grimwig. " Is he coming up?" inquired Mr. Brownlow. " Yes, sir," replied the servant. ** He asked if there were any muffins in the house; and, when I told him yes, he said be had come to tea." Oliver Twist 97 Mr. Brownlow smiled ; and, turning to Oliver, said that Mr. Grimwig- was an old friend of his, and he must not mind his being- a little rough in his manners; for he was a worthy creature at bottom, as he had reason to know. ** Shall I go down stairs, sir?" inquired Oliver. "No," replied Mr. Brownlow,."! would rather you remained here." At this moment, there walked into the room ; supporting himself by a thick stick : a stout old gentleman, rather lame in one leg, who was dressed in a blue coat, striped waistcoat, nankeen breeches and gaiters, and a broad- brimmed white hat, with the sides turned up with green. A very small-plaited shirt frill stuck out from his waistcoat ; and a very long steel watch-chain, with nothing but a key at the end, dangled loosely below it. The ends of his white neckerchief were twisted into a ball about the size of an orange ; the variety of shapes into which his countenance was twisted, defy description. He had a manner of screw- ing his head on one side when he spoke; and of looking out of the corners of his eyes at the same time : which irresistibly reminded the beholder of a parrot. In this attitude, he fixed himself, the moment he made his appear- ance ; and, holding out a small piece of orange-peel at arm's length, exclaimed, in a growling, discontented voice, " Look here ! -do you see this ! Isn't it a most wonder- ful and extraordinary thing that I can't call at a man's house but I find a piece of this poor surgeon 's-friend on the staircase? I've been lamed with orange-peel once, and I know orange-peel will be my death at last. It will, sir : orange-peel will be my death, or I'll be content to eat my own head, sir !" This was the handsome offer with which Mr. Grimwig backed and confirmed nearly every assertion he made ; and it was the more singular in his case, because, even admit- ting for the sake of argument, the possibility of scientific improvements being ever brought to that pass which will enable a gentleman to eat his own head in the event of his being so disposed, Mr. Grimwig 's head was such a par- ticularly large one, that the most sanguine man alive could hardly entertain a hope of being able to get through it at a sitting — to put entirely out of the question, a very thick coating of powder. " I'll eat my head, sir," repeated Mr. Grimwig, striking E 98 Oliver Twist his stick upon the ground. ** Hallo ! what's that !" look- ing at Oliver, and retreating a pace or two. '* This is young Oliver Twist, whom we were speaking about," said Mr. Brownlow. i^,,, , Oliver bowed. " You don't mean to say that's the boy who had the fever, I hope?" said Mr. Grimwig, recoiHng a little more. '' Wait, a minute ! Don't speak ! Stop — " continued Mr. Grimwig, abruptly, losing all dread of the fever in his triumph at the discovery; "that's the boy who had the orange ! If that's not the boy, sir, who had the orange, and threw this bit of peel upon the staircase, I'll eat my head, and his too." " No, no, he has not had one," said Mr. Brownlow, laughing. "Come! Put down your hat; and speak to my young friend." '* I feel strongly on this subject, sir," said the irritable old gentleman, drawing off his gloves. " There's always more or less orange-peel on the pavement in our street; and I know it's put there by the surgeon's boy at the corner. A young woman stumbled over a bit last night, and fell against my garden-railings ; directly she got up I saw her look towards his infernal red lamp with the pantomime-light. ' Don't go to him,' I called out of the window, ' he's an assassin ! A man-trap !' So he is. If he is not " Here the irascible old gentleman gave a great knock on the ground with his stick ; which was always understood, by his friends, to imply the custom- ary offer, whenever it was not expressed in words. Then, still keeping his stick in his hand, he sat down ; and, open- ing a double eye-glass, which he wore attached to a broad black riband, took a view of Oliver : who, seeing that he ' was the object of inspection, coloured, and bowed again. ** That's the boy, is it?" said Mr. Grimwig, at length. ** That is the boy," replied Mr. Brownlow. ** How are you, boy?" said Mr. Grimwig. *' A great deal better, thank you, sir," replied Oliver. Mr. Brownlow, seeming to apprehend that his singular friend was about to say something disagreeable, asked Oliver to step down stairs and tell Mrs. Bedwin they were ready for tea; which, as he did not half like the visitor's manner, he was very happy to do. " Fie is a nice-looking boy, is he not?" inquired Mr. Brownlow. Oliver Twist 99 " I don't know," replied Mr. Grim wig, pettishly. *• Don't know?" " No. I don't know. I never see any difference in boys. I only know two sorts of boys. Mealy boys, and beef-faced boys. ' ' " And which is Oliver?" ** Mealy. I know a friend who has a beef-faced boy; a fine boy, they call him ; with a round head, and red cheeks, and glaring eyes ; a horrid boy ; with a body and limbs that appear to be swelling out of the seams of his blue clothes; with the voice of a pilot, and the appetite of a wolf. I know him ! The wretch !" *' Come," said Mr. Brownlow, ** these are not the characteristics of young Oliver Twist ; so he needn't excite your wrath." ** They are not," replied Mr. Grimwig. ** He may have worse." Here, Mr. Brownlow coughed impatiently ; which appeared to afford Mr. Grimwig the most exquisite delight. *' He may have worse, I say," repeated Mr. Grimwig. '* Where does he come from? Who is he? W^hat is he? He has had a fever. What of that? Fevers are not peculiar to good people ; are they? Bad people have fevers sometimes; haven't they, eh? I knew a man who was hung in Jamaica for murdering his master. He had had a fever six times; he wasn't recommended to mercy on that account. Pooh! nonsense!" Now, the fact was, that in the inmost recesses of his own heart, Mr. Grimwig was strongly disposed to admit that Oliver's appearance and manner were unusually prepos- sessing; but he had a strong appetite for contradiction, sharpened on this occasion by the finding of the orange- peel ; and, inwardly determining that no man should dictate to him whethei* a boy was well-looking or not, he had resolved, from the first, to oppose his friend. When Mr. Brownlow admitted that on no one point of inquirr could he yet return a satisfactory answer ; and that he had post- poned any investigation into Oliver's previous history until he thought the boy was strong enough to bear it ; Mr. Grimwig chuckled maliciously. And he demanded, with a sneer, whether the housekeeper was in the habit of count- ing the plate at night; because, if she didn't find a table- spoon or two missing some sunshiny morning, why, he would be content to — and so forth. loo Oliver Twist All this, Mr. Brownlow, although himself somewhat of an impetuous g-entleman : knowing his friend's peculiar- ities, bore with great good humour; as Mr. Grimwig, at tea, was graciously pleased to express his entire approval of the muffins, matters went on very smoothly ; and Oliver, who made one of the party, began to feel more at his ease than he had yet done in the fierce old gentleman's presence. ** And when are you going to hear a full, true, and par- ticular account of the life and adventures of Oliver Twist?" asked Grimwig of Mr. Brownlow, at the conclusion of the meal : looking sideways at Oliver, as he resumed the subject. *' To-morrow morning," replied Mr. Brownlow. "I would rather he was alone with me at the time. Come up to me to-morrow morning at ten o'clock, my dear." "Yes, sir," replied Oliver. He answered with some hesitation, because he was confused by Mr. Grimwig's looking so hard at him. *' I'll tell you what," whispered that gentleman to Mr. Brownlow; " he won't come up to you to-morrow morn- ing. I saw him hesitate. He is deceiving you, my good friend." ** I'll swear he is not," replied Mr. Brownlow, warmly. ** If he is not," said Mr. Grimwig, ** I'll " and down went the stick. ** I'll answer for that boy's truth with my life!" said Mr. Brownlow, knocking the table. ** And I for his falsehood with my head !" rejoined Mr. Grimwig, knocking the table also. " We shall see," said Mr. Brownlow, checking his rising anger. '' We will," replied Mr. Grimwig, with a provoking smile ; " we will," As fate would have it, Mrs. Bedwin chanced to bring in, at this moment, a small parcel of books, which Mr. Brown- low had that morning purchased of the identical bookstall- keeper, who has already figured in this history; having laid them on the table, she prepared to leave the room. "Stop the boy^ Mrs. Bedwin!" said Mr. Brownlow; " there is something to go back." " He has gone, sir," replied Mrs. Bedwin. " Call after him," said Mr. Brownlow ; "it's particular. He is a poor man, and they are not paid for. There are some books to be taken back, too." Oliver Twist loi The street door was opened. Oliver ran one way ; and the girl ran another; and Mrs. Bedwin stood on the step and screamed for the boy ; but there was no boy in sight. Oliver and the girl returned, in a breathless state, to report that there were no tidings of him. ** Dear me, I am very sorry for that," exclaimed Mr. Brownlow; ** I particularly wished those books to be re- turned to-night." ** Send Oliver with them," said Mr. Grimwig, with an ironical smile ; * * he will be sure to deliver them safely, you know. ' ' "Yes; do let me take them, if you please, sir," said Oliver. ** I'll run all the way, sir." The old gentleman was just going to say that Oliver should not go out on any account ; when a most malicious cough from Mr. Grimwig determined him that he should ; and that, by his prompt discharge of the commission, he should prove to him the injustice of his suspicions : on this head at least : at once. " You shall go, my dear," said the old gentleman. The books are on a chair by my table. Fetch them down. ' ' Oliver, delighted to be of use. brought down the books under his arm in a great bustle; and waited, cap in hand, to hear what message he was to take. " You are to say," said Mr. Brownlow, glancing steadily at Grimwig; " you are to say that you have brought those books back ; and that you have come to pay the four pound ten I owe him. This is a five-pound note, so you will have to bring me back, ten shillings change." ** I won't be ten minutes, sir," replied Oliver, eagerly. Having buttoned up the bank-note in his jacket pocket, and placed the books carefully under his arm, he made a respectful bow, and left the room. Mrs. Bedwin fol- lowed him to the street-door, giving him many directions about the nearest way, and the name of the bookseller, and the name of the street : all of which Oliver said he clearly understood. Having superadded many injunctions to be sure and not take cold, the old lady at length pern mitted him to depart. ** Bless his sweet face !" said the old lady, looking after him. ** I can't bear, somehow, to let him go out of my sight." At this moment, Oliver looked gaily round, and nodded I02 Oliver Twist before he turned the corner. The old lady smilingly re- turned his salutation, and, closing the door, went back to her own room. ** Let me see; he'll be back in twenty minutes, at the longest," said Mr. Brownlow, pulling out his watch, and placing it on the table. *' It w^ill be dark by that time." " Oh! you really expect him to come back, do you?" inquired Mr. Grimwig. " Don't you?" asked Mr. Brownlow, smiling. The spirit of contradiction was strong in Mr. Grimwig 's breast, at the moment; and it was rendered stronger by his friend's confident smile. " No," he said, smiting the table with his fist, ** I do not. The boy has a new suit of clothes on his back, a set of valuable books under his arm, and a five-pound note in his pocket. He'll join his old friends the thieves, and laugh at you. If ever that boy returns to this house, sir, I'll eat my head." With these Vv^ords he drew his chair closer to the table; and there the two friends sat, in silent expectation, with the watch between them. It is worthy of remark, as illustrating the importance we attach to our own judgments, and the pride with which we put forth our most rash and hasty conclusions, that, although Mr. Grimwig was not by any means a bad- hearted man, and though he would have been unfeignedly sorry to see his respected friend duped and deceived, he really did most earnestly and strongly hope at that moment, that Oliver Twist might not come back. It grew so dark, that the figures on the dial-plate were scarcely discernible ; but there the two old gentlemen con- tinued to sit, in silence, with the watch between them. CHAPTER XV SHOWING HOW VERY FOND OF OLIVER TWIST THE MERRY OLD JEW AND MISS NANCY WERE In the obscure parlour of a low public-house, in the filthiest part of Little Saffron Hill ; a dark and gloomy den, where a flaring gas-light burnt all day in the winter-time ; and where no ray of sun ever shone in the summer : there Oliver Twist 103 sat, brooding over a little pewter measure and a small glass, strongly impregnated with the smell of liquor, a man in a velveteen coat, drab shorts, half boots and stock- ings, who even by that dim light no experienced agent of police would have hesitated to recognise as Mr. William Sikes. At his feet sat a white-coated, red-eyed dog; who occupied himself, alternately, in winking at his master with both eyes at the same time; and in licking a large, fresh cut on one side of his mouth, which appeared to be the result of some recent conflict. "Keep quiet, you warmint ! Keep quiet!" said Mr. Sikes, suddenly breaking silence. Whether his medita- tions were so intense as to be disturbed by the dog's wink- ing, or whether his feelings were so wrought upon by his reflections that they required all the relief derivable from kicking an unoffending animal to allay them, is matter for argument and consideration. Whatever was the cause, the effect was a kick and a curse, bestowed upon the dog simultaneously. Dogs are not generally apt to revenge injuries inflicted upon them by their masters; but Mr. Sikes's dog, having faults of temper in common with his owner, and labouring, perhaps, at this moment, under a powerful sense of injury, made no more ado but at once fixed his teeth in one of the half -boots. Having given it a hearty shake, he retired, growling, under a form ; just escaping the pewter measure which Mr. Sikes levelled at his head. ** You would, would you?" said Sikes, seizing the poker in one hand, and deliberately opening with the other a large clasp knife, which he drew from his pocket. * ' Come here, you born devil! Come here! D'ye hear?" The dog no doubt heard ; because Mr. Sikes spoke in the very harshest key of a very harsh voice; but, appearing to entertain some unaccountable objection to having his throat cut, he remained where he was, and growled more fiercely than before : at the same time grasping the end of the poker between his teeth, and biting at it like a wild beast. This resistance only infuriated Mr. Sikes the more ; who, dropping on his knees, began to assail the animal most furiously. The dog jumped from right to left, and from left to right : snapping, growling, and barking ; the man thrust and swore, and struck and blasphemed ; and the struggle was reaching a most critical point for one or I04 Oliver Twist other; when, the door suddenly opening, the dog darted out : leaving Bill Sikes with the poker and the clasp-knife in his hands. There must always be two parties to a quarrel, says the old adage. Mr. Sikes, being disappointed of the dog's participation, at once transferred his share in the quarrel to the new-comer. " What the devil do you come in between me and my dog for?" said Sikes, with a fierce gesture. ** I didn't know, my dear, I didn't know," replied Fagin, humbly ; for the Jew was the new-comer. " Didn't know, you white-livered thief !" growled Sikes. ** Couldn't you hear the noise?" ** Not a sound of it, as I'm a living man, Bill," replied the Jew. " Oh no ! You hear nothing, you don't," retorted Sikes with a fierce sneer. " Sneaking in and out, so as nobody hears how you come or go ! I wish you had been the dog, Fagin, half a minute ago." ** Why?" inquired the Jew with a forced smile. ** 'Cause the government, as cares for the lives of such men as you, as haven't half the pluck of curs, lets a man kill a dog how he likes," replied Sikes, shutting up the knife with a very expressive look; '* that's why." The Jew rubbed his hands; and, sitting down at the table, affected to laugh at the pleasantry of his friend. He was obviously very ill at ease, however. "Grin away," said Sikes, replacing the poker, and surveying him with savage contempt; ** grin away. You'll never have the laugh at me, though, unless it's be- hind a night-cap. I've got the upper hand over you, Fagin; and, d — me, I'll keep it. There! If I go, you go; so take care of me." ** Well, well, my dear," said the Jew, " I know all that; we — we — have a mutual interest. Bill, — a mutual interest." ** Humph," said Sikes, as if he thought the interest lay rather more on the Jew's side than on his. ** Well, what have you got to say to me?" ** It's all passed safe through the melting-pot," replied Fagin, *' and this is your share. It's rather more than it ought to be, my dear; but as I know you'll do me a good turn another time, and " *' Stow that gammon," interposed the robber, impa- tiently. <- *' Where is it? Hand over !" Oliver Twist 105 ** Yes, yes, Bill; give me time, give me time," replied the Jew, soothingly. "Here it is! All safe!" As he spoke, he drew forth an old cotton handkerchief from his breast, and untying a large knot in one corner, produced a small brown-paper packet. Sikes, snatching it from him, hastily opened it; and proceeded to count the sovereigns it contained. ** This is all, is it?" inquired Sikes. " All," replied the Jew. ** You haven't opened the parcal and swallowed one or two as you come along, have you.'^" inquired Sikes, sus- piciously. ** Don't put on an injured look at the ques- tion; you've done it many a time. Jerk the tinkler." These words, in plain English, conveyed an injunction to ring the bell. It was answered by another Jew : younger than Fagin, but nearly as vile and repulsive in appearance. Bill Sikes merely pointed to the empty measure. The Jew, perfectly understanding the hint, retired to fill it : previously exchanging a remarkable look with Fagin, who raised his eyes for an instant, as if in expectation of it, and shook his head in reply; so slightly that the action would have been almost imperceptible to an observant third person. It was lost upon Sikes, who was stoop- ing at the moment to tie the boot-lace which the dog had torn. Possibly, if he had observed the brief interchange of signals, he might have thought that it boded no good to him. " Is anybody here, Barney?" inquired Fagin; speaking, now that Sikes was looking on, without raising his eyes from the ground. ** Dot a shoul," replied Barney ; whose words : whether they came from the heart or not : made their way through the nose. "Nobody?" inquired Fagin, in a tone of surprise: which perhaps might mean that Barney was at liberty to tell the truth. ** Dobody but Biss Dadsy," replied Barney. "Nancy!" exclaimed Sikes. "Where? Strike me blind, if I don't honour that 'ere girl, for her native talents." " She's bid havid a plate of boiled beef id the bar," replied Barney. " Send her here," said Sikes, pouring out a glass of liquor* ** Send her here." io6 Oliver Twist Barney looked timidly at Fagin, as if for permission; the Jew remaining- silent, and not lifting his eyes from the ground, he retired; and presently returned, ushering in Nancy ; who was decorated with the bonnet, apron, basket, and street-door key, complete. " You are on the scent, are you, Nancy?" inquired Sikes, proffering the glass. ** Yes, I am, Bill," replied the young lady, disposing of its contents; "and tired enough of it I am, too. The young brat's been ill and confined to the crib; and " *' Ah, Nancy, dear!" said Fagin, looking up. Now, whether a peculiar contraction of the Jew's red eyebrows, and a half-closing of his deeply-set eyes, warned Miss Nancy that she was disposed to be too communica- tive, is not a matter of much importance. The fact is all we need care for here ; and the fact is, that she suddenly checked herself, and with several gracious smiles upon Mr. Sikes, turned the conversation to other matters. In about ten minutes' time, Mr. Fagin was seized with a fit of coughing ; upon which Nancy pulled her shawl over her shoulders, and declared it u^as time to go. Mr. Sikes, finding that he was walking a short part of her way him- self, expressed his intention of accompanying her; they went away together, followed, at a little distance, by the dog, who slunk out of a back-yard as soon as his master was out of sight. The Jew thrust his head out of the room door when Sikes had left it; looked after him as he walked up the dark passage ; shook his clenched fist ; muttered a deep curse; and then, with a horrible grin, re-seated himself at the table ; where he was soon deeply absorbed in the interesting pages of the Hue-and-Cry. Meanwhile, Oliver Twist, little dreaming that he was Vv'ithin so very short a distance of the merry old gentleman, was on his way to the book-stall. When he got into Clerkenwell, he accidentally turned down a bye-street which was not exactly in his way; but not discovering his mis- take until he had got half-way down it, and knowing it must lead in the right direction, he did not think it Vv^orth while to turn back ; and so marched on, as quickly as he could, with the books under his arm. He was walking along, thinking how happy and con- tented he ought to feel ; and how much he would give for only one look at poor little Dick, who, starved and beaten, Oliver Twist 107 might be weeping bitterly at that very moment; when he was startled by a young woman screaming out very loud, *• Oh, my dear brother !" And he had hardly looked up, to see what the matter was, when he was stopped by having a pair of arms thrown tight round his neck. " Don't," cried Oliver, struggling. " Let go of me. Who is it? What are you stopping me for?" The only reply to this, was a great number of loud lamentations from the young woman who had embraced him; and who had a little basket and a street-door key in her hand. ** Oh my gracious !" said the young woman, ** I've found him ! Oh ! Oliver ! Oliver ! Oh you naughty boy, to make me suffer sich distress on your account ! Come home, dear, come. Oh, I've found him. Thank gracious goodness heavins, I've found him!" With these inco- herent exclamations, the young woman burst into another fit of crying, and got so dreadfully hysterical, that a couple of women who came up at the moment asked a butcher's boy with a shiny head of hair anointed with suet, who was also looking on, whether he didn't think he had better run for the doctor. To which, the butcher's boy : who ap- peared of a lounging, not to say indolent disposition : replied, that he thought not. *' Oh, no, no, never mind," said the young woman, grasping Oliver's hand; ** I'm better now. Come home directly, you cruel boy ! Come !" " What's the matter, ma'am?" inquired one of the women. " Oh, ma'am," replied the young woman, *' he ran away, near a month ago, from his parents, who are hard- working and respectable people ; and went and joined a set of thieves and bad characters ; and' almost broke his mother's fteart. " ** Young wretch I" said one woman. ** Go home, do, you little brute," said the other. ** I am not," replied Oliver, greatly alarmed. " I don't know her. I haven't any sister, or father and mother either. I'm an orphan; I live at Pentonville. " *' Only hear him, how be braves it out !" cried the young woman. " Why, it's Nancy !" exclaimed Oliver; who now saw her face for the first time ; and started back, in irrepressible astonishment. io8 Oliver Twist " You see he knows me !" cried Nancy, appealing to the bystanders. " He can't help himself. Make him come home, there's good people, or he'll kill his dear mother and father, and break my heart !" '* What the devil's this?" said a man, bursting out of a beer-shop, with a white dog at his heels ; '* young Oliver ! Come home to your poor mother, you young dog ! Come home directly." '* I don't belong to them. I don't know them. Help! help !" cried Oliver, struggling in the man's powerful grasp. ** Help !" repeated the man. *' Yes; I'll help you, you young rascal! What books are these? You've been a stealing 'em, have you? Give 'em here." With these words, the man tore the volumes from his grasp, and struck him on the head. "That's right!" cried a looker-on, from a garret- window. " That's the only way of bringing him to his senses !" "To be sure!" cried a sleepy-faced carpenter, casting an approving look at the garret-window. " It'll do him good !" said the two women. " And he shall have it, too !" rejoined the man, adminis- tering another blow, and seizing Oliver by the collar. " Come on, you young villain ! Here, Bull's-eye, mind him, boy ! Mind him !" Weak with recent illness ; stupefied by the blows and the suddenness of the attack; terrified by the fierce growl- ing of the dog, and the brutality of the man ; overpowered by the conviction of the bystanders that he really was the hardened little wretch he was described to be ; what could one poor child do? Darkness had set In; it was a low neighbourhood ; no help was near ; resistance was useless. In another moment he was dragged into a labyrinth of dark narrow courts, and was forced along them at a pace which rendered the few cries he dared to give utterance to, unintelligible. It was of little moment, indeed, whether they were intelligible or no; for there was nobody to care for them, had they been ever so plain. ****** The gas-lamps were lighted ; Mrs. Bedwin was waiting anxiously at the open door; the servant had run up the street twenty times to see if there were any traces of Oliver ; and still the two old gentlemen sat, perseverlngly, in the dark parlour, with the watch between them. Oliver Twist 109 CHAPTER XVI RELATES WHAT BECAME OF OLIVER TWIST AFTER HE HAD BEEN CLAIMED BY NANCY The narrow streets and courts, at length, terminated in a large open space; scattered about which, were pens for beasts, and other indications of a cattle-market. Sikes slackened his pace when they reached this spot : the girl being quite unable to support any longer, the rapid rate at which they had hitherto walked. Turning to Oliver, he roughly commanded him to take hold of Nancy's hand. " Do you hear?" growled Sikes, as Oliver hesitated, and looked round. They were in a dark corner, quite out of the track of passengers. Oliver saw, but too plainly, that resistance would be of no avail. He held out his hand, which Nancy clasped tight in hers. ** Give me the other," said Sikes, seizing Oliver's un- occupied hand. ** Here, Bull's-eye!" The dog looked up, and growled. ** See here, boy !" said Sikes, putting his other hand to Oliver's throat; "if he speaks ever so soft a word, hold him ! D'ye mind !" The dog growled again ; and licking his lips, eyed Oliver as if he were anxious to attach himself to his windpipe without delay. " He's as willing as a Christian, strike me blind if he isn't!" said Sikes, regarding the animal with a kind of grim and ferocious approval. " Now, you know what you've g^ot to expect, master, so call away as quick as you like ; the dog will soon stop that game. Get on, young 'un!" Bull's-eye wagged his tail in acknowledgment of this unusually endearing form of speech ; and, giving vent to another admonitory growl for the benefit of Oliver, led the way onward. It was Smithfield that they were crossing, although it might have been Grosvenor Square, for anything Oliver knew to the contrary. The night was dark and foggy. The lights in the shops could scarcely struggle through the heavy mist, which thickened every moment and shrouded no Oliver Twist the streets and houses in gloom ; rendering the strange place still stranger in Oliver's eyes ; and making his un- certainty the more dismal and depressing. They had hurried on a few paces, when a deep church- bell struck the hour. With its first stroke, his two con- ductors stopped, and turned their heads in the direction whence the sound proceeded. " Eight o'clock, Bill," said Nancy, when the bell ceased. " What's the good of telling me that; I can hear it, can't I !" replied Sikes. '* I wonder whether they can hear it," said Nancy. " Of course they can," replied Sikes. ** It was Bartle- my time when I was shopped; and there warn't a penny trumpet in the fair, as I couldn't hear the squeaking on. After I was locked up for the night, the row and din out- side made the thundering old jail so silent, that 1 could almost have beat my brains out against the iron plates of the door." " Poor fellows !" said Nancy, who still had her face turned towards the quarter in which the bell had sounded. '* Oh, Bill, such fine young chaps as them !" " Yes; that's all you women think of," answered Sikes. ** Fine young chaps ! Well, they're as good as dead, so it don't much matter." With this consolation, Mr. Sikes appeared to repress a rising tendency to jealousy, and, clasping Oliver's wrist more firmly, told him to step out again. *' Wait a minute!" said the girl: ** I wouldn't hurry by, if it was you that was coming out to be hung, the next time eight o'clock struck. Bill. I'd walk round and round the place till I dropped, if the snow was on the ground, and I hadn't a shawl to cover me." '* And what good would that do?" inquired the unsenti- mental Mr. Sikes. ** Unless you could pitch over a file and twenty yards of good stout rope, you might as well be walking fifty mile off, or not walking at all, for all the good it would do me. Come on, and don't stand preaching there." The girl burst into a laugh ; drew her shawl more closely round her; and they walked away. But Oliver felt her hand tremble, and, looking up in her face as they passed a gas-lamp, saw that it had turned a deadly white. They walked on, by little-frequented and dirty ways, for a full half-hour: meeting very few people, and those ap- Oliver Twist iii pearing from their looks to hold much the same position in society as Mr. Sikes himself. At length they turned into a very filthy narrow street, nearly full of old-clothes shops ; the dog running forward, as if conscious that there was no further occasion for his keeping on guard, stopped before the door of a shop that was closed and apparently un- tenanted ; the house was in a ruinous condition, and on the door was nailed a board, intimating that it was to let : which looked as if it had hung there for many years. " All right," cried Sikes, glancing cautiously about. Nancy stooped below the shutters, and Oliver heard the sound of a bell. They crossed to the opposite side of the street, and stood for a few moments under a lamp. A noise, as if a sash window were gently raised, was heard ; and soon afterwards the door softly opened. Mr. Sikes then seized the terrified boy by the collar with very little cere- mony ; and all three were quickh'- inside the house. The passage was perfectly dark. They waited, while the person who had let them in, chained and barred the door. ** Anybody here?" inquired Sikes. " No," replied a voice, which Oliver thought he had heard before. " Is the old 'un here?" asked the robber. "Yes," replied the voice; "and precious down in the mouth he has been. Won't he be glad to see you? Oh, no ! " The style of this reply, as well as the voice which de- livered it, seemed familiar to Oliver's ears : but it was impossible to distinguish even the form of the speaker in the darkness. ** Let's have a glim," said Sikes, " or we shall go break- ing our necks, or treading on the dog. Look after your legs if you do !" " Stand still a moment, and I'll get you one," replied the voice. The receding footsteps of the speaker were heard; and, in another minute, the form of Mr. John Dawkins, otherwise the artful Dodger, appeared. He bore in his right hand a tallow candle stuck in the end of a cleft stick. The young gentleman did not stop to bestow any other mark of recognition upon Oliver than a humorous grin ; but, turning away, beckoned the visitors to follow him down a flight of stairs. They crossed an empty kitchen; and. 112 Oliver Twist opening the door of a low earthy-smelling room, which seemed to have been built in a small back-yard, were received with a shout of laughter. '* Oh, my wig, my wig !" cried Master Charles Bates, from whose lungs the laughter had proceeded ; * ' here he is ! oh, cry, here he is ! Oh, Fagin, look at him ! Fagin, do look at him ! I can't bear it; it is such a jolly game, I can't bear it. Hold me, somebody, while I laugh it out." With this irrepressible ebullition of mirth. Master Bates laid himself flat on the floor : and kicked convulsively for five minutes in an ecstasy of facetious joy. Then jumping to his feet, he snatched the cleft stick from the Dodger; and, advancing to Oliver, viewed him round and round; while the Jew, taking off his nightcap, made a great number of low bows to the bewildered boy. The Artful, meantime, who was of a rather saturnine disposition, and seldom gave way to merriment when it interfered with business, rifled Oliver's pockets with steady assiduity. ** Look at his togs, Fagin!" said Charley, putting the light so close to his new jacket as nearly to set him on fire. " Look at his togs ! Superfine cloth, and the heavy swell cut ! Oh, my eye, what a game ! And his books, too ! Nothing but a gentleman, Fagin!" " Delighted to see you looking so well, my dear," said the Jew, bowing with mock humility. ** The Artful shall give you another suit, my dear, for fear you should spoil that Sunday one. Why didn't you write, my dear, and say you were coming? We'd have got something warm for supper." At this. Master Bates roared again : so loud, that Fagin himself relaxed, and even the Dodger smiled ; but as the Artful drew forth the five-pound note at that instant, it is doubtful whether the sally or the discovery awakened his merriment. "Hallo! what's that?" inquired Sikes, stepping for- ward as the Jew seized the note. " That's mine, Fagin." ** No, no, my dear," said the Jew. *' Mine, Bill, mine. You shall have the books." '* If that ain't mine!" said Bill Sikes, putting on his hat with a determined air; ** mine and Nancy's, that is; I'll take the boy back again." The Jew started. Oliver started too, though from a very different cause ; for he hoped that the dispute might really end in his being taken back. Oliver Twist 113 "Come! Hand over, will you?" said Sikes. "This is hardly fair, Bill; hardly fair, is it, Nancy?" inquired the Jew. " Fair, or not fair," retorted Sikes, "hand over, I tell you ! Do you think Nancy and me has got notb'ng else to do with our precious time but to spend it in scouting arter and kidnapping, every young boy as gets grabbed through you? Give it here, you avaricious old skeleton, give it here!" With this gentle remonstrance, Mr. Sikes plucked the note from between the Jew's finger and thumb; and look- ing the old man coolly in the face, folded it up small, and tied it in his neckerchief. " That's for our share of the trouble," said Sikes ; '* and not half enough, neither. You may keep the books, if you're fond of reading. If you a'n't, sell 'em." " They're very pretty," said Charley Bates : who, with sundry grimaces, had been affecting to read one of the volumes in question : " beautiful writing, isn't it, Oliver?" At sight of the dismayed look with which Oliver regarded his tormentors. Master Bates, who was blessed with a lively sense of the ludicrous, fell into another ecstasy, more boisterous than the first. " They belong to the old gentleman," said Oliver, wring- ing his hands; "to the good, kind, old gentleman who took me into his house, and had me nursed, when I was near dying of the fever. Oh, pray send them back ; send him back the books and money. Keep me here all my life long; but pray, pray send them back. He'll think I stole them ; the old lady : all of them who were so kind to me : will think I stole them. Oh, do have mercy upon me, and send them back !" With those words, which were uttered with all the energy of passionate grief, Oliver fell upon his knees at the Jew's feet; and beat his hands together, in perfect desperation. " The boy's right," remarked Fagin, looking covertly round, and knitting his shaggy eyebrows into a hard knot. "You're right, Oliver, you're right; they will think you have stolen 'em. Ha! ha!" chuckled the Jew, rubbing his hands; " it couldn't have happened better, if we had chosen our time ! * ' "Of course it couldn't, replied Sikes; "I know'd that, directly I see him coming through Clerkenwell, with 1 14 Oliver Twist the books under his arm. It's all right enough. They're soft-hearted psalm-singers, or they wouldn't have taken him in at all; and they'll ask no questions after him, fear they should be obliged to prosecute, and so get him lagged. He's safe enough." Oliver had looked from one to the other, while these words were being spoken, as if he were bewildered, and could scarcely understand what passed ; but when Bill Sikes concluded, he jumped suddenly to his feet, and tore wildly from the room : uttering shrieks for help, which made the bare old house echo to the roof. "Keep back the dog. Bill!" cried Nancy, springing; before the door, and closing it, as the Jew and his two pupils darted out in pursuit. " Keep back the dog; he'll tear the boy to pieces." ** Serve him right !" cried Sikes, struggling to disengage; himself from the girl's grasp. " Stand off from me, or I'll split your head against the wall." " I don't care for that, Bill, I don't care for that," screamed the girl, struggling violently with the man : " the' child shan't be torn down by the dog, unless you kill me' first." " Shan't he !" said Sikes, setting his teeth. *' I'll sooni do that, if you don't keep off." The housebreaker flung the girl from him to the further end of the room, just as the Jew and the two boys returned, dragging Oliver among them. *' What's the matter here !" said Fagin, looking round. " The girl's gone mad, I think," replied Sikes, savagely. " No, she hasn't," said Nancy, pale and breathless from the scuffle; *' no, she hasn't, Fagin; don't think it." "Then keep quiet, will you?" said the Jew, with a threatening look. • " No, I won't do that, neither," replied Nancy, speaking] very loud. " Come ! What do you think of that?" ■^ Mr. Fagin was sufficiently well acquainted with the man- ners and customs of that particular species of humanity to which Nancy belonged, to feel tolerably certain that it would be rather unsafe to prolong any conversation with her, at present. With the view of diverting the attention of the company, he turned to Oliver. " So you wanted to get away, my dear, did you?" said: the Jew, taking up a jagged and knotted club which lay in a corner of the fireplace; " eh?" Oliver Twist 115 Oliver made no reply. But he watched the Jew's motions, and breathed quickly. ** Wanted to get assistance; called for the police; did you?" sneered the Jew, catching the boy by the arm. ** We'll cure you of that, my young master." The Jew inflicted a smart blow on Oliver's shoulders with the club; and was raising it for a second, when the girl, rushing forward, wrested it from his hand. She flung it into the fire, with a force that brought some of the glowing coals whirling out into the room. *' I won't stand by and see it done, Fagin," cried the girl. '* You've got the boy, and what more would you have? — Let him be — let him be — or I shall put that mark on some of you, that will bring me to the gallows before my time." The girl stamped her foot violently on the floor as she v^ented this threat ; and with her lips compressed, and her [lands clenched, looked alternately at the Jew and the other robber : her face quite colourless from the passion of rage into which she had gradually worked herself. "Why, Nancy!" said the Jew, in a soothing tone; ifter a pause, during which he and Mr. Sikes had stared it one another in a disconcerted manner; "you — you're nore clever than ever to-night. Ha ! ha ! my dear, you ^re acting beautifully." " Am I?" said the girl. ** Take care I don't overdo it. You will be the worse for it, Fagin, if I do; and so I tell you in good time to keep clear of me." There is something about a roused woman : especially if she add to all her other strong passions, the fierce impulses 3f recklessness and despair : which few men like to pro- voke. The Jew saw that it would be hopeless to affect any further mistake regarding the reality of Miss Nancy's rage ; and, shrinking involuntarily back a few paces, cast a glance, half im.ploring and half cowardly at Sikes : as if to hint that he was the fittest person to pursue the dialogue. Mr. Sikes, thus mutely appealed to; and possibly feeling his personal pride and influence interested in the immediate reduction of Miss Nancy to reason ; gave utterance to about a couple of score of curses and threats, the rapid produc- tion of which reflected great credit on the fertility of his invention. As they produced no visible effect on the object against whom they were discharged, however, he resorted to more tangible arguments. ii6 Oliver Twist "What do you mean by this?" said Sikes ; backing the inquiry with a very common imprecation concerning the most beautiful of human features : which, if it were heard above, only once out of every fifty thousand times that it is uttered below, would render blindness as common a disorder as measles : *' what do you mean by it? Burn my body ! Do you know who you are, and what you are?" " Oh, yes, I know all about it," replied the girl, laugh- ing hysterically; and shaking her head from side to side, with a poor assumption of indifference. ** Well, then, keep quiet," rejoined Sikes, with a growl like that he was accustomed to use when addressing his- dog, " or I'll quiet you for a good long time to come." The girl laughed again : even less composedly than be- fore; and, darting a hasty look at Sikes, turned her face aside, and bit her lip till the blood came. " You're a nice one," added Sikes, as he surveyed her with a contemptuous air, '* to take up the humane and gen — teel side ! A pretty subject for the child, as you call him, to make a friend of !" " God Almighty help me, I am !" cried the girl passion- ately; " and I wish I had been struck dead in the street, or had changed places with them we passed so near to- night, before I had lent a hand in bringing him here. He's a thief, a liar, a devil, all that's bad, from this night forth. Isn't that enough for the old wretch, without blows?" " Come, come, Sikes," said the Jew, appealing to him in a remonstratory tone, and motioning towards the boys, who were eagerly attentive to all that passed; '* we must have civil words; civil words, Bill." ** Civil words !" cried the girl, whose passion was frightful to see. " Civil words, you villain ! Yes, you deserve 'em from me. I thieved for you when I was a child not half as old as this ! ' ' pointing to Oliver. * * I have been in the same trade, and in the same service, for twelve years since. Don't you know it? Speak out ! Don't you know it?" '* Well, well," replied the Jew, with an attempt at paci- fication; ** and, if you have, it's your living !" "Aye, it is!" returned the girl; not speaking, but pouring out the words in one continuous and vehement scream. " It is my living; and the cold, wet, dirty streets are my home; and you're the wretch that drove me to Oliver Twist iiy them lon^ aeo, and that'll keep me there, day and night, day and night, till I die !" ** I shall do you a mischief !" interposed the Jew, goaded by these reproaches; ** a mischief worse than that, if you say much more !" The girl said nothing more; but, tearing her hair and dress in a transport of passion, made such a rush at the Jew as would probably have left signal marks of her re- venge upon him, had not her wrists been seized by Sikes at the right moment ; upon which, she made a few ineffectual struggles, and fainted. ** She's all right now," said Sikes, laying her down in a corner. '* She's uncommon strong in the arms when she's up in this way." The Jew wiped his forehead : and smiled, as if it were a relief to have the disturbance over; but neither he, nor Sikes, nor the dog, nor the boys, seemed to consider it in any other light than a common occurrence incidental to business. *' It's the worst of having to do with women," said the Jew, replacing his club; " but they're clever, and we can't Sfet on, in our line, without 'em. Charley, show Oliver to bed." " I suppose he'd better not wear his best clothes to- morrow, Fagin, had he?" inquired Charley Bates. '* Certainly not," replied the Jew, reciprocating the grin ivith which Charley put the question. Master Bates, apparently much delighted with his com- nission, took the cleft stick : and led Oliver into an adjacent kitchen, where there were two or three of the beds on which le had slept before; and here, with many uncontrollable Dursts of laughter, he produced the identical old suit of lothes which Oliver had so much congratulated himself apon leaving off at Mr. Browlow's; and the accidental display of which, to Fagin, by the Jew who purchased hem, had been the very first clue received, of his where- ibout. " Pull off the smart ones," said Charley, ** and I'll give em to Fagin to take care of. What fun it is !" Poor Oliver unwillingly complied. Master Bates rolling ip the new clothes under his arm, departed from the room, eaving Oliver in the dark, and locking the door behind lim. The noise of Charley's laughter, and the voice of Miss ii8 Oliver Twist Betsy, who opportunely arrived to throw water over her friend, and perform other feminine offices for the pro- motion of her recovery, might have kept many people awake under more happy circumstances than those in which Oliver was placed. But he was sick and weary ; and he soon fell sound asleep. CHAPTER XVII Oliver's destiny continuing unpropitious, brings a great man to london to injure his reputation It is the custom on the stage, in all good murderous.^ melodramas, to present the tragic and the comic scenes, in as regular alternation, as the layers of red and white in a side of streaky bacon. The hero sinks upon his straw bed,jjj weighed down by fetters and misfortunes; in the next„ scene, his faithful but unconscious squire regales the audi- ^ ence with a comic song. We behold, with throbbing j, bosoms, the heroine in the grasp of a proud and ruthless baron : her virtue and her life alike in danger, drawing . forth her dagger to preserve the one at the cost of the other and just as our expectations are wrought up to the highesi ^ pitch, a whistle is heard, and we are straightway trans- jj, ported to the great hall of the castle : where a grey-headec j„ seneschal sings a funny chorus with a funnier body ol vassals, who are free of all sorts of places, from churctj^j vaults to palaces, and roam about in company, carolling^, perpetually. ^oj -Such changes appear absurd; but they ar^ not^so un-k natural as they would seem at first sighf." TlietFansItions in real life from well-spread boards to death-beds, anc|p|, from mourning weeds to holiday garments, are not a whil less startling; only, there, we are busy actors, instead ol passive lookers-on, which makes a vast difference. The actors in the mimic life of the theatre, are blind to violenlj transitions and abrupt impulses of passion or feeling which, presented before the eyes of mere spectators, arc at once condemned as outrageous and preposterous. As sudden shif tings of the scene, and rapid changes oljig time and place, are not only sanctioned in books by long usage, but are by many considered as the great art oi authorship : an author's skill in his craft being, by suchijfj Oliver Twist 119 critics, chiefly estimated with relation to the dilemmas in which he leaves his characters at the end of every chapter : this brief introduction to the present one may perhaps be deemed unnecessary. If so, let it be considered a delicate intimation on the part of the historian that he is going back to the town in which Oliver Twist was born; the reader taking it for granted that there are good and substantial reasons for making the journey, or he would not be invited to proceed upon such an expedition. Mr. Bumble emerged at early morning from the work- louse-gate, and walked with portly carriage and command- ,ng steps, up the High Street. He was in the full bloom md pride of beadlehood ; his cocked hat and coat were dazzling in the morning sun ; he clutched his cane with the pgorous tenacity of health and power. Mr. Bumble klways carried his head high ; but this morning it was pigher than usual. There was an abstraction in his eye,' an elevation in his air, which might have warned an ob- servant stranger that thoughts were passing in the beadle's nind, too great for utterance. Mr. Bumble stopped not to converse with the small shop- keepers and others who spoke to him, deferentially, as he massed along. He merely returned their salutations with I wave of his hand, and relaxed not in his dignified pace, mtil he reached the farm where Mrs. Mann tended the nfant paupers with parochial care. •' Drat that beadle !" said Mrs. Mann, hearing the well- cnown shaking at the garden-gate. ** If it isn't him at his time in the morning ! Lauk, Mr. Bumble, only think >f its being you ! Well, dear me, it is a pleasure, this is ! ;^ome into the parlour, sir, please." The first sentence was addressed to Susan ; and the ex- clamations of delight were uttered to Mr. Bum.ble : as the ;:ood lady unlocked the garden-gate, and showed him, with freat attention and respect, into the house. "Mrs. Mann," said Mr. Bumble; not sitting upon, of hopping himself into a seat, as any common jackanapes vould : but letting himself gradually and slowly down into L chair; " Mrs. Mann, ma'am, good morning." " Well, and good morning to you, sir," replied Mrs. ^ann, with many smiles; " and hoping vou find yourself veil, sir !" '* So-so, Mrs. Mann," replied the beadle. *' A porochial ife is not a bed of roses, Mrs. Mann." I20 Oliver Twist "Ah, that it isn't indeed, Mr. Bumble," rejoined the lady. And all the infant paupers might have chorused tiie rejoinder with great propriety, if they had heard it. " A porochial Hfe, ma'am," continued Mr. Bumble, striking the table with his cane, " is a life of worrit, and vexation, and hardihood ; but all public characters, as I may say, must suffer prosecution." Mrs. Mann, not very well knowing what the beadle meant, raised her hands with a look of sympathy, and sighed. "Ah! You may well sigh, Mrs. Mann!" said the beadle. Finding she had done right, Mrs. Mann sighed again : evidently to the satisfaction of the public character : who, (repressing a complacent smile by looking sternly at his ■cocked hat, said, ' *' Mrs. Mann, I am a going to London." ** Lauk, Mr. Bumble !" cried Mrs. Mann, starting back. T '* To London, ma'am," resumed the inflexible beadle, P by coach. I and two paupers, Mrs. Mann ! A legal action is a coming on, about a settlement; and the board has appointed me — me, Mrs. Mann — to depose to the' matter before the quarter-sessions at Clerkinwell. And I ' very much question," added Mr. Bumble, drawing himself 1 up, *' whether the Clerkinwell Sessions will not find them- selves in the wrong box before they have done with me." I I ** Oh! you mustn't be too hard upon them, sir," saidj iMrs. Mann, coaxingly. I ** The Clerkinwell Sessions have brought it upon them selves, ma'am," replied Mr. Bumble; ** and if the Clerkin- well Sessions find that they come off rather worse than they expected, the Clerkinwell Sessions have only themselves to thank." There was so much determination and depth of purpose about the menacing manner in which Mr. Bumble delivered himself of these words, that Mrs. Mann appeared quite awed by them. At length she said, ** You're going by coach, sir? I thought it was always usual to send them paupers in carts." ** That's when they're ill, Mrs. Mann," said the beadle. ** We put the sick paupers into open carts in the rainy weather, to prevent their taking cold." "Oh!" said Mrs. Mann. *^ The opposition coach contracts for these two ; and Oliver Twist 121 rakes them cheap," said Mr. Bumble. *' They are both in 1 very low state, and we find it would come two pound cheaper to move 'em than to bury 'em — that is, if we can :hrow 'em upon another parish, which I think we shall be ible to do, if they don't die upon the road to spite us. Ha ! la! ha!" When Mr. Bumble had laughed a little while, his eyes igain encountered the cocked hat ; and he became grave. ** We are forgetting business, ma'am," said the beadle; 'here is your porochial stipend for the month." Mr. Bumble produced some silver money rolled up in Daper, from his pocket-book ; and requested a receipt : vhich Mrs. Mann wrote. ** It's very much blotted sir," said the farmer of nfants; " but it's formal enough, I dare say. Thank you, Mr. Bumble, sir, I am very much obliged to you, I'm sure." Mr. Bumble nodded, blandly, in acknowledgment of Vlrs. Mann's curtsey; and inquired how the children vere. " Bless their dear little hearts!" said Mrs. Mann with amotion, ** they're as well as can be, the dears ! Of course, except the two that died last week. And little )ick." ** Isn't that boy no better?" inquired Mr. Bumble. Mrs. Mann shook her head. *' He's a ill-conditioned, wicious, bad-disposed porochial ;hild that," said Mr. Bumble angrily. "Where is he?" * I'll bring him to you in one minute, sir," replied Mrs. llann. ** Here, you Dick!" After some calling, Dick was discovered. Having had lis face put under the pump, and dried upon Mrs. Mann's fown, he was led into the awful presence of Mr. Bumble, he beadle. The child was pale and thin ; his cheeks were sunken ; md his eyes large and bright. The scanty parish dress, he livery of his misery, hung loosely on his feeble body; md his young limbs had wasted away, like those of an )ld man. Such was the little being who stood trembling beneath VIr. Bumble's glance; not daring to lift his eyes from the loor; and dreading even to hear the beadle's voice. * Can't you look at the gentleman, you obstinate boy?'* laid Mrs. Mann. 122 Oliver Twist The child meekly raised his eyes, and encountered thosei of Mr. Bumble. " What's the matter with you, porochial Dick?" i quired Mr. Bumble, with well-timed jocularity. ** Nothing, sir," replied the child faintly. " I should think not," said Mrs. Mann, who had of course laughed very much at Mr. Bumble's humour. ** You want for nothing, I'm sure." *• I should Hke " faltered the child. ** Heyday !" interposed Mrs. Mann, " I suppose you're going to say that you do want for something, now? Why you little wretch " ** Stop, Mrs. Mann, stop!" said the beadle, raising his hand with a show of authority. ** Like what, sir, eh?' ** I should like," faltered the child, ** if somebody that can write, would put a few words down for me on a piece of paper, and fold it up and seal it, and keep it for me, after I am laid in the ground." ** Why, what does the boy mean?" exclaimed Mr. Bumble, on whom the earnest manner and wan aspect oft the child had made some impression : accustomed as hei was to such things. ** What do you mean, sir?" f ** I should like," said the child, '' to leave my dear love! to poor Oliver Twist; and to let him know how often ij have sat by myself and cried to think of his wanderingf about in the dark nights with nobody to help him. Andy I should like to tell him," said the child, pressing his small J hands together, and speaking with great fervour, ** that I was glad to die when I was very young ; for, perhaps, if I had lived to be a man, and had grown old, my little sister who is in Heaven, might forget me, or be unlike me; and it would be so much happier if we were both children there; together." Mr. Bumble surveyed the little speaker, from head to foot, with indescribable astonishment; and, turning to his companion said, " They're all in one story, Mrs. Mann. That out-dacious Oliver has demogalized them all !" ** I couldn't have believed it, sir!" said Mrs. Mann, holding up her hands, and looking malignantly at Dick. " I never see such a hardened little wretch !" ** Take him away, ma'am!" said Mr. Bumble imperi- ously. ** This must be stated to the board, Mrs. Mann." ** I hope the gentlemen will understand that it isn't my fault, sir?" said Mrs. M«iin, whimpering pathetically. Oliver Twist 123 "They sliall understand that, ma'am; they shall be icquainted with the true state of the case," said Mr. Bumble. '* There; take him away, I can't bear the sight >n him." Dick was immediately taken away, and locked up in the ;oal-cellar. Mr. Bumble shortly afterwards took himself >ff, to prepare for his journey. At six o'clock next morning, Mr. Bumble : having ex- :hanged his cocked hat for a round one, and encased his )erson in a blue great-coat with a cape to it : took his )lace on the outside of the coach, accompanied by the riminals whose settlement was disputed; with whom, in lue course of time, he arrived in London. He experienced 10 other crosses on the way, than those which originated n the perverse behaviour of the two paupers, who per- isted in shivering, and complaining of the cold, in a nanner which, Mr. Bumble declared, caused his teeth to hatter in his head, and made him feel quite uncomfort- ble ; although he had a great-coat on. Having disposed of these evil-minded persons for the light, Mr. Bumble sat himself down in the house at which he coach stopped ; and took a temperate dinner of steaks, yster sauce, and porter. Putting a glass of hot gin-and- i^ater on the chimney-piece, he drew his chair to the fire ; nd, with sundry moral reflections on the too-prevalent in of discontent and complaining, composed himself to ead the paper. The very first paragraph upon which Mr. Bumble's eye ested, was the following advertisement. " FIVE GUINEAS REWARD * Whereas a young boy, named Oliver Twist, bsconded, or was enticed, on Thursday evening last, from lis home, at Pentonville ; and has not since been heard >f. The above reward will be paid to any person who will l^ive such information as will lead to the discovery of the aid Oliver Twist, or tend to throw any light upon his Drevious history, in which the advertiser is, for many easons, warmly interested." And then followed a full description of Oliver's dress, )erson, appearance, and disappearance : with the name and iddress of Mr. Brownlow at full length. 124 Oliver Twist Mr. Bumble opened his eyes ; read the advertisement slowly and carefully, three several times; and in something^ more than five minutes was on his way to Pentonville having actually, in his excitement, left the glass of hot gin and-water, untasted. "Is Mr. Brownlow at home?" inquired Mr. Bumble of| the girl who opened the door. To this inquiry the girl returned the not uncommon, but rather evasive reply of " I don't know ; where do you come from?" Mr. Bumble no sooner uttered Oliver's name, in ex planation of his errand, than Mrs. Bedwin, who had beenJ" listening at the parlour door, hastened into the passage m a breathless state. " Come in, come in," said the old lady: " I knew we should hear of him. Poor dear ! I knew we should ! I was certain of it ! Bless his heart ! I said so, all along." Having said this, the worthy old lady hurried back into the parlour again; and seating herself on a sofa, burst' into tears. The girl, who was not quite so susceptible, had; run up stairs meanwhile ; and now returned with a request that Mr. Bumble would follow her immediately : which he did. He was shown into the little back study, where sat Mr. Brownlow and his friend Mr. Grimwig, with decanters and glasses before them. The latter gentleman at once burst into the exclamation : ** A beadle ! A parish beadle, or I'll eat my head." " Pray don't interrupt just now," said Mr. Brownlow. ** Take a seat, will you?" Mr. Bumble sat himself down : quite confounded by the? oddity of Mr. Grimwig 's manner. Mr. Brownlow moved the lamp, so as to obtain an uninterrupted view of the Beadle's countenance; and said, with a little impatience, ** Now, sir, you come in consequence of having seen the advertisement?" ** Yes, sir," said Mr. Bumble. ** And you are a beadle, are you not?" inquired Mr. Grimwig. " I am a porochial beadle, gentlemen," rejoined Mr. Bumble, proudly. *' Of course," observed Mr. Grimwig aside to his friend, ** I knew he was. A beadle all over !" Oliver Twist 125 Mr. Brownlow gently shook his head to impose silence m his friend, and resumed : ** Do you know where this poor boy is now?" ** No more than nobody," replied Mr. Bumble. ** Well, what do you know of him?" inquired the old •gentleman. ** Speak out, my friend, if you have anything say. What do you know of him?" " You don't happen to know any good of him, do you?" aid Mr. Grimwig, caustically; after an attentive perusal ►f Mr. Bumble's features. Mr. Bumble, catching at the inquiry very quickly, shook lis head with portentous solemnity. * You see?" said Mr. Grimwig, looking triumphantly at At. Brownlow. Mr. Brownlow looked apprehensively at Mr. Bumble's »ursed-up countenance ; and requested him to communicate vhat he knew regarding Oliver, in as few words as pos- ible. 1 Mr. Bumble put down his hat; unbuttoned his coat; olded his arms ; inclined his head in a retrospective nanner; and, after a few moments' reflection, commenced lis story. It would be tedious if given in the beadle's words : occu- lying, as it did, some twenty minutes in the telling ; but he sum and substance of it was. That Oliver was a oundling, born of low and vicious parents. That he had, rom his birth, displayed no better qualities than treachery, igratitude, and malice. That he had terminated his brief areer in the place of his birth, by making a sanguinary nd cowardly attack on an unoffending lad, and running way in the night-time from his master's house. In prooi f his really being the person he represented himself, Mr. Jumble laid upon the table the papers he had brought to own. Folding his arms again, he then awaited Mr. Jrownlow's observations. * I fear it is all too true," said the old gentleman sorrow- ully, after looking over the papers. " This is not much or your intelligence ; but I would gladly have given ou treble the money, if it had been favourable to the loy." It is not improbable that if Mr. Bumble had been pos- essed of this information at an earlier period of the inter- iew, he might have imparted a very different colouring to lis little history. It was too late to do it now, however : so 126 Oliver Twist he shook his head gravely, and, pocketing the five guineas withdrew. Mr. Brownlow paced the room to and fro for some minutes ; evidently so much disturbed by the beadle's tale: that even Mr. Grimwig forbore to vex him further. At length he stopped, and rang the bell violently. " Mrs. Bedwin," said Mr. Brownlow, when the house< keeper appeared; ** that boy, Oliver, is an impostor." ■ it can't be, sir. It cannot be," said the old lady] energetically. '* I tell you he is," retorted the old gentleman. ** Whaii do you mean by can't be? We have just heard a ful account of him from his birth ; and he has been a thoroughi paced little villain, all his life." i '* I never will believe it, sir," replied the old lady, firmly '♦Never!" '* You old women never believe anything but quack doctors, and lying story-books," growled Mr. Grimwig ** I knew it all along. Why didn't you take my advice ir the beginning; you would, if he hadn't had a fever, I sup pose, eh? He was interesting, wasn't he? Interesting Bah !" And Mr. Grimwig poked the fire with a flourish. ** He was a dear, grateful, gentle child, sir," retorted Mrs. Bedwin, indignantly. *' I know what children are^ sir; and have done these forty years; and people who can' say the same, shouldn't say anything about them. That'j my opinion ! ' ' This was a hard hit at Mr. Grimwig, who was i bachelor. As it extorted nothing from that gentleman bu i a smile, the old lady tossed her head, and smoothed dowr her apron preparatory to another speech, when she waji stopped by Mr. Brownlow. '♦ Silence!" said the old gentleman, feigning an angefi he was far from feeling. " Never let me hear the boy'j name again. I rang to tell you that. Never. Never, or any pretence, mind ! You may leave the room, Mrs. Bed win. Remember! I am in earnest." There were sad hearts at Mr. Brownlow 's that night. Oliver's heart sank within him, when he thought of hiii good kind friends ; it was well for him that he could no ' know what they had heard, or it might have broken out right. Oliver Twist 127 CHAPTER XVIII HOW OLIVER PASSED HIS TIME IN THE IMPROVING SOCIETY OF HIS REPUTABLE FRIENDS About noon next day, when the Dodger and Master Bates had gone out to pursue their customary avocations, Mr. F'agin took the opportunity of reading OHver a long lecture on the crying sin of ingratitude : of which he clearly demonstrated he had been guilty, to no ordinary extent, in wilfully absenting himself from the society of his anxious friends; and, still more, in endeavouring to escape from them after so much trouble and expense had been incurred n his recovery. Mr. Fagin laid great stress on the fact y{ his having taken Oliver in, and cherished him, when, ivithout his timely aid, he might have perished with lunger; and he related the dismal and affecting history of a foung lad whom, in his philanthropy, he had succoured inder parallel circumstances, but who, proving unworthy >f his confidence and evincing a desire to communicate with :he police, had unfortunately come to be hanged at the Old 3ailey one morning. Mr. Fagin did not seek to conceal tiis share in the catastrophe, but lamented with tears in his yes that the wrong-headed and treacherous behaviour of he young person in question, had rendered it necessary hat he should become the victim of certain evidence for itlhe crown : which, if it were not precisely true, was in- niispensably necessary for the safety of him (Mr. Fagin) and few select friends. Mr. Fagin concluded by drawing a ather disagreeable picture of the discomforts of hanging ; ind, with great friendliness and politeness of manner, ex- 's )ressed his anxious hopes that he might never be obliged no submit Oliver Twist to that unpleasant operation. Little Oliver's blood ran cold, as he listened to the Jew's vords, and imperfectly comprehended the dark threats con- eyed in them. That it was possible even for justice itself iJo confound the innocent with the guilty when they were in itLCcidental companionship, he knew already; and that leeply-laid plans for the destruction of inconveniently mowing or over-communicative persons, had been really levised and carried out by the old Jew on more occasions ban one, he thought by no means unlikely, when he recol- 128 Oliver Twist lected the general nature of the altercations between that gentleman and Mr. Sikes : which seemed to bear reference to some foregone conspiracy of the kind. As he glanced timidly up, and met the Jew's searching look, he felt that his pale face and trembling limbs were neither unnoticed nor unrelished by that wary old gentleman. The Jew, smiling hideously, patted Oliver on the head, and said, that if he kept himself quiet, and applied himself to business, he saw they would be very good friends yet. Then, taking his hat, and covering himself with an old patched great-coat, he went out, and locked the room-door, behind him. And so Oliver remained all that day, and for the greater; part of many subsequent days, seeing nobody, between; early morning and midnight, and left during the long hours; to commune with his own thoughts. Which, never failing to revert to his kind friends, and the opinion they mustj long ago have formed of him, were sad indeed. '. After the lapse of a week or so, the Jew left the room-j door unlocked ; and he was at liberty to wander about the] house. • I It was a very dirty place. The rooms up stairs had great! high wooden chimney-pieces and large doors, with panelledi] walls and cornices to the ceilings ; which, although they , were black with neglect and dust, were ornamented in vari- 1 ous ways» From all of these tokens Oliver concluded that a , long time ago, before the old Jew was born, it had belonged i to better people, and had perhaps been quite gay and hand-L some : dismal and dreary as it looked now. It Spiders had built their webs in the angles of the walls'} and ceilings ; and sometimes, when Oliver walked softlyjj into a room, the mice would scamper across the floor, andj run back terrified to their holes. With these exceptions, |^ there was neither sight nor sound of any livifig thing ; andij often, when it grew dark, and he was tired of wandering from room to room, he would crouch in the corner of the passage by the street-door, to be as near living people as he could ; and would remain there, listening and count ing the hours, until the Jew or the boys returned. <*^ In all the rooms, the mouldering shutters were fast •closed : the bars which held them were screwed tight into the wood ; the only light which was admitted, stealing its way through round holes at the top : which made the rooms ^more gloomy, and filled them with strange shadows. There _____..__ /! Oliver Twist 129 was a back-garret window with rusty bars outside, which had no shutter; and out of this, OHver often gazed with a tnelancholy face for hours together; but nothing was to be descried from it but a confused and crowded mass of house-tops, blackened chimneys, and gable-ends. Some- times, indeed, a grizzly head might be seen, peering over the parapet-wall of a distant house : but it was quickly withdrawn again j and as the window of Oliver's observ- atory was nailed down, and dimmed with the rain and smoke of years, it was as much as he could do to make out the forms of the diiTerent objects beyond, without making any attempt to be seen or heard, — which he had as much chance of being, as if he had lived inside the ball of St. Paul's Cathedral. One afternoon, the Dodger and Master Bates being en- gaged out that evening, the first-named young gentleman took it into his head to evince some anxiety regarding the decoration of his person (to do him justice, this was by no means an habitual weakness with him); and, with this end and aim, he condescendingly commanded Oliver to assist him in his toilet, straightway. Oliver was but too glad to make himself useful ; too happy to have some faces, however bad, to look upon; too desirous to conciliate those about him when he could honestly do so ; to throw any objection in the way of this proposal. So he at once expressed his readiness; and, kneeling on the floor, while the Dodger sat upon the table so that he could take his foot in his lap, he applied himself to a process which Mr. Dawkins designated as *' japanning his trotter-cases." The phrase, rendered into plain Eng- lish, signifieth, cleaning his boots. VVhether it was the sense of freedom and independence which a rational animal may be supposed to feel when he sits on a table in an easy attitude smoking a pipe, swinging one leg carelessly to and fro, and having his boots cleaned all the time, without even the past trouble of having taken them off, or the prospective misery of putting them on, to disturb his reflections ; or whether it was the goodness of the tobacco that soothed the feelings of the Dodger, or the mildness of the beer that mollified his thoughts ; he was evidently tinctured, for the nonce, with a spice of romance and enthusiasm, foreign to his general nature. He looked down on Oliver, with a thoughtful countenance, for a brief space; and then, raising his headland heaving a gentle F 130 Oliver Twist sigh, said, half in abstraction, and iialf to Master Bates : " What a pity it is he isn't a prig !" "Ah!'' said Master Charles Bates; "he don't know what's good for him." The Dodger sighed again, and resumed his pipe : as did Charley Bates. They both smoked, for some seconds, in silence. " I suppose you don't even know what a prig is?" saidl the Dodger mournfully. " I think I know that," replied Oliver, looking up. " It's a th — ; you're one, are you not?" inquired Oliver, check- ing himself. " I am," replied the Dodger. "I'd scorn to be any-- thing else." Mr. Dawkins gave his hat a ferocious cock, after delivering this sentiment, and looked at Master Bates,, as if to denote that he would feel obliged by his saying; anything to the contrary. " I am," repeated the Dodger. " So's Charley. So's; Fagin. So's Sikes. So's Nancy. So's Bet. So we all are,, down to the dog. And he's the downiest one of the lot !" "And the least given to peaching," added Charley Bates. " He wouldn't so much as bark in a witness-box, for fear: of committing himself; no, not if you tied him up in one,, and left him there without wittles for a fortnight," said the: Dodger. " Not a bit of it," observed Charley. " He's a rum dog. Don't he look fierce at any strange cove that laughs or sings wb^ - he's in company !" pursued the Dodger. " Won't he growl at all, when he hears a. fiddle playing ! And don't he hate other dogs as ain't of i his breed! Oh, no!" " He's an out-and-out Christian," said Charley. This was merely intended as a tribute to the animal's abilities, but it was an appropriate remark in another sense, if Master Bates had only known it; for there are a good many ladies and gentlemen, claiming to be out-and-out Christians, between whom, and Mr. Sikes' dog, there exist strong and singular points of resemblance. " Well, well," said the Dodger, recurring to the point from which they had strayed : with that mindfulness of his profession which influenced all his proceedings. " This hasn't got anything to do with young Green here." Oliver Twist 131 "No more it has," said Charley. '* Why don't you put I'ourself under Fagin, Oliver?" "And make your fortun' out of hand?" added the Dodger, with a grin. " And so be able to retire on your property, and do the ;:en-teel : as I mean to, in the very next leap-year but four hat ever comes, and the forty-second Tuesday in Trinity- A'eek," said Charley Bates. " I don't like it," rejoined Oliver, timidly; '* I wish they would let me go. I — I — would rather go." " And Fagin would rather not !" rejoined Charley. Oliver knew this too well ; but thinking it might be langerous to express his feelings more openly, he only ighed, and went on with his boot-cleaning. "Go!" exclaimed the Dodger. "Why, where 's your ipirit? Don't you take any pride out of yourself? Would ►^ou go and be dependent on your friends?" " Oh, blow that!" said Master Bates : drawing two or hree silk handkerchiefs from his pocket, and tossing them nto a cupboard, " that's too mean ; that is." ' I couldn't do it," said the Dodger, with an air of laughty disgust. " You can leave your friends, though," said Oliver with 1 half smile; " and let them be punished for what you did." " That," rejoined the Dodger, with a wave of his pipe, ' That was all out of consideration for Fagin, 'cause the raps know that we work together, and he might have got nto trouble if we hadn't made our lucky; that was the nove, wasn't it, Charley?" Master Bates nodded assent, and would have spoken; )ut the recollection of Oliver's flight came so suddenly upon lim, that the smoke he was inhaling got entangled with a augh, and went up into his head, and down into his throat : md brought on a fit of coughing and stamping, about five ninutes long. ' Look here !" said the Dodger, drawing forth a handful )f shillings and half -pence. " Here's a jolly life ! What's he odds where it comes from? Here, catch hold : there's Dlenty more where they were took from. You won't, won't ^ou? Oh, you precious flat !" " It's naughty, ain't it, Oliver?" inquired Charley Batesv He'll come to be scragged, won't he?" ** I don't know what that means," replied Oliver. " Something in this way, old feller," said Charley. As 132 Oliver Twist he said it, Master Bates caught up an end of his necker- chief; and, holding it erect in the air, dropped his head on his shoulder, and jerked a curious sound through his teeth : thereby indicating, by a lively pantomimic representation, that scragging and hanging were one and the same thing. " That's what it means," said Charley. ** Look how he stares. Jack ! I never did see such prime company as thai 'ere boy; he'll be the death of me, I know he will." Master Charles Bates, having laughed heartily again, resumed his pipe with tears in his eyes. '* You've been brought up bad," said the Dodger, sur veying his boots with much satisfaction when Oliver had polished them. ** Fagin will make something of you, though, or you'll be the first he ever had that turned outl? unprofitable. You'd better begin at once; for you'll comej" to the trade long before you think of it; and you're only!'' losing time, Oliver. " " Master Bates backed this advice with sundry moral/ admonitions of his own : which, being exhausted, he andp his friend Mr. Dawkins launched into a glowing description'^ of the numerous pleasures incidental to the life they led, ^ interspersed with a variety of hints to Oliver that the best' thing he could do, would be to secure Fagin's favour with-^ out more delay, by the means which they themselves had ^ employed to gain it. ^ " And always put this in your pipe, Nolly," said the ^ Dodger, as the Jew was heard unlocking the door above, ' " if you don't take fogies and tickers " ' " What's the good of talking in that way?" interposed Master Bates; " he don't know what you mean." " If you don't take pocket-handkerchers and watches," said the Dodger, reducing his conversation to the level of Oliver's capacity, *' some other cove will ; so that the coves that lose 'em will be all the worse, and you'll be all the worse too, and nobody half a ha'p'orth the better, except the chaps wot gets them — and you've just as good a right to them as they have. " " T€> be sure, to be sure!" said the Jew, who had entered, unseen by Oliver. ** It all lies in a nutshell, my dear; in a nutshell, take the Dodger's word for it. Ha! ha ! ha ! He understands the catechism of his trade. " The old man rubbed his hands gleefully together, as he corroborated the Dodger's reasoning in these terms ; and chuckled with delight at his pupil's proficiency. Oliver Twist 133 The conversation proceeded no farther at this time, foi the Jew had returned home accompanied by Miss Betsy, and a gentleman whom Oliver had never seen before, but who was accosted by the Dodger as Tom Chitling; and who, having lingered on the stairs to exchange a few gallantries with the lady, now made his appearance. Mr. Chitling was older in years than the Dodger : having perhaps numbered eighteen winters ; but there was a degree of deference in his deportment towards that young gentle- man which seemed to indicate that he felt himself conscious of a slight inferiority in point of genius and professional acquirements. He had small twinkling eyes, and a pock- marked face ; wore a fur cap, a dark corduroy jacket, o^reasy fustian trousers, and an apron. His wardrobe was, in truth, rather out of repair; but he excused himself to the company by stating that his " time " was only out an liour before; and that, in consequence of having worn the regimentals for six weeks past, he had not been able to be- stow any attention on his private clothes. Mr. Chitling added, with strong marks of irritation, that the new way of fumigating clothes up yonder was infernal unconstitu- tional, for it burnt holes in them, and there was no remedy against the County. The same remark he considered to apply to the regulation mode of cutting the hair : which he held to be decidedly unlawful. Mr. Chitling wound up his observations by stating that he had not touched a drop of anything for forty-two mortal long hard-working days ; and that he ** wished he might be busted if he warn't as dry as a lime-basket." *' Where do you think the gentleman has come from, Oliver?" inquired the Jew, with a grin, as the other boys put a bottle of spirits on the table. *' I — I — don't know, sir," replied Oliver. '* Who's that?" inquired Tom Chitling, casting a con- temptuous look at Oliver. " A young friend of mine, my dear," replied the Jew. " He's in luck, then," said the young man, with a mean- ing look at Fagin. " Never mind where I came from, young un; you'll find your way there, soon enoug-h, I'll bet a crown !" At this sally the boys laughed. After some more jokes on the same subject, they exchanged a few short whispers with Fagin ; and withdrev^. After some words apart between the last comer &n6 134 Oliver Twist Fagin, they drew their chairs towards the fire ; and the Jew, telling- Oliver to come and sit by him, led the con- versation to the topics most calculated to interest his hearers. These were, the great advantages of the trade, the proficiency of the Dodger, the amiability of Charley Bates, and the liberality of the Jew himself. At length these subjects displayed signs of being thoroughly ex- hausted ; and Mr. Chitling did the same : for the house of correction becomes fatiguing after a week or two. Miss Betsy accordingly withdrew; and left the party to their | repose. : From this day, Oliver was seldom left alone; but was i placed in almost constant communication with the two i boys, who played the old game with the Jew every day : i whether for their own improvement or Oliver's, Mr. Fagin best knew. At other times the .old man would tell them stories of robberies he had committed in his younger days : mixed up with so much that was droll and curious, that Oliver could not help laughing heartily, and showing that I he was amused in spite of all his better feelings. I In short, the wily old Jew had the boy in his toils, j Having prepared his rhind, by solitude and gloom, to prefer { any society to the companionship of his own sad thoughts \ in such a dreary place, he was now slowly instilling into his soul the poison which he hoped would blacken it, and change its hue for ever. CHAPTER XIX IN WHICH A NOTABLE PLAN IS DISCUSSED AND DETERMINED ON It was a chill, damp, windy night, when the Jew ; button- ing his great-coat tight round his shrivelled body, and pull- ing the collar up over his ears so as completely to obscure the lower part of his face : emerged from his den. He paused on the step as the door was locked and chained be- hind him ; and having listened while the boys made all secure, and until their retreating footsteps were no longer audible, slunk down the street as quickly as he could. The house to which Oliver had been conveyed, was in the neighbourhood of Whitechapel. The Jew stopped for an Oliver Twist 135 instant at the comer of the street; and, glancing sus- piciously round, crossed the road, and struck off in the direction of Spitalfields. - The mud lay thick upon the stones, and a black mist hung over the streets ; the rain fell sluggishly down, and every- thing felt cold and clammy to the touch. It seemed just the night when it befitted such a being as the Jew to be abroad. As he glided stealthily along, creeping beneath the shelter of the walls and doorways, the hideous old man seemed like some loathsome reptile, engendered in the slime and darkness through which he moved : crawling forth, by night, in search of some rich offal for a meal. He kept on his course, through many winding and nar- row ways, until he reached Bethnal Green ; then, turning suddenly off to the left, he soon became involved in a maze of the mean and dirty streets which abound in that close and densely-populated quarter. The Jew was evidently too familiar with the grouna he traversed to be at all bewildered, either by the darkness of the night, or the intricacies of the way. He hurried through several alleys and streets, and at length turned into onCj lighted only by a single lamp at the farther end. At the door of a house in this street, he knocked ; having exchanged a few muttered words with the person who opened it, he walked up stairs. A dog growled as he touched the handle of a room-door; and a man's voice demanded who was there. ** Only me. Bill; only me, my dear," said the Jew, look- ing in. " Bring in your body then," said Sikes. ** Lie down, you stupid brute ! Don't you know the devil when he's got a great-coat on?" Apparently, the dog had been somewhat deceived by Mr. Fagin's outer garment; for as the Jew unbuttoned it, and threw it over the back of a chair, he retired to the corner from which he had risen : wagging his tail as he went, to show that he was as well satisfied as it was in his nature to be. "Well!" said Sikes. ** Well, my dear," replied the Jew. — ** Ah ! Nancy." The latter recognition was uttered with just enough of embarrassment to imply a doubt of its reception ; for Mr. Fagin and his young friend had not met, since she had Interfered in behalf of Oliver. All doubts upon the subject, 136 Oliver Twist if he had any, were speedily removed by the young lady's behaviour. She took her feet off the fender, pushed back her chair, and bade Fagin draw up his, without saying more about it : for it was a cold night, and no mistake. *' It is cold, Nancy dear," said the Jew, as he warmed his skinny hands over the fire. *' It seems to go right through one," added the old man touching his side. '* It must be a piercer, if it finds its way through your heart," said Mr. Sikes. ** Give him something to drink, Nancy. Burn my body, make haste ! It's enough to turn a man ill, to see his lean old carcase shivering in that way, like a ugly ghost just rose from the grave." Nancy quickly brought a bottle from a cupboard, in which there were many : which, to judge from the diversity of their appearance, were filled with several kinds of liquids. Sikes pouring out a glass of brandy, bade the Jew drink it off. " Quite enough, quite, thankye, Bill," replied the Jew, putting down the glass after just setting his lips to it. " What ! You're afraid of our getting the better of you, are you?" inquired Sikes, fixing his eyes on the Jew. "Ugh!" With a hoarse grunt of contempt, Mr. Sikes seized the glass, and threw the remainder of its contents into the ashes : as a preparatory ceremony to filling it again for himself : which he did at once. The Jew glanced round the room, as his companion tossed down the second glassful ; not in curiosity, for he had seen it often before; but in a restless and suspicious man- ner habitual to him. It was a meanly furnished apartment, with nothing but the contents of the closet to induce the belief that its occupier was anything but a working man ; and with no more suspicious articles displayed to view than two or three heavy bludgeons which stood in a corner, and a " life preserver " that hung over the chimney-piece. *' There," said Sikes, smacking his lips. ** Now I'm ready." " For business?" inquired the Jew. ** For business," replied Sikes; ** so say what youVe got to say." ** About the crib at Chertsey, Bill?" said the Jew, draw- ing his chair forward, and speaking in a very low voice. '* Yes. Wot about it?" inquired Sikes. Oliver Twist 137 ** Ah . you know what I mean, my dear," said the Jew. *' He knows what I mean, Nancy; don't he?" *'No, he don't," sneered Mr. Sikes. "Or he won't, and that's the same thing. Speak out, and call things by their right names; don't sit there, winking and blinking, and talking to me in hints, as if you warn't the very first that thought about the robbery. What d'ye mean?" "Hush, Bill, hush!" said the Jew, who had in vain attempted to stop this burst of indignation; "somebody will hear us, my dear. Somebody will hear us." " Let 'em hear !" said Sikes; '" I don't care." But as Mr. Sikes did care, on reflection he dropped ^ voice as he said the words, and grew calmer. '■ " There, there," said the Jew coaxingly. " It was only my caution, nothing more. Now, my dear, about that crib at Chertsey ; when is it to be done. Bill, eh? When is it to be done? Such plate, my dear, such plate !" said the Jew : rubbing his hands, and elevating his eyebrows in a rapture of anticipation. "Not at all," replied Sikes coldly. " Not to be done at all !" echoed the Jew, leaning back in his chair. " No, not at all," rejoined Sikes. " At least it can't be a put-up job, as we expected." " Then it hasn't been properly gone about," said the Jew, turning pale with anger. " Don't tell me !" " But I will tell you," retorted Sikes. " Who are you that's not to be told? I tell you that Toby Crackit has been hanging about the place for a fortnight, and he can't get one of the servants into a line." " Do you mean to tell me. Bill," said the Jew ; softening as the other grew heated : " that neither of the two men in the house can be got over?" " Yes, I do mean to tell you so," replied Sikes. " The old lady has had 'em these twenty year ; and if you were to give 'em five hundred pound, they wouldn't be in it." " But do you mean to say, my dear," remonstrated the Jew, " that the women can't be got over?** " Not a bit of it," replied Sikes. " Not by flash Toby Crackit?" said the Jew incredu- lously. " Think what women are. Bill." "No; not even by flash Toby Crackit," replied Sikes. " He says he's worn sham whiskers, and a canary waist- 138 Oliver Twist coat, the whole blessed time he's been loitering down there, and it's all of no use. " " He should have tried mustachios and a pair of military trousers, my deaf," said the Jew. "So he did," rejoined Sikes, " and they warn't of no more use than the other plant." The Jew looked blank at this information. After ruminating for some minutes with his chin sunk on his breast, he raised his head and said, with a deep sigh, that if flash Toby Crackit reported aright, he feared the game was up. "And yet," said the old man, dropping his hands on his knees, " it's a sad thing, my dear, to lose so much when we had set our hearts upon it." " So it is," said Mr. Sikes. " Worse luck!" A long silence ensued ; during which the Jew was plunged in deep thought, with his face wrinkled into an expression of villany perfectly demoniacal. Sikes eyed him furtively from time to time. Nancy, apparently fearful of irritating the housebreaker, sat with her eyes fixed upon the fire, as if she had been deaf to all that passed. " Fagin," said Sikes, abruptly breaking the stillness that prevailed; "is it worth fifty shiners extra, if it's safely done from the outside?" "Yes," said the Jew, as suddenly rousing himself. " Is it a bargain?" inquired Sikes. " Yes, my dear, yes," rejoined the Jew; his eyes glisten- ing, and every muscle in his face working, with the excite- ment that the inquiry had awakened. "Then," said Sikes, thrusting aside the Jew's hand, with some disdain, " let it come off as soon as you like. Toby and me were over the garden-wall the night afore last, sounding the panels of the door and shutters. The crib's barred up at night like a jail; but there's one part we can crack, safe and softly." " Which is that, Bill?" asked the Jew eagerly. " Why," whispered Sikes, " as you cross the lawn " " Yes?" said the Jew, bending his head forward, with his eyes almost starting out of it. " Umph !" cried Sikes, stopping short, as the girl, scarcely moving her head, looked suddenly round, and pointed for an instant to the Jew's face. " Never mind which part it is. You can't do it without me, I know; Oliver Twist 139 but it's best to be on the safe side when one deals with you." "As you like, my dear, as you Hke," replied the Jew. ** Is there no help wanted, but yours and Toby's?" "None," said Sikes. ** 'Cept a centre-bit and a boy. The first we've both got; the second you must find us." " A boy !" exclaimed the Jew. " Oh ! then it's a panel, eh?" "Never mind wot it is!" replied Sikes. *' I want a boy, and he mustn't be a big un. Lord !" said Mr. Sikes, reflectively, "if I'd only got that young boy of Ned, the chimbley-sweeper's ! He kept him small on purpose, and let him out by the job. But the father gets lagged; and then the Juvenile Delinquent Society comes, and takes the boy away from a trade where he was arning money, teaches him to read and write, and in time makes a 'pren- tice of him. And so they go on," said Mr. Sikes, his wrath rising with the recollection of his wrongs, " so they go on; and, if they'd got money enough (which it's a Provi- dence they haven't,) we shouldn't have half-a-dozen boys left in the whole trade, in a year or two." " No more we should," acquiesced the Jew, who had been considering during this speech, and had only caught the last sentence. " Bill!" " What now?" inquired Sikes. The Jew nodded his head towards Nancy, who was still gazing at the fire; and intimated, by a sign, that he would h.'ive her told to leave the room. Sikes shrugged his shoulders impatiently, as if he thought the precaution un- necessary ; but complied, nevertheless, by requesting Miss Nancy to fetch him a jug of beer. " You don't want any beer," said Nancy, folding her arms, and retaining her seat very composedly. " I tell you I do !" replied Sikes. " Nonsense," rejoined the girl coolly. " Go on, Fagin. I know what he's going to say, Bill; he needn't mind me." The Jew still hesitated. Sikes looked from one to the other in some surprise. ' Why, you don't mind the old girl, do you, F"agin?" he osked at length. " You've known her long enough to trust her, or the Devil's in it. She ain't one to blab. Are you, Nancy?" " I should think not !" replied the young- lady : drawing her chair up to the table, and putting her elbows upon it. 140 Oliver Twist ** No, no, my dear, I know you're not," said the Jew; ** but " and again the old man paused. ** But wot?" inquired Sikes. ** I didn't know whether she mightn't p'r'aps be out of sorts, you know, my dear, as she was the other night," replied the Jew. At this confession, Miss Nancy burst into a loud laugh; and, swallowing a glass of brandy, shook her head with an air of defiance, and burst into sundry exclamations of " Keep the game a-going!" '* Never say die!" and the like. These seem.ed to have the effect of re-assuring both gentlemen; for the Jew nodded his head with a ^^atTsfied air, and resumed his seat : as did Mr. Sikes likewise. "Now, Fagin," said Nancy with a laugh. "Tell Bill 4t once, about Oliver !" " Ha! you're a clever one, my dear; the sharpest girl I ever saw !" said the Jew, patting her on the neck. "It was about Oliver I was going to speak, sure enough. Ha ! ha! ha!" "What about him?" demanded Sikes. " He's the boy for you, my dear," replied the Jew in a hoarse whisper ; laying his finger on the side of his nose, and grinning frightfully. "He!" exclaimed Sikes. " Have him, Bill !" said Nancy. " I would, if I was in your place. Ke mayn't be so much up, as any of the others ; hut that's not what you want, if he's only to open a door for you. Depend upon it he's a safe one, Bill." " I know he is," rejoined Fagin. " He's been in good training these last few weeks, and it's time he began to work for his bread. Besides, the others are all too big." "Well, he is just the size I want," said Mr. Sikes, ruminating. " And will do everything you want. Bill, my dear," inter- posed the Jew; "he can't help himself. That is, if you frighten him enough." "Frighten him!" echoed Sikes. "It'll be no sham frightening, mind you. If there's anything queer about him when we once get into the work ; in for a penny, in for a pound. You won't see him alive again, Fagin. Think of that, before you send him. Mark my words!" said the robber, poising a crowbar, which he had drawn from under the bedstead. " I've thought of it all," said the jew with energy. Oliver Twist 141 ** I've — I've had my eye upon him, my dears, close — close. Once let him feel that he is one of us; once fill his mind with the idea that he has been a thief ; and he's ours ! Ours for his life. Oho ! It couldn't have come about better !" The old man crossed his arms upon his breast ; and, draw- ing his head and shoulders into a heap, literally hugged himself for joy. " Ours !" said Sikes. *' Yours, you mean." *' Perhaps I do, my dear," said the Jew, with a shrill chuckle. ''Mine, if you like, Bill." '* And wot," said Sikes, scowling fiercely on his agree- able friend, ** wot makes you take so much pains about one chalk-faced kid, when you know there are fifty boys snooz- ing about Common Garden every night, as you might pick and choose from?" " Because they're of no use to me, my dear," replied the Jew, with some confusion, ** not worth the taking. Their looks convict 'em when they get into trouble, and I lose 'em all. With this boy, properly managed, my dears, I could do what I couldn't with twenty of them. Besides," said the Jew, recovering his self-possession, " he has us now if he could only give us leg-bail again; and he must be in the same boat with us. Never mind how he came there; it's quite enough for my power over him that he was in a robbery; that's all I want. Now, how much better this is, than being obliged to put the poor leetle boy out of the way — which would be dangerous, and we should lose by it besides." ** When is it to be done?" asked Nancy, stopping some turbulent exclamation on the part of Mr. Sikes, expressive of the disgust with which he received Fagin's affectation of humanity. '* Ah, to be sure," said the Jew; ** when is it to be done, Bill?" ** I planned with Toby, the night arter to-morrow," rejoined Sikes in a surly voice, "if he heerd nothing from me to the contrairy. " ** Good," said the Jew; ** there's no moon." ** No," rejoined Sikes. ** It's all arranged about bringing off the swag, is it?" asked the Jew. Sikes nodded. *' And about " ** Oh, ah, it's all planned," rejoined Sikes, interrupting 142 Oliver Twist him. " Never mind particulars. You'd better bring the boy here to-morrow night. I shall get off the stones an hour arter daybreak. Then you hold your tongue and keep the melting-pot ready, and that's all you'll have to d.o." After some discussion, in which all three took an active part, it was decided that Nancy should repair to the Jew's next evening when the night had set in, and bring Oliver away with her ; Fagin craftily observing, that, if he evinced any disinclination to the task, he would be more willing to accompany the girl who had so recently inter- fered in his behalf, than anybody else. It was also solemnly arranged that poor Oliver should, for the purposes of the contemplated expedition, be unreservedly consigned to the care and custody of Mr. William Sikes ; and further, that the said Sikes should deal with him as he thought fit ; and should not be held responsible by the Jew for any mischance or evil that might befall him, or any punishment with which it might be necessary to visit him : it being understood that, to render the compact in this respect binding, any representations made by Mr. Sikes on his return should be required to be confirmed and corroborated, in all im- portant particulars, by the testimony of flash Toby Crackit. These preliminaries adjusted, Mr. Sikes proceeded to drink brandy at a furious rate, and to flourish the crowbar in an alarming manner ; yelling forth, at the same time, most unmusical snatches of song, mingled with wild exe- crations. At length, in a fit of professional enthusiasm, he insisted upon producing his box of housebreaking tools : which he had no sooner stumbled in with, and opened for the purpose of explaining the nature and properties of the various implements it contained, and the peculiar beauties of their construction, than he fell over the box upon the floor, and went to sleep where he fell. ** Good night, Nancy," said the Jew, mufliing himself up as before. ''Good night." Their eyes met, and the Jew scrutinised her, narrowly. There was no flinching about the girl. She was as true and earnest in the matter as Toby Crackit himself could be. The Jew again bade her good night, and bestowing a sly kick upon the prostrate form of Mr. Sikes while her back was turned, groped downstairs. '* Always the way !" muttered the Jew to himself as he Oliver Twist 143 turned homeward. ** The worst of these women is, that a very little thing serves to call up some long-forgotten feeling; and the best of them is, that it never lasts. Ha I ha ! The man against the child, for a bag of gold !" Beguiling the time with these pleasant reflections, Mr. Fagin wended his way, through mud and mire, to his gloomy abode : where the Dodger was sitting up, im- patiently awaiting his return. " Is Oliver a-bed? I want to speak to him," was his first remark as they descended the stairs. " Hours ago," replied the Dodger, throwing open a door. ** Here he is !" The boy was lying, fast asleep, on a rude bed upon the floor ; so pale with anxiety, and sadness, and the closeness of his prison, that he looked like death; not death as it shows in shroud and coflEin, but in the guise it wears when life has just departed ; when a young and gentle spirit has, but an instant, fled to Heaven, and the gross air of the world has not had time to breathe upon the changing dust It hallowed. "Not now," said the Jew, turning softly away. ** To- morrow. To-morrow." CHAPTER XX WHEREIN OLIVER IS DELIVERED OVER TO MR. WILLIAM SIKES When Oliver awoke in the morning, he was a good deal surprised to find that a new pair of shoes, with strong thick soles, had been placed at his bedside ; and that his old shoes had been removed. At first, he was pleased with the discovery : hoping that it might be the forerunner of his release; but such thoughts were quickly dispelled, on his sitting down to breakfast along with the Jew, who told him, in a tone and manner which increased his alarm, that he was to be taken to the residence of Bill Sikes that night. "To — to — stop there, sir?" asked Oliver, anxiously. " No, no, my dear. Not to stop there," rephed the Jew. ** We shouldn't Hke to lose you. Don't be afraid, Oliver, you shall come back to us again. Ha ! ha ! ha ! We won't be so cruel as to send you away, my dear. Oh no, no!" 144 Oliver Twist The old man, who was stooping over the fire toasting a piece of bread, looked round as he bantered Oliver thus; and chuckled as if to show that he knew he would still be very glad to get away if he could. *' I suppose," said the Jew, fixing his eyes on Oliver, ** you want to know what you're going to Bill's for — eh, my dear?" Oliver coloured, involuntarily, to find that the old thief had been reading his thoughts; but boldly said, Yes, he did want to know. " Why, do you think?" inquired Fagin, parrying the question. ** Indeed I don't know, sir," replied Oliver. *' Bah !" said the Jew, turning away with a disappointed countenance from a close perusal of the boy's face. " Wail till Bill tells you, then." The Jew seemed much vexed by Oliver's not expressing any greater curiosity on the subject ; but the truth is, that, although Oliver felt very anxious, he was too much con- fused by the earnest cunning of Fagin 's looks, and his own speculations, to make any further inquiries just then. He had no other opportunity : for the Jew remained very surly and silent till night : when he prepared to go abroad "You may burn a candle," said the Jew, putting one upon the table. ** And here's a book for you to read, til) they come to fetch you. Good night!" ** Good night!" replied Oliver, softly. The Jew walked to the door : looking over his shoulder at the boy as he went. Suddenly stopping, he called him by his name. Oliver looked up; the Jew, pointing to the candle, motioned him to light it. He did so; and, as he placed the candlestick upon the table, saw that the Jew was gazing fixedly at him, with lowering and contracted brows, from the dark end of the room. "Take heed, Oliver! take heed!" said the old man, shaking his right hand before him in a warning manner. ** He's a rough man, and thinks nothing of blood when his own is up. Whatever falls out, say nothing ; and do what he bids you. Mind !" Placing a strong emphasis on the last word, he suffered his features gradually to resolve themselves into a ghastly grin, and, nodding his head, left the room. Oliver leaned his head upon his hand when the old man Oliver Twist 145 disappeared, and pondered, with a trembling heart, on the A'ords he had just heard. The more he thought of the [ew's admonition, the more he was at a loss to divine its eal purpose and meaning. He could think of no bad object to be attained by sending him to Sikes, which would lot be equally well answered by his remaining with Fagin ; ind after meditating for a long time, concluded that he lad been selected to perform some ordinary menial offices or the housebreaker, until another boy, better suited for lis purpose, could be engaged. He was too well accus- tomed to suffering, and had suffered too much where he was, to bewail the prospect of change very severely. He emained lost in thought for some minutes ; and then, with \ heavy sigh, snuffed the candle, and, taking up the book .vhich the Jew had left with him, began to read. He turned over the leaves. Carelessly at first; but, Ighting on a passage which attracted his attention, he »oon became intent upon the volume. It was a history of the lives and trials of great criminals ; and the pages were oiled and thumbed with use. Here, he read of dreadful rimes that made the blood run cold ; of secret murders :hat had been committed by the lonely wayside; of bodies lidden from the eye of man in deep pits and wells : which would not keep them down, deep as they were, but had yielded them up at last, after many years, and so mad- dened the murderers with the sight, that in their horror they had confessed their guilt, and yelled for the gibbet to end their agony. Here, too, he read of men who, lying in their beds at dead of night, had been tempted (so they said) and led on, by their own bad thoughts, to such dread- ful bloodshed as it made the flesh creep, and the limbs quail, to think of. The terrible descriptions were so real and vivid, that the sallow pages seemed to turn red with gore ; and the words upon them, to be sounded in his ears, as if they were whispered, in hollow murmurs, by the spirits of the dead. In a paroxysm of fear, the boy closed the book, and thrust it from him. Then, falling upon his knees, he prayed Heaven to spare him from such deeds; and rather to will that he should die at once, than be reserved for crimes, so fearful and appalling. By degrees, he grew more calm, and besought, in a low and broken voice, that he might be rescued from his present dangers ; and that if any aid were to be raised up for a poor outcast boy who 146 Oliver Twist had never known the love of friends or kindred, it might come to him now, when, desolate and deserted, he stood alon-e in the midst of wickedness and guilt. He had concluded his prayer, but still remained with hii head buried in his hands, when a rustling noise aroused him "What's that!" he cried, starting up, and catching sight of a figure standing by the door. " Who's there? ** Me. Only me," replied a tremulous voice. Oliver raised the candle above his head : and looked towards the door. It was Nancy. " Put down the light," said the girl, turning away hei||s head. "It hurts my eyes." Oliver saw that she was very pale, and gently inquirecl if she were ill. The girl threw herself into a chair, with her back towards him : and wrung her hands ; but maddt no reply. " God forgive me!" she cried after a while, " I nevei||[] thought of this." " Has anything happened?" asked Oliver. " Can 1 help you? I will if I can. I will, indeed." She rocked herself to and fro; caught her thoat; andjtl uttering a gurgling sound, gasped for breath. |s "Nancy!" cried Oliver, "what is it?" The girl beat her hands upon her knees, and her fee^i upon the ground ; and, suddenly stopping, drew her shaw close round her : and shivered with cold. Oliver stirred the fire. Drawing her chair close to it she sat there, for a little time, without speaking ; but a length she raised her head, and looked round. " I don't know what comes over me sometimes," saidipi she, affecting to busy herself in arranging her dress ; " it's this damp, dirty room, I think. Now, Nolly, dear,iai are you ready?" " Am I to go with you?" asked Oliver. " Yes. I have come from Bill," replied the girl. " Youfii are to go with me." " W^hat for?" asked Oliver, recoiling. " What for?" echoed the girl, raising her eyes, and averting them again, the moment they encountered the boy's face. "Oh! For no harm." " I don't believe it," said Oliver; who had watched her closely. " Have it your own way," rejoined the eirl, affectinp to laugh. " For no good, then." Oliver Twist 147 Oliver could see that he had some power over the girl's )etter feelings, and, for an instant, thought of appealing her compassion for his helpless state. But, then, the hought darted across his mind that it was barely eleven ) 'clock; and that many people were still in the streets: )f whom surely some might be found to give credence to lis tale. As the reflection occurred to him, he stepped orward : and said, somewhat hastily, that he was ready. Neither his brief consideration, nor its purport, was lost )n his companion. She eyed him narrowly, while he poke ; and cast upon him a look of intelligence which suf- iciently showed that she guessed what had been passing n his thoughts. ** Hush !" said the girl, stooping over him, and pointing o the door as she looked cautiously round. ** You can't lelp yourself. I have tried hard for you, but all to no mrpose. You are hedged round and round. If ever you ire to get loose from here, this is not the time." Struck by the energy of her manner, Oliver looked up n her face with great surprise. She seemed to speak he truth ; her countenance was white and agitated ; and he trembled with very earnestness. ** I have saved you from being ill-used once, and I will Lgain, and I do now," continued the girl aloud; "for hose who would have fetched you, if I had not, would lave been far more rough than me. I have promised for 'our being quiet and silent; if you are not, you will only lo harm to yourself and me too, and perhaps be my death. 5ee here ! I have borne all this for you already, as true is God sees me show it." She pointed, hastily, to some livid bruises on her neck Lnd arms ; and continued, with great rapidity : ** Remember this ! And don't let me suffer more for ou, just now. If I could help you, I would ; but I have lot the power. They don't mean to harm you; whatever hey make you do, is no fault of yours. Hush ! Every vord from you is a blow for me. Give me your hgnd. vlake haste ! Your hand !" She caught the hand which Oliver instinctively placed n hers, and, blowing out the light, drew him after her up he stairs. The door was opened, quickly, by some one ihrouded in the darkness, and was as quickly closed, when hey had passed out. A hackney-cabriolet was in waiting ; ^ith the same vehemence which she had exhibited in 148 Oliver Twist addressing Oliver, the girl pulled him in with her, and drew the curtains close. The driver wanted no directions, but lashed his horse into full speed, without the delay of an instant. The girl still held Oliver fast by the hand, and continued to pour into his ear, the warnings and assurances she had already imparted. All was so quick and hurried, that he had scarcely time to recollect where he was, or how he came there, when the carriage stopped at the house to which thet Jew's steps had been directed on the previous evening. For one brief moment, Oliver cast a hurried glance along the empty street, and a cry for help hung upon his lips. But the girl's voice was in his ear, beseeching him in such tones of agony to remember her, that he had not the heart to utter it. While he hesitated, the opportunity was gone ; he was already in the house, and the door was shut. "This way," said the gfirl, releasing her hold for the first time. ** Bill!" " Hallo!" replied Sikes : appearing at the head of the stairs, with a candle. " Oh ! That's the time of day. Come on !" This was a very strong expression of approbation, an uncommonly hearty welcome, from a person of Mr. Sikes 's temperament. Nancy, appearing much gratified thereby, saluted him cordially. ** Bull's-eye's gone home with Tom," observed Sikes, as he lighted them up. ** He'd have been in the way." "That's right," rejoined Nancy. " So you've got the kid," said Sikes, when they had alll reached the room : closing the door as he spoke. ** Yes, here he is," replied Nancy. " Did he come quiet?" inquired Sikes. " Like a lamb," rejoined Nancy. ** I'm glad to hear it," said Sikes, looking grimly at Oliver ; ** for the sake of his young carcase : as would other- ways have suffered for it. Come here, young un ; and let me read you a lectur', which is as well got over at once." Thus addressing his new pupil, Mr. Sikes pulled off Oliver's cap and threw it into a corner; and then, taking him by the shoulder, sat himself down by the table, and stood the boy in front of him. ** Now, first : do you know wot this is?" inquired Sikes, taking up a pocket-pistol which lay on the table Oliver Twist 149 Oliver replied in the affirmative. "Well, then, look here," continued Sikes. *' This is Dowder; that 'ere's a bullet; and this is a little bit of a old lat for waddin*. " Oliver murmured his comprehension of the different Dodles referred to ; and Mr. Sikes proceeded to load the Distol, with great nicety and deliberation. * Now it's loaded," said Mr. Sikes, when he had inished. ' Yes, [ see it is, sir," replied Oliver. 'Well," said the robber, grasping Oliver's wrist, and Dutting the barrel so close to his temple that they touched ; It which moment the boy could not repress a start; " if ^ou speak a word when you're out o' doors with me, except vhen I speak to you, that loading will be in your head vithout notice. So, if you do make up your mind to speak vithout leave, say your prayers first." Having bestowed a scowl upon the object of this warn- ng, to increase its effect, Mr. Sikes continued. ' As near as I know, there isn't anybody as would be isking very partickler arter you, if you was disposed of; ;o I needn't take this devil-and-all of trouble to explain natters to you, if it warn't for your own good. D'ye hear Tie?" * The short and the long of what you mean," said !^ancy : speaking very emphatically, and slightly frowning It Oliver as if to bespeak his serious attention to her vords : '* is, that if you're crossed by him in this job you lave on hand, you'll prevent his ever telling tales after- wards, by shooting him through the head, and will take our chance of swinging for it, as you do for a great many )ther things in the way of business, every month of your ife." '* That's it !" observed Mr. Sikes, approvingly ; ** women an always put things in fewest words. — Except when it's blowing up ; and then they lengthens it out. And now that le's thoroughly up to it, let's have some supper, and get snooze before starting." In pursuance of this request, Nancy quickly laid the iloth ; disappearing for a few minutes, she presently re- urned with a pot of porter and a dish of sheep's heads : which gave occasion to several pleasant witticisms on the Dart of Mr. Sikes, founded upon the singular coincidence 3f ** jemmies " being a cant nam^, common to them, and 150 Oliver Twist also to an ingenious implement much used m his profes sion. Indeed, the worthy gentleman, stimulated perhaps by the immediate prospect of being on active service, was in great spirits and good humour ; in proof whereof, it may be here remarked, that he humorously drank all the beer at a draught, and did not utter, on a rough calculation^ more than four-score oaths during the whole progress ot the meal. Supper being ended — it may be easily conceived that Oliver had no great appetite for it — Mr. Sikes disposed oi a couple of glasses of spirits and water, and threw himself on the bed ; ordering Nancy, with many imprecations in case of failure, to call him at five precisely. Oliver stretched himself in his clothes, by command of the same authority, on a mattress upon the floor ; and the girl, mend-; tng the fire, sat before it, in readiness to rouse them at the appointed time. For a long time Oliver lay awake, thinking it not impos- sible that Nancy might seek that opportunity of whispering some further advice ; but the girl sat brooding over the fire, without moving, save now and then to trim the light." Weary with watching and anxiety, he at length fell asleep.! When he awoke, the table was covered with tea-things, and Sikes was thrusting various articles into the pockets of his great-coat, which hung over the back of a chair. Nancy was busily engaged in preparing breakfast. It was not yet daylight; for the candle was still burning, and it was quite dark outside. A sharp rain, too, was beating, against the window-panes ; and the sky looked black and; cloudy. "Now, then!" growled Sikes, as Oliver started up; *' half-past five ! Look sharp, or you'll get no breakfast; for it's late as it is." Oliver was not long in making his toilet; having taken, some breakfast, he replied to a surly inquiry from Silces, by saying that he was quite ready. Nancy, scarcely looking at the boy, threw him a hand- kerchief to tie round his throat; Sikes gave him a large rough cape to button over his shoulders. Thus attired, he gave his hand to the robber, who, merely pausing to show him with a menacing gesture that he had that same pistol in a side-pocket of his great-coat, clasped it firmly in his, and, exchanging a farewell with Nancy, led him away. Oliver Twist 151 Oliver turned, for an instant, when they reached the oor, in the hope of meeting a look from the girl. But he had resumed her old seat in front of the fire, and sat erfectly motionless before it. CHAPTER XXI THE EXPEDITION r was a cheerless morning when they got into the street ; lowing and raining hard ; and the clouds looking dull and tormy. The night had been very wet : large pools of ^ater had collected in the road : and the kennels were over- owing. There was a faint glimmering of the coming day I the sky ; but it rather aggravated than relieved the gloom f the scene : the sombre light only serving to pale that hich the street-lamps afforded, without shedding any warmer or brighter tints upon the wet housetops, and reary streets. There appeared to be nobody stirring in lat quarter of the town ; the windows of the houses were II closely shut ; and the streets through which they passed, ^ere noiseless and empty. By the time they had turned into the Bethnal Green Road, le day had fairly begun to break. Many of the lamps ere already extinguished ; a few country waggons were lowly toiling on, towards London ; now and then, a stage- oach, covered with mud, rattled briskly by : the driver estowing, as he passed, an admonitory lash upon the heavy waggoner who, by keeping on the wrong side of the road, ad endangered his arriving at the office a quarter of a linute after his time. The public-houses, with gas-lights urning inside, were already open. By degrees, other hops began to be unclosed, and a few scattered people ere met with. Then, came straggling groups of labourers oing to their work; then, men and women with fish- askets on their heads ; donkey-carts laden with vegetables ; haise-carts filled with live-stock or whole carcasses of leat ; Tiilk-women with pails ; an unbroken concourse of eople, ^rudging out with various supplies to the eastern uburbs of the town. As they approached the City, the oise and traffic gradually increased ; when they threaded he streets between Shoreditch and Smithfield, it had 152 Oliver Twist swelled into a roar of sound and bustle. It was as ligh as it was likely to be, till night came on again, and the bus; morning of half the London population had begun. Turning down Sun Street and Crown Street, and cross ing Finsbury Square, Mr. Sikes struck, by way of Chiswel Street, into Barbican : thence into Long Lane, and so inti Smithfield ; from which latter place arose a tumult of dis cordant sounds that filled Oliver Twist with amazement. It was market-morning. The ground was covered nearly ankle-deep, with filth and mire ; a thick steam, per petually rising from the reeking bodies of the cattle, an< mingling with the fog, which seemed to rest upon th chimney-tops, hung heavily above. All the pens in th centre of the large area, and as many temporary pens a could be crowded into the vacant space, were filled wit! sheep; tied up to posts by the gutter side were long line of beasts and oxen, three or four deep. Countrymen butchers, drovers, hawkers, boys, thieves, idlers, and vaga bonds of every low grade, were mingled together in ; mass; the whistling of drovers, the barking of dogs, th bellowing and plunging of oxen, the bleating of sheep, th grunting and squeaking of pigs, the cries of hawkers, th shouts, oaths, and quarrelling on all sides ; the ringin< of bells and roar of voices, that issued from every public house ; the crowding, pushing, driving, beating, whooping and yelling ; the hideous and discordant din that resounde( from every corner of the market; and the unwashed, un shaven, squalid, and dirty figures constantly running to an^ fro, and bursting in and out of the throng ; rendered i a stunning and bewildering scene, which quite confounds the senses. Mr. Sikes, dragging Oliver after him, elbowed his wa through the thickest of the crowd, and bestowed very littl attention on the numerous sights and sounds, which s^ astonished the boy. He nodded, twice or thrice, to : passing friend; and, resisting as many invitations to tak a morning dram, pressed steadily onward, until they wer clear r f the turmoil, and had made their way througl Hosier Lane into Holborn. " Now, young un !" said Sikes, looking up at the cloc' of St. Andrew's Church, " hard upon seven ! you mus step out. Come, don't lag behind already. Lazy legs !" Mr. Sikes accompanied this speech with a jerk at his littl companion's wrist; Oliver, quickening his pace into ; Oliver Twist 153 kind of trot, between a fast walk and a run, kept up with the rapid strides of the housebreaker as well as he could. They held their course at this rate, until they had passed Hyde Park corner, and were on their way to Kensington : when Sikes relaxed his pace, until an empty cart which was at some little distance behind, came up. Seeing '* Houn- slow " written on it, he asked the driver with as much civility as he could assume, if he would give them a lift as far as Isleworth. *' Jump up," said the man. ** Is that your boy?" "Yes; he's my boy," replied Sikes, looking hard at Oliver, and putting his hand abstractedly into the pocket where the pistol was. " Your father walks rather too quick for you, don't he, -ny man?" inquired the driver: seeing that Oliver was >ut of breath. " Not a bit of it," replied Sikes, interposing. " He's ised to it. Here, take hold of my hand, Ned. In with /ou !" Thus addressing Oliver, he helped him into the cart; and :he driver, pointing to a heap of sacks, told him to lie iown there, and rest himself. As they passed the different mile-stones, Oliver vondered, more and more, where his companion meant to ake him. Kensington, Hammersmith, Chiswick, Kew Bridge, Brentford, were all passed ; and yet they went on IS steadily as if they had only just begun their journey. At ength, they came to a public-house called the Coach and :Iorses : a little way beyond which, another road appeared o turn off. And here, the cart stopped. Sikes dismounted with great precipitation, holding Dliver by the hand' all the while; and lifting him down lirectly, bestowed a furious look upon him, and rapped he side-pocket with his fist, in a significant manner. ** Good-bye, boy," said the man. ** He's sulky," replied Sikes, giving him a shake; * he's sulky. A young dog ! Don't mind him." " Not I !" rejoined the other, getting into his cart. * It's a fine day, after all." And he drove away. Sikes waited until he had fairly gone; and then, telling Dliver he might look about him if he wanted, once again ed him onward on his journey. They turned round to the left, a short way past the )ublic-house; and then, taking a right-hand road, walked 154 Oliver Twist on for a long time : passing many large gardens and gentle- men's houses on both sides of the way, and stopping fori nothing but a little beer, until they reached a town. Here against the wall of a house, Oliver saw written up in pretty large letters, "Hampton." They lingered about, in the fields, for some hours. At length, they came back into the town ; and, turning into an old pubHc-house with a defaced sign-board, ordered some dinner by the kitchen fire. The kitchen was an old, low-roofed room ; with a greati beam across the middle of the ceiling, and benches, with high backs to them, by the fire; on which were seated several rough men in smock-frocks, drinking and smok- ing. They took no notice of Oliver; and very little* of Sikes ; and, as Sikes took very little notice of them, he and his young comrade sat in a corner by themselves, with- out being much troubled by their company. They had some cold meat for dinner, and sat so long after it, while Mr. Sikes indulged himself with three or four pipes, that Oliver began to feel quite certain they were not going any further. Being much tired with the walk, and' getting up so early, he dosed a little at first; then, quite* overpowered by fatigue and the fumes of the tobacco, fell dsleep. J It was quite dark when he was awakened by a push fromi^ Sikes. Rousing himself sufficiently to sit up and look about ^ him, he found that worthy in close fellowship and communi-:' cation with a labouring man, over a pint of ale. ** So, you're going on to Lower Halliford, are you?" inquired Sikes. " Yes, I am," replied the man, who seemed a little the worse — or better, as the case might be — for drinking ; "andj^ not slow about it neither. My horse hasn't got a load be-:§ hind him going back, as he had coming up in the mornin and he won't be long a-doing of it. Here's luck to him ij Ecod ! he's a good un !" ** Could you give my boy and me a lift as far as there?" demanded Sikes, pushing the ale towards his new friend. " If you're going directly, I can," replied the man, look- ^ ing out of the pot. ** Are you going to Halliford?" ** Going on to Shepperton," replied Sikes. "I'm your man, as far as I go," replied the other. ** I? all paid, Becky?" *' Yes, the other gentleman's paid," replied the girl. Oliver Twist 155 ' I say !" said the man, with tipsy gravity ; ** that won't o, you know." ' Why not?" rejoined Sikes, " You're a-going to ac- ommodate us, and wot's to prevent my standing treat for pint or so, in return?" The stranger reflected upon this argument, with a very rofound face ; having done so, he seized Sikes by the hand nd declared he was a real good fellow. To which Mr. ikes replied, he was joking ; as, if he had been sober, liere would have been strong reason to suppose he was. After the exchange of a few more compliments, they bade be company good night, and went out ; the girl gathering p the pots and glasses as they did so, and lounging out o the door, with her hands full, to see the party. The horse, whose health had been drunk in his absence, /as standing outside : ready harnessed to the cart. Oliver nd Sikes got in without any further ceremony ; and the lan to whom he belonged, having lingered for a minute or wo ** to bear him up," and to defy the hostler and the /orld to produce his equal, mounted also. Then, the ostler was told to give the horse his head ; and, his head eing given him, he made a very unpleasant use of it : ossing it into the air with great disdain, and running into he parlour windows over the way ; after performing those eats, and supporting himself for a short time on his hind- egs, he started off at great speed, and rattled out of the own right gallantly. The night was very dark. A damp mist rose from the iver, and the marshy ground about ; and spread itself over he dreary fields. It was piercing cold, too ; all was gloomy nd black. Not a word was spoken; for the driver had Town sleepy; and Sikes was in no mood to lead him into onversation. Oliver sat huddled together, in a corner of he cart; bewildered with alarm and apprehension; and iguring strange objects in the gaunt trees, whose branches ^7aved grimly to and fro, as if in some fantastic joy at the lesolation of the scene. As they passed Sunbury Church, the clock struck seven. There was a light in the ferry-house window opposite : vhich streamed across the road, and threw into more som- )re shadow a dark yew-tree with graves beneath it. There vas a dull sound of falling water not far off ; and the leaves >f the old tree stirred gently in the night wind. It seemed ike quiet music for the repose of the dead. 156 Oliver Twist Sunbury was passed through, and they came again into the lonely road. Two or three miles more, and the cart stopped. Sikes alighted, took Oliver by the hand, and they once again walked on. They turned into no house at Shepperton, as the weary boy had expected; but still kept walking on, in mud and darkness, through gloomy lanes and over cold open wastes, until they came within sight of the lights of a town at no great distance. On looking intently forward, Oliver saw that the water was just below them, and that they were coming to the foot of a bridge. Sikes kept straight on, until they were close upon the bridg:e; then turned suddenly down a bank upon the left "The water!" thought Oliver, turning sick with fear. " He has brought me to this lonely place to murder me !*' He was about to throw himself on the ground, and make one struggle for his young life, when he saw that they stood before a solitary house : all ruinous and decayed. There was a window on each side of the dilapidated entrance ; and | one story above ; but no light was visible. The house was | dark, dismantled : and, to all appearance, uninhabited. I Sikes, with Oliver's hand still in his, softly approached; the low porch, and raised the latch. The door yielded toJ the pressure, and they passed in together. CHAPTER XXH THE BURGLARY ; "Hallo!" cried a loud, hoarse voice, as soon as they. set foot in the passage. " Don't make such a row," said Sikes, bolting the door. ** Show a glim, Toby." "Aha! my pal!" cried the same voice. "A glim, Barney, a glim ! Show the gentleman in, Barney ; wake up first, if convenient." The speaker appeared to throw a boot-jack, or some sue*! article, at the person he addressed, to rouse him from his slumbers : for the noise of a wooden body, falling violently, was heard ; and then an indistinct muttering, as of a mnn between asleep and awake. " Do you hear?" cried the same voice. "There's Bill Oliver Twist 157 Sikes in the passage with nobody to do the civil to hin^. ; and you sleeping there, as if you took laudanum with youi neafs, and nothing stronger. Are you any fresher now, or do you want the iron candlestick to wake you thoroughly?' A pair of slipshod feet shuffled, hastily, across the bare floor of the room, as this interrogatory was put; and there issued from a door on the right hand : first, a feeble candle : and next, the form of the same individual who has been heretofore described as labouring under the infirmity of speaking through his nose, and officiating as waiter at the public-house on Saifron Hill. ' Bister Sikes !" exclaimed Barney, with real or counter- feit joy; ** cub id, sir; cub id." " Here ! you get on first," said Sikes, putting Oliver in ront of him. ** Quicker ! or I shall tread upon your heels." Muttering a curse upon his tardiness, Sikes pushed Oliver before him ; and they entered a low dark room with a smoky fire, two or three broken chairs, a table, and a very Did couch : on which, with his legs much higher than his lead, a man was reposing at full length, smoking a long :lay pipe. He was dressed in a smartly-cut snuff-coloured oat, with large brass buttons ; an orange neckerchief ; a oarse, staring, shawl-pattern waistcoat, and drab breeches. Mr. Crackit (for he it was) had no very great quantity of lair, either upon his head or face ; but what he had, was 3f a reddish dye, and tortured into long corkscrew curls, through which he occasionally thrust some very dirty lingers, ornamented with large common rings. He was I trifle above the middle size, and apparently rather weak n the legs ; but this circumstance by no means detracted "rom his own admiration of his top-boots, which he contem- plated, in their elevated situation, with lively satisfaction. ' Bill, my boy!" said this figure, turning his head to- wards the door, ''I'm glad to see you. I was almost afraid you'd given it up : in which case I should have made a personal wentur. Hallo!" Uttering this exclamation in a tone of great surprise, as his eye rested on Oliver, Mr. Toby Crackit brought himself into a sitting posture, and demanded who that was. '* The boy. Only the boy!" replied Sikes, drawing a chair towards the fire. " Wud of Bister Fagin's lads," exclaimed Barney, with grin. 158 Oliver Twist *' Fagin's. eh !" exclaimed Toby, looking at Oliver. ** Wot an inwalable boy that'll make, for the old ladies' pockets in chapels ! His mug is a fortun' to him." " There — there's enough of that," interposed Sikes im- patiently; and stooping over his recumbent friend, he whispered a few words in his ear : at which Mr. Crackit laughed immensely, and honoured Oliver with a long stare of astonishment. *' Now," said Sikes, as he resumed his seat, '* if you'll give us something to eat and drink while we're waiting, you'll put some heart in us; or in me, at all events. Sit down by the fire, younker, and rest yourself; for you'll have to go out with us again to-night, though not very far off." Oliver looked at Sikes in mute and timid wonder ; andr drawing a stool to the fire, sat with his aching head upon his hands, scarcely knowing where he was, or what was passing around him. ** Here," said Toby, as the young Jew placed some! fragments of food, and a bottle upon the table, " Success: to the crack!" He rose to honour the toast; and, care- fully depositing his empty pipe in a corner, advanced to the table, filled a glass with spirits, and drank off its con- tents. Mr. Sikes did the same. " A drain for the boy," said Toby, half-filling a wine glass. ** Down with it, innocence." " Indeed," said Oliver, looking piteously up into the man's face; ** indeed, I " ** Down with it!" echoed Toby. "Do you think 1 don't know what's good for you? Tell him t6 drink it| Bill." " He had better!" said Sikes, clapping his hand upon! his pocket. ** Burn my body, if he isn't more trouble thar a whole family of Dodgers. Drink it, you perwerse imp ; drink it!" Frightened by the menacing gestures of the two men, Oliver hastily swallowed the contents of the glass, and immediately fell into a violent fit of coughing : which de- lighted Toby Crackit and Barney, and even drew a smile from the surly Mr. Sikes. This done, and Sikes having satisfied his appetite (Olivei could eat nothing but a small crust of bread which the} made him swallow), the two men laid themselves down or chairs for a short nap. Oliver retained his stool by the Oliver Twist 159 ire; Barney, wrapped in a blanket, stretched himself on he floor : close outside the fender. They slept, or appeared to sleep, for some time ; nobody tirring but Barney, who rose once or twice to throw :oals upon the fire. Oliver fell into a heavy doze : imagin- ng himself straying along the gloomy lanes, or wandering Lbout the dark churchyard, or retracing some one or other >f the scenes of the past day : when he was roused by Toby rackit jumping up and declaring it was half-past one. In an instant, the other two were on their legs, and all vere actively engaged in busy preparation. Sikes and his 'ompanion enveloped their necks and chins in large dark hawls, and drew on their great-coats ; Barney, opening L cupboard, brought forth several articles, which he hastily ;rammed into the pockets. " Barkers for me, Barney," said Toby Crackit. Here they are," replied Barney, producing a pair of )istols. " You loaded them yourself." " All right !" replied Toby, stowing them away. " The )ersuaders?" " I've got 'em," replied Sikes. '* Crape, keys, centre-bits, darkies — nothing forgotten ?" nquired Toby : fastening a small crowbar to a loop inside he skirt of his coat. " All right," rejoined his companion. *' Bring them bits )f timber, Barney. That's the time of day." With these words, he took a thick stick from Barney's lands, who, having delivered another to Toby, busied limself in fastening on^ Oliver's cape. " Now then," said Sikes, holding out his hand. Oliver : who was completely stupefied by the unwonted ;xercise, and the air, and the drink which had been forced ipon him : put his hand mechanically into that which Sikes txtended for the purpose. *' Take his other hand, Toby," said Sikes. " Look out, Barney. The man went to the door, and returned to announce that ill was quiet. The two robbers issued forth with Oliver Detween them. Barney, having made all fast, rolled him- self up as before, and was soon asleep again. It was now intensely dark. The fog was much heavier than it had been in the early part of the night ; and the atmosphere was so damp, that, although no rain fell, Oliver's hair and eyebrows, within a few minutes after i6o Oliver Twist leaving the house, had become stiff with the half-frozen moisture that was floating about. They crossed the bridge, and l^ept on towards the lights which he had seen before. They were at no great distance off; and, as they walked pretty briskly, they soon arrived at Chertsey. " Slap through the town," whispered Sikes; "there'll; be nobody in the way, to-night, to see us." Toby acquiesced ; and they hurried through the main; street of the little town, which at that late hour was wholly deserted. A dim light shone at intervals from some bed- room window; and the hoarse barking of dogs occasion- ally broke the silence of the night. But there was nobody abroad. They had cleared the town, as the church-bell struck two. Quickening their pace, they turned up a road upon the left hand. After walking about a quarter of a mile, they stopped before a detached house surrounded by a wall : to the top of which, Toby Crackit, scarcely pausing to take breath, climbed in a twinkling. •* The boy next," said Toby. ** Hoist him up; I'll catch hold of him." Before Oliver had time to look round, Sikes had caught him under the arms ; and in three or four seconds he and i Toby were lying on the grass on the other side. Sikes followed directly. And they stole cautiously towards the house. And now, for the first time, Oliver, well-nigh mad with grief and terror, saw that housebreaking and robbery, if not murder, were the objects of the expedition. He clasped his hands together, and involuntarily uttered a subdued j ■exclamation of horror. A mist came before his eyes; the j €old sweat stood upon his ashy face ; his limbs failed him ; -and he sank upon his knees. *' Get up !" murmured Sikes, trembling with rage, and drawing the pistol from his pocket; *' Get up, or I'll strew your brains upon the grass." *' Oh ! for God's sake let me go!" cried Oliver; " let me run away and die in the fields. I will never come near London ; never, never ! Oh ! pray have mercy on me, and do not make me steal. For the love of all the bright Angels that rest in Heaven, have mercy upon me!" The man to whom this appeal was made, swore a dread- rful oath, and had cocked the pistol, when Toby, striking it Oliver Twist 161 from his grasp, placed his hand upon the boy's mouth, and dragged him to the house. ** Hush !" cried the man; ** it won't answer here. Say another word, and I'll do your business myself with a crack on the head. That makes no noise, and is quite as certain, and more genteel. Here, Bill, wrench the shutter open. He's game enough now, I'll engage. I've seen older hands of his age took the same way, for a minute or two, on a cold night." Sikes, invoking terrific imprecations upon Fagin's herid for sending Oliver on such an errand, plied the crowbar vigorously, but with little noise. After some delay, and some assistance from Toby, the shutter to which he had referred, swung open on its hinges. It was a little lattice window, about five feet and a hall above the ground, at the back of the house : which be- longed to a scullery, or small brewing-place, at the end of the passage. The aperture was so small, that the inmates had probably not thought it worth while to defend it more securely ; but it was large enough to admit a boy of Oliver's size, nevertheless. A very brief exercise of Mr. Sikes 's art sufficed to overcome the fastening of the lattice; and it soon stood wide open also. ** Now listen, you young limb," whispered Sikes, draw- ing a dark lantern from his pocket, and throwing the glare full on Oliver's face; "I'm a going to put you through there. Take this light; go softly up the steps straight afore you, and along the little hall, to the street-door; unfasten it, and let us in." *' There's a bolt at the top, you won't be able to reach," interposed Toby. " Stand upon one of the hall chairs. There are three there. Bill, with a jolly large blue unicorn and gold pitchfork on 'em : which is the old lady's arms." " Keep quiet, can't you?' replied Sikes, with a threaten- ing look. ** The room-door is open, is it?" " Wide," replied Toby, after peeping in to satisfy him- self. " The game of that is, that they always leave it open with a catch, so that the dog, who's got a bed in here, may walk up and down the passage when he feels wakeful. Ha ! ha ! Barney 'ticed him away to-night. So neat !" Although Mr. Crackit spoke in a scarcely audible whisper, and laughed without noise, Sikes imperiously commanded him to be silent, and to get to work. Toby complied, by first producing his lantern, and placing it on. 1 62 Oliver Twist ■the ground; then by planting himself firmly with his head against the wall beneath the window, and his hands upon his knees, so as to make a step of his back. This was no sooner done, than Sikes, mounting upon him, put Oliver gently through the window with his feet first; and, with- out leaving hold of his collar, planted him safely on the floor inside. *' Take this lantern,'* said Sikes, looking into the room. ** You see the stairs afore you?" Oliver, more dead than alive, gasped out "Yes." Sikes, pointing to the street-door with the pistol-barrel, briefly advised him to take notice that he was within shot all the way; and that if he faltered, he would fall dead that instant. '* It's done in a minute," said Sikes, in the same low whisper. ** Directly I leave go of you, do your work. Hark!" " What's that?" whispered the other man. They listened intently. ** Nothing," said Sikes, releasing his hold of Oliver. **Now!" In the short time he had had to collect his senses, the boy had firmly resolved that, whether he died in the at- tempt or not, he would make one effort to dart up stairs from the hall, and alarm the family. Filled with this idea, he advanced at once, but stealthily. "Come back!" suddenly cried Sikes aloud. "Back!! b^ck!" Scared by the sudden breaking of the dead stillness of! the place, and by a loud cry which followed it, Oliver let his lantern fall, and knew not whether to advance or fly. The cry was repeated^ — a light appeared — a vision of two terrified half-dressed men at the top of the stairs swam before his eyes — a flash — a loud noise — a smoke — a crash somewhere, but where he knew not, — and he staggered back. Sikes had disappeared for an instant; but he was up again, and had him by the collar before the smoke had cleared away. He fired his own pistol after the men, who were already retreating ; and dragged the boy up. ** Clasp your arm tighter," said Sikes, as he drew him through the window. " Give me a shawl here. They've hit him. Quick ! How the boy bleeds !" Then came the loud ringing of a bell, mingled with the ^\3 Oliver Twist 163 noise of fire-arms, and the shouts of men, and the sensa- tion of being carried over uneven ground at a rapid pace. And then, the noises grew confused in the distance ; and a cold deadly feeling crept over the boy's heart; and he saw or heard no more. CHAPTER XXIII WHICH CONTAINS THE SUBSTANCE OF A PLEASANT CONVER- SATION BETWEEN MR. BUMBLE AND A LADY; AND SHOWS THAT EVEN A BEADLE MAY BE SUSCEPTIBLE ON SOME POINTS The night was bitter cold. The snow lay on the ground, frozen into a hard thick crust, so that only the heaps that had drifted into by-ways and corners were affected by the sharp wind that howled abroad : which, as if expending increased fury on such prey as it found, caught it savagely up in clouds, and, whirling it into a thousand misty eddies, scattered it in air. Bleak, dark, and piercing cold, it was a night for the well-housed and fed to draw round the bright fire and thank God they were at home ; and for the homeless, starving wretch to lay him down and die. Many hunger-worn outcasts close their eyes in our bare streets, at such times, who, let their crimes have been what they may, can hardly open them in a more bitter world. Such was the aspect of out-of-doors affairs, when Mrs. Corney, the matron of the workhouse to which our readers have been already introduced as the birthplace of Oliver Twist, sat herself down before a cheerful fire in her own little room, and glanced, with no small degree of com- placency, at a small round table : on which stood a tray of corresponding size, furnished with all necessary materials for the most grateful meal that matrons enjoy. In fact, Mrs. Corney was about to solace herself with a cup of tea. As she glanced from the table to the fireplace, where the smallest of all possible kettles was singing a small song in a small voice, her inward satisfaction evidently increased, — so much so, indeed, that Mrs. Corney smiled. **Well!" said the matron, leaning her elbow on the table, and looking reflectively at the fire; "I'm sure we have all on us a great deal to be grateful for I A great deal, if we did but know it. Ah!" 1 64 Oliver Twist Mrs. Corney shook her head mournfully, as if deploring the mental blindness of those paupers who did not know it ; and thrusting a silver spoon (private property) into the in- most recesses of a two-ounce tin tea-caddy, proceeded to make the tea. How slight a thing will disturb the equanimity of our frail minds ! The black teapot, being very small and easily filled, ran over while Mrs. Corney was moralising ; and the water slightly scalded Mrs. Corney *s hand. *' Drat the pot!" said the worthy matron, setting it down very hastily on the hob; ** a little stupid thing, that only holds a couple of cups ! What use is it of, to any- body ! Except," said Mrs. Corney, pausing, "except to a poor desolate creature like me. Oh dear !" With these words, the matron dropped into her chair, and, once more resting her elbow on the table, thought of her solitary fate. The small teapot, and the single cup, had awakened in her mind sad recollections of Mr. Corney (who had not been dead more than five-and-twenty years) ; and she was overpowered. "I shall never get another!" said Mrs. Corney, pet- tishly; ** I shall never get another — like him." Whether this remark bore reference to the husband, or the teapot, is uncertain. It might have been the latter ; for Mrs. Corney looked at it as she spoke ; and took it up afterwards. She had just tasted her first cup, when she was disturbed by a soft tap at the room-door. " Oh, come in with you!" said Mrs. Corney, sharply. " Some of the old women dying, I suppose. They always die when I'm at meals. Don't stand there, letting the cold air in, don't. What's amiss now, eh?" " Nothing, ma'am, nothing," replied a man's voice. " Dear me !" exclaimed the matron, in a much sweeter tone, *' is that Mr. Bumble?" *' At your service, ma'am," said Mr. Bumble, who had been stopping outside to rub his shoes clean, and to shake the snow off his coat; and who now made his appearance, bearing the cocked hat in one hand and a bundle in the other. *' Shall I shut the door ma'am?" The lady modestly hesitated to reply, lest there should be any impropriety in holding an interview with Mr. Bumble, with closed doors. Mr. Bumble taking advantage of the hesitation, and being very cold himself, shut it without permission. Oliver Twist 165 *' Hard weather, Mr. Bumble," said the matron. "Hard, indeed, ma'am," replied the beadle. ** Anti- porochial weather this, ma'am. We have given away, Mrs. Corney, we have given away a matter of twenty quartern loaves and a cheese and a half, this very blessed afternoon; and yet them paupers are not contented." " Of course not. When would they be, Mr. Bumble?" said the matron, sipping her tea. " When, indeed, ma'am," rejoined Mr. Bumble. " Why here's one man that, in consideration of his wife and large family, has a quartern loaf and a good pound of cheese, full weight. Is he grateful, ma'am? Is he grateful? Not a copper farthing's worth of it ! What does he do, ma'am, but ask for a few coals; if it's only a pocket handkerchief full, he says ! Coals ! What would he do with coals? Toast his cheese with 'em, and then come back for more. That's the way with these people, ma'am ; give 'em a apron full of coals to-day, and they'll come back for another, the day after to-morrow, as brazen as ala- baster." '^ The matron expressed her entire concurrence in this intelligible simile ; and the beadle went on. " 1 never," said Mr. Bumble, ** see anything like the pitch it's got to. The day afore yesterday, a man — you have been a married woman, ma'am, and I may mention it to you — a man, with hardly a rag upon his back (here Mrs. Corney looked at the floor), goes to our overseer's door when he has got company coming to dinner; and says, he must be relieved, Mrs. Corney. As he wouldn't go away, and shocked the company very much, our over- seer sent him out a pound of potatoes and half a pint of oatmeal. * My heart !' says the ungrateful villain, * what's the use of this to me? You might as well give me a pair of iron spectacles !' * Very good,' says our overseer, taking 'em away again, * you won't get anything else here.' ' Then I'll die in the streets !' says the vagrant. ' Oh no, you won't,' says our overseer." " Ha! ha! That was very good! So like Mr. Gran- nett, wasn't it?" interposed the matron. " Well, Mr. Bumble?" " Well, ma'am," rejoined the beadle, "he went away; and he did die in the streets. There's a obstinate pauper for you ! " ** It beats anything I co»u'ld have believed," observed the 1 66 Oliver Twist matron emphatically. ** But don't you think out-of-door relief a very bad thing, any way, Mr. Bumble? You're a gentleman of experience, and ought to know. Come." ** Mrs. Corney," said the beadle, smiling as men smile who are conscious of superior information, " out-of-door relief, properly managed : properly managed, ma'am : is the porochial safeguard. The great principle of out-of door relief is, to give the paupers exactly what they don't want; and then they get tired of coming." ** Dear me!" exclaimed Mrs. Corney. ** Well, that is a good one, too !" " Yes. Betwixt you and me, ma'am," returned Mr. Bumble, ** that's the great principle; and that's the reason why, if you look at any cases that get into them owdacious newspapers, you'll always observe that sick families have been relieved with slices of cheese. That's the rule now, Mrs. Corney, all over the country. But, however," said the beadle, stopping to unpack his bundle, " these are official secrets, ma'am; not to be spoken of; except, as I may say, among the porochial officers, such as ourselves. This is the port wine, ma'am, that the board ordered for the infirmary; real, fresh, genuine port wine; only out of the cask this forenoon ; clear as a bell ; and no sediment !" Having held the first bottle up to the light, and shaken it well to test its excellence, Mr. Bumble placed them both on the top of a chest of drawers ; folded the handkerchief in which they had been wrapped; put it carefully in his pocket ; and took up his hat, as if to go. " You'll have a very cold walk, Mr. Bumble, ' said the matron. " It blows, ma'am," replied Mr. Bumble, turning up his coat-collar, " enough to cut one's ears off." The matron looked, from the little kettle, to the beadle, who was moving towards the door; and as the beadle coughed, preparatory to bidding her good night, bashfully inquired whether — whether he wouldn't take a cup of tea? Mr. Bumble instantaneously turned back his collar again ; laid his hat and stick upon a chair; and drew another chair up to the table. As he slowly seated himself, he looked at the lady. She fixed her eyes upon the little tea-pot. Mr. Bumble coughed again, and slightly smiled. Mrs. Corney rose to get another cup and saucer from the closet. As she sat down, her eyes once again encountered those of the gallant beadle; she coloured, and applied Oliver Twist 167 herself to the task of making his tea. A^ain Mr. Bumble coughed, — louder this time than he had coug-hed yet. " Sweet? Mr. Bumble?" inquired the matron, taking up the sugar-basin. ** Very sweet, indeed, ma'am," replied Mr. Bumble. He fixed his eyes on Mrs. Corney as he said this ; and if ever a beadle looked tender, Mr. Bumble was that beadle at that moment. The tea was made, and handed in silence. Mr. Bumble, having spread a handkerchief over his knees to prevent the crumbs from sullying the splendour of his shorts, began to eat and drink ; varying these amusements, occasionally, by fetching a deep sigh ; which, however, had no injurious effect upon his appetite, but, on the contrary, rather seemed to facilitate his operations in the tea and toast department. *' You have a cat, ma'am, I see," said Mr. Bumble, glancing at one who, in the centre of her family, was bask- ing before the fire; ** and kittens too, I declare !" ** I am so fond of them, Mr. Bumble, you can't think," replied the matron. ** They're so happy, so frolicsome, and so cheerful, that they are quite companions for me. " Very nice animals, ma'am," replied Mr. Bumble, ap- provingly; "so very domestic." " Oh, yes !" rejoined the matron with enthusiasm; ** so fond of their home too, that it's quite a pleasure, I'm sure." " Mrs. Corney, ma'am," said Mr. Bumble, slowly, and marking the time with his teaspoon, ** I mean to say this, ma'am; that any cat, or kitten, that could live with you, ma'am, and not be fond of its home, must be a ass, ma'am." "Oh, Mr. Bumble!" remonstrated Mrs. Corney. " It's of no use disguising facts, ma'am," said Mr. Bumble, slowly flourishing the teaspoon with a kind of amorous dignity which made him doubly impressive; ** I would drown it myself, with pleasure." " Then you're a cruel man," said the matron vivaciously, as she held out her hand for the beadle's cup; " and a very hard hearted man besides." " Hard-hearted, ma'am?" said Mr. Bumble. " Hard?" Mr. Bumble resigned his cup without another word; squeezed Mrs. Corney 's little finger as she took it; and inflicting two open handed slaps upon his laced waistcoat, 1 68 Oliver Twist gave a mighty sigh, and hitched his chair a very little morsel farther from the fire. It was a round table; and as Mrs. Corney and Mr. Bumble had been sitting opposite each other, with no great space between them, and fronting the fire, it will be seen that Mr. Bumble, in receding from the fire, and still keeping at the table, increased the distance between himself and Mrs. Corney ; which proceeding, some prudent readers will doubtless be disposed to admire, and to consider an act of great heroism on Mr. Bumble's part : he being in some sort tempted by time, place, and opportunity, to give utter-^ ance to certain soft nothings, which however well they may become the lips of the light and thoughtless, do seem immeasurably beneath the dignity of judges of the land, members of parliament, ministers of state, lord mayors, and other great public functionaries, but more particularly beneath the stateliness and gravity of a beadle : who (as is well known) should be the sternest and most inflexible among them all. Whatever were Mr. Bumble's intentions, however (and no doubt they were of the best) : it unfortunately happened, as has been twice before remarked, that the table was a round one; consequently Mr. Bumble, moving his chair by little and little, soon began to diminish the distance between himself and the matron ; and, continuing to travel round the outer edge of the circle, brought his chair, in time, close to that in which the matron was seated. Indeed, the two chairs touched ; and when they did so, Mr. Bumble stopped. Now, if the matron had moved her chair to the right, she would have been scorched by the fire; and if to the left, she must have fallen into Mr. Bumble's arms; so (being a discreet matron, and no doubt foreseeing these consequences at a glance) she remained where she was, and handed Mr. Bumble another cup of tea. ** Hard-hearted, Mrs. Corney?" said Mr. Bumble, stirring his tea, and looking up into the matron's face; ** are you hard-hearted, Mrs. Corney?" "Dear me!" exclaimed the matron, "what a very curious question from a single man. What can you want to know for, Mr. Bumble?" The beadle drank his tea to the last drop; finished a piece of toast ; whisked the crumbs off his knees ; wiped his lips ; and deliberately kissed the matron. I Oliver Twist 169 " Mr. Bumble!'* cried that discreet lady in a whisper; for the fright was so great, that she had quite lost her voice, ** Mr. Bumble, I shall scream !" Mr. Bumble made no reply ; but in a slow and dignified manner, put his arm round the matron's waist. As the lady had stated her intention of screaming, of course she would have screamed at this additional boldness, but that the exertion was rendered unnecessary by a hasty knocking at the door : which was no sooner heard, than Mr. Bumble darted, with much agility, to the wine bottles, and began dusting them with great violence : while the matron sharply demanded who was there. It is worthy of remark, as a curious physical instance of the efficacy of a sudden surprise in counteracting the effects of extreme fear, that her voice had quite recovered all its official asperity. " If you please, mistress," said a withered old female pauper, hideously ugly : putting her head in at the door, ** Old Sally is a-going fast." ** Well, what's that to me?" angrily demanded the matron. ** I can't keep her alive, can I?" *' No, no, mistress," replied the old woman, "nobody can ; she's far beyond the reach of help. I've seen a many people die ; little babes and great strong men ; and I know when death's a-coming, well enough. But she's troubled in her mind : and when the fits are not on her, — and that's not often, for she is dying very hard, — she says she has got something to tell, which you must hear. She'll never die quiet till you come, mistress." At this intelligence, the worthy Mrs. Corney m.uttered a variety of invectives against old women who couldn'i even die without purposely annoying their betters ; and, muffling herself in a thick shawl which she hastily caught up, briefly requested Mr. Bumble to stay till she came back, lest anything particular should occur. Bidding the mes- senger walk fast, and not be all night hobbling up the stairs, she followed her from the room with a very ill grace, scolding all the way. Mr. Bumble's conduct on being left to himseir, was rather inexplicable. He opened the closet, counted the teaspoons, weighed the sugar-tongs, closely inspected a silver milk-pot to ascertain that it was of the genuine metal, and, having satisfied his curiosity on these points, put on his cocked hat corner-wise, ^nd danced with much lyo Oliver Twist gravity four distinct times round the table. Having gone through this very extraordinary performance, he took off the cocked hat again, and, spreading himself before the fire with his back towards it, seemed to be mentally engaged in taking an exact inventory of the furniture. CHAPTER XXIV TREATS OF A VERY POOR SUBJECT. BUT IS A SHORT ONE, AxMD MAY BE FOUND OF IMPORTANCE IN THIS HISTORY It was no unfit messenger of death, who had disturbed the quiet of the matron's room. Her body was bent by age; her limbs trembled with palsy; her face, distorted into a mumbling leer, resembled more the grotesque shaping of some wild pencil, than the work of Nature's hand. Alas ! How few of Nature's faces are left alone to gladden us with their beauty ! The cares, and sorrows, and hungerings of the world, change them as they change hearts ; and it is only when those passions sleep, and have lost their hold for ever, that the troubled clouds pass off, j and leave Heaven's surface clear. It is a common thing I for the countenances of the dead, even in that fixed and I rigid state, to subside into the long-forgotten expression of sleeping infancy, and settle into the very look of early life; so calm, so peaceful, do they grow again, that those who knew them in their happy childhood, kneel by the coffin's side in awe, and see the Angel even upon earth. The old crone tottered along the passages, and up the stairs, muttering some indistinct answers to the chidings of her companion ; being at length compelled to pause for breath, she gave the light into her hand, and remained behind to follow as she might : while the more nimble superior made her way to the room where the sick woman lay. It was a bare garret-room, with a dim light burning at the farther end. There was another old woman watching by the bed; the parish apothecary's apprentice was stand- ing by the fire, making a toothpick out of a quill. . ** Cold night, Mrs. Corney," said this young gentleman, as the matron entered. *' Very cold, indeed, sir," replied the mistress, in hei most civil tones, and dropping a curtsey as she spoke. Oliver Twist 171 ** You should get better coals out of your contractors," said the apothecary's deputy, breaking a lump on the top of the fire with the rusty poker; '* these are not at all the sort of thing for a cold night." "They're the board's choosing, sir," returned the matron. ** The least they could do, would, be to keep us pretty warm : for our places are hard enough." The conversation was here interrupted by a moan from the sick woman. "Oh!" said the young man, turning his face towards the bed, as if he had previously quite forgotten the patient, It's all U. P. there, Mrs. Corney." '* It is, is it, sir?" asked the matron. " If she lasts a couple of hours, I shall be surprised," said the apothecary's apprentice, intent upon the tooth- pick's point. " It's a break-up of the system altogether. Is she dozing, old lady?" The attendant stooped over the bed, to ascertain ; and nodded in the affirmative. "Then perhaps she'll o-o off in that way, if you don't make a row," said the young man. " Put the light on the floor. She won't see it there." The attendant did as she was told : shaking her head meanwhile, to intimate that the woman would not die so easily ; having done so, she resumed her seat by the side of the other nurse, who had by this time returned. The mistress, with an expression of impatience, wrapped her- self in her shawl, and sat at the foot of the bed. The apothecary's apprentice, having completed the manufacture of the toothpick, planted himself in front of the fire and made good use of it for ten minutes or so : when apparently growing rather dull, he wished Mrs. Corney joy of her job, and took himself off on tiptoe. When they had sat in silence for some time, the two old women rose from the bed, and crouching over the fire, held out their withered hands to catch the heat. The flame threw a ghastly light on their shrivelled faces, and made their ugliness appear terrible, as, in this position, they began to converse in a low voice. '^" Did she say any more, Anny dear, while I was gone?" inquired the messenger, " Not a word," replied the other. " She plucked and tore at her arms for a little time; but I held her hands, and she soon dropped off. She hasn't much strength in 172 Oliver Twist her, so I easily kept her quiet. I ain't so weak for an old woman, although I am on parish allowance; no, no!" '* Did she drink the hot wine the doctor said she was to have?" demanded the first. " I tried to get it down," rejoined the other. " But her teeth were tight set, and she clenched the mug so hard that it was as much as I could do to get it back again. So / drank it; and it did me good !" Looking cautiously round, t'^^ ascertain that they were not overheard, the two hags cowered nearer to the fire, and chuckled heartily. " I mind the time," said the first speaker, ** when she would have done the same, and made rare fun of it afterwards." " Ay, that she would," rejoined the other; '* she had a merry heart. A many, many, beautiful corpses she laid out, as nice and neat as wax-work. My old eyes have seen them — ay, and those old hands touched them too ; for 1 have helped her, scores of times." Stretching forth her trembling fingers as she spoke, the old creature shook them exultingly before her face, and fumbling in her pocket, brought out an old time-discoloured tin snuff-box, from which she shook a few grains into the outstretched palm of her companion, and a few more into her own. While they were thus employed, the matron, who had been impatiently watching until the dying woman should awaken from her stupor, joined them by the fire, and sharply asked how long she was to wait? ** Not long, mistress," replied the second woman, look- ing up into her face. ** We have none of us long to wait for Death. Patience, patience ! He'll be here soon enough for us all." "Hold your tongue, you doting idiot!" said the matron, sternly. " You, Martha, tell me; has she been in this way before?" " Often," answered the first woman. " But will never be again," added the second one; " that is, she'll never wake again but once — and mind, mistress, that won't be for long !" "Long or short," said the matron, snappishly, "she won't find me here when she does wake; take care, both of you, how you worry me again for nothing. It's no part of my duty to see all the old women in the house die, and I won't — that's more. Mind that, you impudent old Oliver Twist 173 harridans. If you make a fool of me again, I'll soon cure you, I warrant you !" She was bouncing away, when a cry from the two women, who had turned towards the bed, caused her to look round. The patient had raised herself upright, and was stretching her arms towards them. '* Who's that?" she cried, in a hollow voice. ** Hush, hush!" said one of the women, stooping over her. ** Lie down, lie down !" "I'll never lie down again alive!" said the woman, struggling. *' I will tell her ! Come here ! Nearer ! Let me whisper in your ear." She clutched the matron by the arm, and forcing her into a chair by the bedside, was about to speak, when look- ing round, she caught sight of the two old women bending forward in the attitude of eager listeners. "Turn them away," said the old woman, drowsily; '* make haste ! make haste !" The two old crones, chiming in together, began pouring out many piteous lamentations that the poor dear was too far gone to know her best friends ; and were uttering sundry protestations that they would never leave her, when the superior pushed them from the room, closed the door, and returned to the bedside. On being excluded, the old ladies changed their tone, and cried through the keyhole that old Sally was drunk ; which, indeed, was not unlikely ; since, in addition to a moderate dose of opium prescribed by the apothecary, she was labouring under the effects of a final taste of gin-and-water which had been privily ad- ministered, in the openness of their hearts, by the worthy old ladies themselves. *' Now listen to me," said the dying woman aloud, as if making a great effort to revive one latent spark of energy. " In this very room — in this very bed — I once nursed a pretty young creetur', that was brought into the house with her feet cut and bruised with walking, and all soiled with dust and blood. She gave birth to a boy, and died. Let me think — what was the year again !" " Never mind the year," said the Impatient auditor; '* what about her?" "Ay," murmured the sick woman, relapsing into her former drowsy state, " what about her? — what about — I know!" she cried, jumping fiercely up: her face flushed, and her eyes starting from her head — " I robbed her, so 174 Oliver Twist 1 did ! She wasn't cold— I tell you she wasn't cold, when I stole it!" *' Stole what, for God's sake?" cried the matron, with a gesture as if she would call for help. **/t/" replied the woman, laying her hand over the other's mouth. ** The only thing she had. She wanted clothes to keep her warm, and food to eat; but she- had kept it safe, and had it in her bosom. It was gold, I tell you ! Rich gold, that might have saved her life !" ** Gold !" echoed the matron, bending eagerly over the woman as she fell back. " Go on, go on — yes — what of i it? Who was the mother? When was it?" '* She charged me to keep it safe," replied the woman with a groan, ** and trusted me as the only woman about her. I stole it in my heart when she first showed it me hanging round her neck; and the child's death, perhaps, is on me besides ! They would have treated him better, if they had known it all !" ** Known what?" asked the other. "Speak!" •'The boy grew so like his mother," said the woman, rambhng on, and not heeding the question, " that I could never forget it when I saw his face. Poor girl ! poor girl ! She was so young, too ! Such a gentle lamb ! Wait ; there's more to tell. I have not told you all, have I?" " No, no," replied the matron, inclining her head to catch the words, as they came more faintly from the dying woman. " Be quick, or it may be too late!" '* The mother," said the woman, making a more violent effort than before; *' the mother, when the pains of death first came upon her, whispered in my ear that if her baby was born alive, and thrived, the day might come when it would not feel so much disgraced to hear its poor young mother named. * And oh, kind Heaven !' she said, folding her thin hands together, 'whether it be boy or girl, raise up some friends for it in this troubled world, and take pity upon a lonely desolate child, abandoned to its mercy !' " " The boy's name?" demanded the matron. ** They called him Oliver," replied the woman, feebly. " The gold I stole was " *' Yes, yes — what?" cried the other. She was bending eagerly over the woman to hear her reply ; but drew back, instinctively, as she once again rose, slowly and stiffly, into a sitting; posture ; then, clutching Oliver Twist 175 the coverlid with both hands, muttered some indistinct sounds in her throat, and fell lifeless on the bed. * ^ * * * * ** Stone dead !" said one of the old women, hurrying- in as soon as the door was opened. "And nothing to tell, after all," rejoined the matron, walking carelessly away. The two crones, to all appearance, too busily occupied in the preparations for their dreadful duties to make any reply, were left alone, hovering about the body. CHAPTER XXV WHEREIN THIS HISTORY REVERTS TO MR. FAGIN AND COMPANY While these things were passing in the country work- house, Mr. Fagin sat in the old den — the same from which Oliver had been removed by the girl — brooding over a dull, smoky fire. He held a pair of bellows upon his knee, with which he had apparently been endeavouring to rouse it into more cheerful action ; but he had fallen into deep thought; and with his arms folded on them, and his chin resting on his thumbs, fixed his eyes, abstractedly, on the rusty bars. At a table behind him sat the Artful Dodger, Master Charles Bates, and Mr. Chitling : all intent upon a game of whist ; the Artful taking dummy against Master Bates and Mr. Chitling. The countenance of the first-named gentleman, peculiarly intelligent at all times, acquired great additional interest from his close observance of the game, and his attentive perusal of Mr. Chitling's hand ; upon which, from time to time, as occasion served, he bestowed a variety of earnest glances : wisely regulating his own play by the result of his observations upon his neighbour's cards. It being a cold night, the Dodger wore his hat, as, indeed, was often his custom within doors. He also sustained a clay pipe between his teeth, which he only removed for a brief space when he deemed it necessary to apply for refreshment to a quart pot upon the table, which stood ready filled with gin-and-water for the accom- modation of the company. Master Bates was also attentive to the play ; but being of a more excitable nature than his accomplished friend, it 176 Oliver Twist was observable that he more frequently applied himself to the gin-and-water, and moreover indulged in many jests and irrelevant remarks, all highly unbecoming a scientific rubber. Indeed, the Artful, presuming upon their close attachment, more than once took occasion to reason gravely with his companion upon these improprieties : all of which remonstrances. Master Bates received in extremely good part; merely requesting his friend to be "blowed," or tor insert his head in a sack, or replying with some other neatly-turned witticism of a similar kind, the happy appli- cation of which excited considerable admiration in the mind ; of Mr. Chitling. It was remarkable that the latter gentle- man and his partner invariably lost; and that the circum- stance, so far from angering Master Bates, appeared to afford him the highest amusement, inasmuch as he laughed most uproariously at the end of every deal, and protested that he had never seen such a jolly game in all his born days. "That's two doubles and the rub," said Mr. Chitling, with a very long face, as he drew half-a-crown from his waistcoat-pocket. " I never see such a feller as you, Jack ; you win everything. Even when we've good cards, Charley and I can't make nothing of 'em." Either the matter or the manner of this remark, which was made very ruefully, delighted Charley Bates so much, that his consequent shout of laughter roused the Jew from his reverie, and induced him to inquire what was the matter. "Matter, Fagin!" cried Charley. ** I wish you had watched the play. Tommy Chitling hasn't won a point; and I went partners with him against the Artful and dum. " "Ay, ay!" said the Jew, with a grin, which suffi- ciently demonstrated that he was at no loss to understand the reason. "Try 'em again, Tom; try 'em again." " No more of it for me, thankee, Fagin," replied Mr. Chitling; " I've had enough. That 'ere Dodger has such a run of luck that there's no standing again' him." " Ha! ha! my dear," replied the Jew, "you must get up very early in the morning, to win against the Dodger." " Morning !" said Charley Bates; " you must put your boots on over-night, and have a telescope at each eye, and a opera-glass between your shoulders, if you want to come over him. " Mr. Dawkins received these handsome compliments with Oliver Twist 177 much philosophy, and offered to cut any gentlfeman in company, for the first picture-card, at a shilling a time. Nobody accepting the challenge, and his pipe being by this time smoked out, he proceeded to amuse himself by sketch- ing a ground-plan of Newgate on the table with the piece of chalk which had served him in lieu of counters; whistling, meantime, with peculiar shrillness. " How precious dull you are, Tommy !" said the Dodger, stopping short when there had been a long silence; and addressing Mr. Chitling. ** What do you think he's thinking of, Fagin?" " How should I know, my dear?" replied the Jew, look- ing round as he plied the bellows. ** About his losses, maybe ; or the little retirement in the country that he's just left, eh? Ha! ha! Is that it, my dear?" " Not a bit of it," replied the Dodger, stopping the sub- ject of discourse as Mr. Chitling was about to reply. " What do you say, Charley?" "7 should say," replied Master Bates, with a grin, ** that he was uncommon sweet upon Betsy. See how he's a-blushing ! Oh, my eye ! here's a merry-go-rounder I Tommy Chitling 's in love ! Oh, Fagin, Fagin ! what a spree !" Thoroughly overpov^ered with the notion of Mr. Chitling being the victim of the tender passion, Master Bates threw himself back in his chair with such violence that he lost his balance, and pitched over upon the floor; where (the accident abating nothing of his merriment) he lay at full length until his laugh was over, when he resumed his former position, and began another laugh. *' Never mind him, my dear," said the Jew, winking at Mr. Dawkins, and giving Master Bates a reproving tap with the nozzle of the bellows. ** Betsy's a fine girl. Stick up to her, Tom. Stick up to her." "What I mean to say, Fagin," replied Mr. Chitling, very red in the face, " is, that that isn't anything to any- body here." ** No more it is," replied the Jew; " Charley will talk. Don't mind him, my dear; don't mind him. Betsy's a fine girl. Do as she bids you, Tom, and you will make your fortune." *' So I do do as she bids me," replied Mr. Chitling; ** I shouldn't have been milled, if it hadn't been for her advice. But it turned out a good job for you; didn't it, 178 Oliver Twist Fagin ! And what's six weeks of it? It must come, some time or another, and why not in the winter time when you don't want to go out a-walking so much; eh, Fagin?" *' Ah, to be sure, my dear," rephed the Jew. " You wouldn't mind it again, Tom, would you," asked the Dodger, winking upon Charley and the Jew, ** if Bet was all right?" " 1 mean to say that I shouldn't," replied Tom, angrily. ** There, now. Ah ! Who'll say as much as that, I should like to know; eh, Fagin?" "Nobody, my dear," replied the Jew; "not a soul, Tom. I don't know one of 'em that would do it besides you; not one of 'em, my dear." ** I might have got clear off, if I'd split upon her;, mightn't I, Fagin?" angrily pursued the poor half-witted dupe. ** A word from me would have done it; wouldn't it, Fagin?" " To be sure it would, my dear," replied the Jew. ** But I didn't blab it; did I, Fagin?" demanded Tom, pouring question upon question with great volubility. " No, no, to be sure," replied the Jew; ** you were too stout-hearted for that. A deal too stout, my dear!" ** Perhaps I was," rejoined Tom, looking round; ** and if I was, what's to laugh at, in that; eh, Fagin?" The Jew, perceiving that Mr. Chitling was considerably, roused, hastened to assure him that nobody was laughing ; and to prove the gravity of the company, appealed to Master Bates, the principal offender. But, unfortunately, Charley, in opening his mouth to reply that he was never more serious in his life, was unable to prevent the escape of such a violent roar, that the abused Mr. Chitling, with- out any preliminary ceremonies, rushed across the room and aimed a blow at the offender; who, being skilful in evading pursuit, ducked to avoid it, and chose his time so well that it lighted on the chest of the merry old gentle- man, and caused him to stagger to the wall, where he stood panting for breath, while Mr. Chitling looked on in intense dismay. " Hark!" cried the Dodger at this moment, ** I heard the tinkler." Catching up the light, he crept softly up stairs. The bell was rung again, with some impatience, while the party were in darkness. After a short pause, the Dodger reappeared, and whispered Fagin mysteriously. Oliver Twist 179 •' What !" cried the Jew, " alone?" The Dodger nodded in the affirmative, and, shading the flame of the candle with his hand, gave Charley Bates a private intimation, in dumb show, that he had better not be funny just then. Having performed this friendly office, he fixed his eyes on the Jew's face, and awaited his directions. The old man bit his yellow fingers, and meditated for some seconds ; his face working with agitation the while, as if he dreaded something, and feared to know the worst. At length he raised his head. ** Where is he?" he asked. The Dodger pointed to the floor above, and made a gesture, as if to leave the room. "Yes," said the Jew, answering the mute inquiry; "bring him down. Hush! Quiet, Charley! Gently, Tom! Scarce, scarce!" This brief direction to Charley Bates, and his recent antagonist, was softly and immediately obeyed. There was no sound of their whereabout, when the Dodger descended the stairs, bearing the light in his hand, and followed by a man in a coarse smock-frock; who, after casting a* hurried glance round the room, pulled off a large wrapper which had concealed the lower portion of his face, and disclosed : all haggard, unwashed, and unshorn ; the features of flash Toby Crackit. " How are you, Faguey?" said this worthy, nodding to the Jew. " Pop that shawl away in my castor. Dodger, so that I may know where to find it when I cut; that's the time of day ! You'll be a fine young cracksman afore the old file now." With these words he pulled up the smock-frock; and, winding it round his middle, drew a chair to the fire, gind placed his feet upon the hob. " See there, Faguey," he said, pointing disconsolately to his top-boots; " not a drop of Day and Martin since you know when ; not a bubble of blacking, by Jove ! But don't look at me in that way, man. All in good time. I can't talk about business till I've eat and drank; so produce the sustainance, and let's have a quiet fill-out for the first time these three days !" The Jew motioned to the Dodger to place what eatables there were, upon the table ; and, seating himself opposite the housebreaker, waited his leisure. i8o Oliver Twist To judge from appearances, Toby was by no means Ir a hurry to open the conversation. At first, the jew con- tented himself with patiently watching his countenance, a? if to gain from its expression some clue to the intelligence he brought; but in vain. He looked tired and worn, bul there was the same complacent repose upon his features that they always wore : and through dirt, and beard, anc whisker, there still shone, unimpaired, the self-satisfiec smirk of flash Toby Crackit. Then, the Jew, in an agony of irnpatience, watched every morsel he put into his mouth pacing up and down the room, meanwhile, in irrepressible excitement. It was all of no use. Toby continued to eat with the utmost outward indifference, until he could eal no more ; then, ordering the Dodger out, he closed the door, mixed a glass of spirits and water, and composed himself for talking. *' First and foremost, Faguey," said Toby. ** Yes, yes," interposed the Jew, drawing up his chai Mr. Crackit stopped to take a draught of spirits and water, and to declare that the gin was excellent ; then placing his feet against the low mantelpiece, so as to bring his boots to about the level of his eye, he quietly resumed, ** First and foremost, Faguey," said the housebreaker ♦* how's Bill?" '* What!" screamed the Jew, starting from his seat. " Why, you don't mean to say " began Toby, turn ing pale. " Mean?" cried the Jew, stamping furiously on the ground. " Where are they? Sikes and the boy ! Where are they? Where have they been? Where are they hiding? Why have they not been here?" "The crack failed," said Toby, faintly. ** I know it," replied the Jew, tearing a newspaper from his pocket and pointing to it. ** What more?" ** They fired and hit the boy. We cut over the fields at the back, with him between us — straight as the crow flies — through hedge and ditch. They gave chase. Damme ! the whole country was awake, and the dogs upon us." "The boy!" " Bill had him on his back, and scudded like the wind. We stopped to take him between us; his head hung down, and he was cold. They were close upon our heels ; every man for himself, and each from the gallows ! We parted Oliver Twist i8i company, and left the youngster lying- in a ditch. Alive or dead, that's all I know about him." The Jew stopped to hear no more; but uttering a loud yell, and twining his hands in his hair, rushed from the room, and from the house. CHAPTER XXVI in ^vhtch a mysterious character appears upon the scene; and many things, inseparable from this his- tory, ARE done and performed The old man had gained the street corner, before he began to recover the effect of Toby Crackit's intelligence. He had relaxed nothing of his unusual speed ; but was still pressing onward, in the same wild and disordered manner, when the sudden dashing past of a carriage : and a boisterous cry from the foot passengers, who saw his danger : drove him back upon the pavement. Avoiding, as much as pos- sible, all the. main streets, and skulking only through the byways and alleys, he at length emerged on Snow Hill. Here he walked even faster than before; nor did he linger until he had again turned into a court; when, as if con- scious that he was now in his proper element, he fell into his usual shuffling pace, and seemed to breathe more freely. Near to the spot on which Snow Hill and Holborn Hill meet, there opens, upon the right hand as you come out of the City, a narrow and dismal alley leading to Saffron Hill. In its filthy shops are exposed for sale huge bunches of second-hand silk handkerchiefs, of all sizes and patterns; for here reside the traders who purchase them from pick- pockets. Hundreds of these handkerchiefs hang dangling from pegs outside the windows or flaunting from the door- posts; and the shelves, within, are piled with them. Con- fined as the limits of Feld Lane are, it has its barber, its coffee-shop, its beer-shop, and it fried-fish warehouse. It is a commercial colony of itself : the emporium of petty larceny : visited at early morning, and setting-in of dusk, by silent merchants, who traffic in dark back-parlours, and who go as strangely as they come. Here, the clothesman, the shoe-vamper, and the rag-merchant, display their goods, as sign-boards to the petty thief ; here, stores of old 1 82 Oliver Twist ifon and bones, and heaps of mildewy fragments of woollen- stuff and linen, rust and rot in the grimy cellars. It was into this place that the Jew turned. He was well known to the sallow denizens of the lane ; for such of them as were on the look-out to buy or sell, nodded, familiarly, as he passed along. He replied to their salutations in thf same way ; but bestowed no closer recognition until he reached the further end of the alley; when he stopped, to address a salesman of small stature, who had squeezed as much of his person into a child's chair as the chair would hold, and was smoking a pipe at his warehouse door. " Why, the sight of you, Mr. Fagin, wouid cure the hoptalmy!" said this respectable trader, in acknowledg- ment of the Jew's inquiry after his health. ** The neighbourhood was a little too hot, Lively," said Fagin, elevating his eyebrows, and crossing his hands upon his shoulders. ** Well, I've heerd that complaint of it, once or twice before," replied the trader; ** but it soon cools down again ; don't you find it so?" f Fagin nodded in the affirmative. Pointing in the direc- i' tion of Saffron Hill, he inquired whether any one was up I'' yonder to-night. " At the Cripples?" inquired the man. The Jew nodded. ** Let me see," pursued the merchant, reflecting. ** Yes, there's some half-dozen of 'em gone in, that I knows. I don't think your friend's there." " Sikes is not, I suppose?" inquired the Jew, with a disappointed countenance. *' Non istwentuSj as the lawyers say," replied the little man, shaking his head, and looking amazingly sly. ** Have you got anything in my line to-night?" ** Nothing to-night," said the Jew, turning away. ** Are you going up to the Cripples, Fagin?" cried the little man, calling after him. "Stop! I don't mind if I have a drop there with you !" But as the Jew, looking back, waved his hand to intimate that he preferred being alone ; and, moreover, as the little man could not very easily disengage himself from the chair; the sign of the Cripples was, for a time, bereft of the advantage of Mr. Lively's presence. By the time he had got upon his legs, the Jew had disappeared ; so Oliver Twist 183 Mr. Lively, after ineffectually standing on tiptoe, in the hope of catching sight of him, again forced himself into the little chair, and, exchanging a shake of the head with a lady in the opposite shop, in which doubt and mistrust were plainly mingled, resumed his pipe with a grave demeanour. The Three Cripples, or rather the Cripples : which was the sign by which the establishment was familiarly known to its patrons : was the public-house in which Mr. Sikes and his dog have already figured. Merely making a sign to a man at the bar, Fagin walked straight up stairs, and opening the door of a room, and softly insinuating himself into the chamber, looked anxiously about : shading his eyes with his hand, as ii in search of some particular person. The room was illuminated by two gas-lights ; the glare of which was prevented by the barred shutters, and closely-drawn curtains of faded red, from being visible outside. The ceiling was blackened, to prevent its colour from being injured by the flaring of the lamps ; and the place was so full of dense tobacco smoke, that at first it was scarcely possible to discern anything more. By degrees, however, as some of it cleared away through the open door, an assemblage of heads, as confused as the noises that greeted the ear, might be made out ; and as the eye grew more accustomed to the scene, the spectator gradually became aware of the presence of a numerous company, male and female, crowded round a long table : at the upper end of which, sat a chairman with a hammer of office in his hand ; while a professional gentleman, with a bluish nose, and his face tied up for the benefit of a toothache, presided at a jingling piano in a remote corner. As Fagin stepped softly in, the professional gentleman, running over the keys by way of prelude, occasioned a general cry of order for a song; which, having subsided, a young lady proceeded to entertain the company with a ballad in four verses, between each of which the accom- panyist played the melody all through, as loud as he could. When this was over, the chairman gave a sen- timent, after which, the professional gentlemen on the chairman's right and left volunteered a duet, and sang it, with great applause. It was curious to observe some faces which stood out prominently from among the group. There was the chair- 184 Oliver Twist man himself, (the landlord of the house,) a coarse, roug-h, heavy built fellow, who, while the songs were proceeding, rolled his eyes hither and thither, and, seeming to give himself up to joviality, had an eye for everything that was done, and an ear for everything that was said — and sharp ones, too. Near him were the singers : receiving, with professional indifTerence, the compliments of the com- pany, and applying themselves, in turn, to a dozen prof- fered glasses of spirits and water, tendered by their morcf boisterous admirers ; whose countenances, expressive of almost every vice in almost every grade, irresistibly attracted the attention, by their very repulsiveness. Cun- ning, ferocity, and drunkenness in all its stages, were; there, in their strongest aspects ; and women : some with the last lingering tinge of their early freshness almost fading as you looked : others with every mark and stamp of their sex utterly beaten out, and presenting but one loathsome blank of profligacy and crime; some mere giris, others but young women, and none past the prime of life ; formed the darkest and saddest portion of this dreary picture. Fagin, troubled by no grave emotions, looked eagerly from face to face while these proceedings were in pro- gress; but apparently without meeting that of which he was in search. Succeeding, at length, in catching the eye of the man who occupied the chair, he beckoned to him slightly, and left the room, as quietly as he had I entered it. "What can I do for you, Mr. Fagin?" inquired the man, as he followed him out to the landing. " Won't you join us? They'll be delighted, every one of 'em." The Jew shook his head impatiently, and said in a whisper, ** Is he here?" " No," replied the man. ** And no news of Barney?" inquired Fagin. "None," replied the landlord of the Cripples; for it was he. " He won't stir till it's all safe. Depend on it, they're on the scent down there; and that if he moved, he'd blow upon the thing at once. He's all right enough, Barney is, else I should have heard of him. I'll pound it, that Barney's managing properly. Let him alone for that." " Will he be here to-night?" asked the Jew, laying the came emphasis on the pronoun as before. Oliver Twist 185 " Monks, do you mean?" inquired the landlord, hesitat- ing:. " Hush!" said the Jew. ''Yes." " Certain," replied the man, d-rawing a gold watch from his fob; " I expected him here before now. If you'll wait ten minutes, he'll be " " No, no," said the Jew, hastily; as though, however desirous he might be to see the person in question, he was nevertheless relieved by his absence. ** Tell him I came here to see him ; and that he must come to me to-night. No, say to-morrow. As he is not here, to-morrow will be time enough." " Good !" said the man. " Nothing more?" '* Not a word now," said the Jew, descending the stairs. *' I say," said the other, looking over the rails, and speaking in a hoarse whisper; "what a time this would be for a sell ! I've got Phil Barker here : so drunk, that a boy might take him." ** Aha ! But it's not Phil Barker's time," said the Jew, looking up. '* Phi! has something more to do, before we can afford to part with him ; so go back to the company, my dear, and tell them to lead merry lives — while they last. Ha! ha! ha!" The landlord reciprocated the old man's laugh; and returned to his guests. The Jew was no sooner alone, than his countenance resumed its former expression of anxiety and thought. After a brief reflection, he called a hack cabriolet, and bade the man drive towards Bethnal Green. He dismissed him within some quarter of a mile of Mr. Sikes's residence, and performed the short re- mainder of the distance on foot. *' Now," muttered the Jew, as he knocked at the door, " if there is any deep play here. I shall have it out of you, my girl, cunning as you are." She was in her room, the woman said. Fagin crept softly up stairs, and entered it without any previous cere- mony. The girl was alone ; lying with her head upon the table, and her hair straggling over it. " She has been drinking," thought the Jew, coolly, *' or perhaps she is only miserable." The old man turned to close the door, as he made this reflection; the noise thus occasioned, roused the girl. She eyed his crafty face narrowly, as she inquired whether there was any news, and as she listened to his recital of Toby 1 86 Oliver Twist Crackit's story. When it was concluded, she sank into her former attitude, but spoke not a word. She pushed the candle impatiently away; and once or twice as she feverishly changed her position, shuffled her feet upon the ground ; but this was all. During the silence, the Jew looked restlessly about the room, as if to assure himself that there were no appear- ances of Sikes having covertly returned. Apparently satis- fied with his inspection, he coughed twice or thrice, and made as many efforts to open a conversation ; but the girl heeded him no more than if he had been made of stone. At length he made another attempt ; and rubbing his hands together, said, in his most conciliatory tone, " And where should you think Bill was now, my dear?" The girl moaned out some half intelligible reply, that she could not tell ; and seemed, from the smothered noise |' that escaped her, to be crying. !' " And the boy, too," said the Jew, straining his eyes |' to catch a glimpse of her face. ** Poor leetle child 1 Left in a ditch, Nance ; only think !" " The child," said the girl, suddenly looking up, " is better where he is, than among us; and if no harm comes to Bill from it, I hope he lies dead in the ditch, and that his young bones may rot there." '* What!" cried the Jew, in amazement. ** Ay, I do," returned the girl, meeting his gaze. " I shall be glad to have him away from my eyes, and to know that the worst is over. I can't bear to have him about me. The sight of him turns me against myself, and all of you." "Pooh!" said the Jew, scornfully. "You're drunk." "Am I?" cried the girl, bitterly. "It's no fault of yours, if I am not! You'd never have me anything else, if you had your will, except now; — the humour doesn't suit you, doesn't it?" " No!" rejoined the Jew, furiously. " It does not." " Change it, then !" responded the girl, with a laugh. "Change it!" exclaimed the Jew, exasperated beyond all bounds by his companion's unexpected obstinacy, and the vexation of the night, " I will change it ! Listen to me, vou drab. Listen to me, who with six words, can strangle Sikes as surely as if I had his bull's throat be- tween my fingers now. If he comes back, and leaves the boy behind him ! if he gets off free, and dead or alive, Oliver Twist 187 ■ails to restore him to me; murder him yourself if you would have him escape Jack Ketch. And do it the moment ixe sets foot in this room, or mind me, it will be too late !" " What is all this?" cried the girl involuntarily. *' What is it?" pursued Fagin, mad with rage. ' When the boy's worth hundreds of pounds to me, am [ to lose what chance threw me in the way of getting safely, :hrough the ^hims of a drunken gang that I could whistle away the lives of ! And me bound, too, to a born devil ihat only wants the will, and has the power to, to " Panting for breath, the old man stammered for a word ; ind in that instant checked the torrent of his wrath, and hanged his whole demeanour. A moment before, his :lenched hands had grasped the air; his eyes had dilated; md his face grown livid with passion ; but now, he shrunk nto a chair, and, cowering together, trembled with the apprehension of having himself disclosed some hidden irillany. After a short silence, he ventured to look round It his companion. He appeared somewhat reassured, on Deholding her in the same listless attitude from which he tiad first roused her. ** Nancy, dear!" croaked the Jew, in his usual voice. '* Did you mind me, dear?" " Don't worry me now, Fagin !" replied the girl, raising aer head languidly. " If Bill has not done it this time, he will another. He has done many a good job for you, and will do many more when he can; and when he can't he won't; so no more about that." *' Regarding this boy, my dear?" said the Jew, rubbing the palms of his hands nervously together. "The boy must take his chance with the rest," inter- rupted Nancy, hastily; "and I say again, I hope he is dead, and out of harm's way, and out of yours — that is, if Bill comes to no harm. And if Toby got clear off. Bill's pretty sure to be safe; for Bill's worth two of Toby any time." " And about what I was saying, my dear?" observed the Jew, keeping his glistening eye steadily upon her. " You must say it all over again, if it's anything you want me to do," rejoined Nancy; " and if it is, you had better wait till to-morrow. You put me up for a minute ; but now I'm stupid again." Fagin put several other questions : all with the same drift ot ascertaining whether the girl had profited by his un- 1 88 Oliver Twist guarded hints ; but, she answered them so readily, and was withal so utterly unmoved by his searching looks, that his original impression of her being more than a trifle in liquor, was confirmed. Nancy, indeed, was not exempt from a failing which was very common among the Jew's female pupils ; and in which, in their tenderer years, they were rather encouraged than checked. Her disordered appearance, and a wholesale perfume of Geneva which per- vaded the apartment, afforded strong confirmatory evi- dence of the justice of the Jew's supposition; and when, after indulging in the temporary display of violence above described, she subsided, first into dulness, and afterwards into a compound of feelings : under the influence of which she shed tears one minute, and in the next gave utter- ance to various exclamations of "Never say die!" and divers calculations as to what might be the amount of the odds so long as a lady or gentleman was happy, Mr. Fagin, who had had considerable experience of such matters in his time, saw, with great satisfaction, that she was very far gone indeed. Having eased his mind by this discovery; and having accomplished his twofold object of imparting to the gir* what he had, that night, heard, and of ascertaining, with! his own eyes, that Sikes had not returned, Mr. Fagin again turned his face homeward : leaving his young friend asleep,) with her head upon the table. It was within an hour of midnight. The weather being dark, and piercing cold, he had no great temptation tc loiter. The sharp wind that scoured the streets, seemed tc have cleared them of passengers, as of dust and mud, for few people were abroad, and they were to all appearance hastening fast home. It blew from the right quarter for the Jew, however, and straight before it he went : tremb- ling, and shivering, as every fresh gust drove him rudel> on his way. He had reached the corner of his own street, and was already fumbling in his pocket for the door-key, when a dark figure emerged from a projecting entrance which laj in deep shadow, and, crossing the road, glided up to him un perceived. " Fagin !" whispered a voice close to his ear. "Ah!" said the Jew, turning quickly round, "is that " " Yes !*' interrupted the stranger. ** I have been linger- Oliver Twist 189 irjcr here these two hours. Where the devil have you been ? ' ' " On your business, my dear," replied the Jew, glanc- w^ uneasily at his companion, and slackening his pace as be ;spoke. ** On your business all night." '" Oh, of course!" said the stranger, with a sneer» ** Well ; and what's come of it?" ** Nothing good," said the Jew. " Nothing bad, I hope?" said the stranger, stopping short, and turning a startled look on his companion. 1'he Jew shook his head, and was about to reply, whei? the stranger, interrupting him, motioned to the house, before which they had by this time arrived : remarking, that he had better say what he had got to say, undei cover : for his blood was chilled with standing about so long, and the wind blew through him. Fagin looked as if he could have willingly excused him- self from taking home a visitor at that unseasonable hour ; and, indeed, muttered something about having no fire ; but his companion repeating his request in a peremptory manner, he unlocked the door, and requested him to close it softly, while he got a light. " It's as dark as the grave," said the man, groping for- ward a few steps. *' Make haste !" " Shut the door," whispered Fagin from the end of the passage. As he spoke, it closed with a loud noise. " That wasn't my doing," said the other man, feeling his way. ** The wind blew it to, or it shut of its own accord : one or the other. Look sharp with the light, or 1 shall knock my brains out against something in this con- founded hole. " Fagin stealthily descended the kitchen stairs. After a short absence, he returned with a lighted candle, and the intelligence that Toby Crackit was asleep in the back room below, and that the boys were in the front one. Beckoning the man to follow him, he led the way up stairs. " We can say the few words we've got to say in here, my dear," said the Jew, throwing open a door on the first floor; "and as there are holes in the shutters, and we never show lights to our neighbours, we'll set the candle on the stairs. There !" With those words, the Jew, stooping down, placed th« candle on an upper flight of stairs, exactly opposite to the room door. This done, he led the way into the apartment ; 190 Oliver Twist which was destitute of all moveables save a broken arm- chair, and an old couch or sofa without covering, which stood behind the door. Upon this piece of furniture, the stranger sat himself with the air of a weary man ; and the Jew, drawing up the arm-chair opposite, they sat face to face. It was not quite dark ; the door was partially open ; and the candle outside, threw a feeble reflection on the' opposite wall. They conversed for some time in whispers. Though nothing of the conversation was distinguishable beyond a: few disjointed words here and there, a listener might easily have perceived that Fagin appeared to be defending himself against some remarks of the stranger; and that the latter was in a state of considerable irritation. They might have been talking, thus, for a quarter of an hour or more, when Monks — by which name the Jew had designated the strange man several times in the course of their colloquy — said, raising his voice a little, ** I tell you again, it was badly planned. Why not have kept him here among the rest, and made a sneaking, snivelling pickpocket of him at once?" "Only hear him!" exclaimed the Jew, shrugging his shoulders. " Why, do you mean to say you couldn't have done it, if you had chosen?" demanded Monks, sternly. " Haven't you done it, with other boys, scores of times? If you had had patience for a twelvemonth, at most, couldn't you have got him convicted, and sent safely out of the kingdom ; per- haps for life?" " Whose turn would that have served, my dear?" in- quired the Jew humbly. *' Mine," replied Monks. *' But not mine," said the Jew, submissively. ** He might have become of use to me. When there are two parties to a bargain, it is only reasonable that the interests of both should be consulted ; is it, my good friend?" *• What then?" demanded Monks. ** I saw it was not easy to train him to the business," replied the Jew; ** he was not like other boys in the same circumstancei^.'* "Curse him, no!" muttered the man, "or he would have been a thief, long ago." " I had no hold upon him to make him worse," pursued the Jew, anxiously watching the countenance of his com- Oliver Twist 191 panion. ** His hand was not in. I had nothing to frighten him with ; which we always must have in the beginning, or we labour in vain. What could I do? Send him out with the Dodger and Charley? We had enough of that, at first, my dear; I trembled for us all." ** That was not my doing," observed Monks. ** No, no, my dear!" renewed the Jew. " And I don't quarrel with it now; because, if it had never happened, you might never have clapped eyes upon the boy to notice him, and so led to the discovery that it was him you were looking for. Well ! I got him back for you by means of the girl; and then she begins to favour him." " Throttle the girl !" said Monks, impatiently. ** Why, we can't afford to do that just now, my dear," replied the Jew, smilinq;' ; " and, besides, that sort of thing is not in our way; or, one of these days, I might be glad to have it done. I know what these girls are. Monks, jwell. As soon as the boy begins to harden, she'll care no imore for him, than for a block of wood. You want him made a thief. If he is alive, I can make him one from this [time; and if- — if — "said the Jew, drawing nearer to the other, — " it's not likely, mind, — but if the worst comes to the worst, and he is dead " ** It's no fault of mine if he is!" interposed the other man, with a look of terror, and clasping the Jew's arm with trembling hands. " Mind that, Faein ! I had no hand in it. Anything but his death, I told you from the first. I won't shed blood ; it's always found out, and haunts a man besides. If they shot him dead, I was not the cause; do you hear me? Fire this infernal den ! What's that?" '* What !" cried the Jew, grasping the coward round the body, with both arms, as he sprung to his feet. " Where ?'^ "Yonder!" replied the man, glaring at the opposite wall. " The shadow ! I saw the shadow of a woman, in a cloak and bonnet, pass along the wainscot like a breath !"^ The Jew released his hold, and they rushed tumultuously from the room. The candle, wasted by the draught, was standing where it had been placed. It showed them only the empty staircase, and their own white faces. They listened intently : a profound silence reigned throughout the house. ** It's your fancy," said the Jew, taking up the light and turning to his companion. 192 Oliver Twist " ril swear I saw it!" replied Monks trembling. " It •was bending forward when I saw it first ; and when I spoke, it darted away." The Jew glanced contemptuously at the pale face of his :associate, and, telling him he could follow, if he pleased, -ascended the stairs. They looked into all the rooms ; they were cold, bare, and empty. They descended into the pas- -sage, and thence into the cellars below. The green damp hung upon the low walls ; the tracks of the snail and slug ,glistened in the light of the candle; but all was still as death. ** What do you think now?" said the Jew, when they had regained the passage. " Besides ouselves, there's not a •creature in the house except Toby and the boys ; and they're safe enough. See here!" As a proof of the fact, the Jew drew forth two keys from his pocket; and explained that when he first went down stairs, he had locked them in, to prevent any intrusion on the conference. This accumulated testimony effectually staggered Mr. Monks. His protestations had gradually become less and i 5ess vehement as they proceeded in their search without j making any discovery; and, now, he gave vent to several i very grim laughs, and confessed it could only have been his excited imagination. He declined any renewal of the conversation, however, for that night : suddenly remember- | ing that it was past one o'clock. And so the amiable i couple parted. CHAPTER XXVn ATONES FOR THE UNPOLITENESS OF A FORMER CHAPTER ; WHICH DESERTED A LADY, MOST UNCEREMONIOUSLY As it would be by no means seemly in a humble author to keep so mighty a personage as a beadle waiting, with his back to the fire, and the skirts of his coat gathered up under his arms, until such time as it might suit his pleasure to relieve him ; and as it would still less become his station, •or his gallantry, to involve in the same neglect a lady on whom that beadle had looked with an eye of tenderness and affection, and in whose ear he had whispered sweet words, which, coming from such a quarter, might well thrill the Oliver Twist 193 bclsbm of maid or matron of whatsoever degree; the his- torian whose pen traces these words — trusting that he knows his place, and that he entertains a becoming rever- ence for those upon earth to whom high and important authority is delegated — chastens to pay them that respect which their position demands, and to treat them with all that duteous ceremony which their exalted rank, and (by consequence) great virtues, imperatively claim at his hands. Towards this end, indeed, he had purposed to introduce, in this place, a dissertation touching the divine right of beadles, and elucidative of the position, that a beadle can do no wrong : which could not fail to have been both pleasurable and profitable to the right-minded reader, but which he is unfortunately compelled, by want of time and space, to postpone to some more convenient and fitting opportunity ; on the arrival of which, he will be prepared to show, that a beadle properly constituted : that is to say, a parochial beadle, attached to a parochial workhouse, and attending in his official capacity the parochial church : Is, in right and virtue of his office, possessed of all the excellences and best qualities of humanity; and that to none of those excellences, can mere companies' beadles, or court-of-law beadles, or even chapel-of-ease beadles (save the last, and they in a very lowly and inferior degree), lay the remotest sustainable claim. Mr. Bumble had re-counted the tea-spoons, re-weighed th6 sugar-tongs, made a closer inspection of the milk-pot, and ascertained to a nicety the exact condition of the furniture, down to the very horse-hair seats of the chairs; and had repeated each process full half-a-dozen times ; be- fore he began to think that it was time for Mrs. Corney to return. Thinking begets thinking; as there were no sounds of Mrs. Corney 's approach, it occurred to Mr. Bumble that it would be an innocent and virtuous way of spending the time, if he were further to allay his curiosity by a cursory glance at the interior of Mrs. Corney 's chest of drawers. Having listened at the keyhole, to assure himself that nobody was approaching the chamber, Mr. Bumble, begin- ning at the bottom, proceeded to make himself acquainted with the contents of the three long drawers : which, being filled with various garments of good fashion and texture, carefully preserved between two layers of old newspapers, speckled with dried lavender : seemed to yield him exceed- H 194 Oliver Twist ing- satisfaction. Arrivingf, in course of time, at the right- hand corner drawer (in which was the key), and beholding therein a small padlocked box, which, being shaken, gave forth a pleasant sound, as of the chinking of coin, Mr. Bumble returned with a stately walk to the fireplace ; and, resuming his old attitude, said, with a grave and deter- mined air, '* I'll do it !" He followed up this remarkable declaration, by shaking his head in a waggish manner for ten minutes, as though he were remonstrating with himself for being such a pleasant dog ; and then, he took a view of his legs in profile, with much seeming pleasure and interest. He was still placidly engaged in this latter survey, when Mrs. Corney, hurrying into the room, threw herself, in a breathless state, on a chair by the fireside, and covering her eyes with one hand, placed the other over her heart, and gasped for breath. " Mrs. Corney," said Mr. Bumble, stooping over the matron, " what is this, ma'am? Has anything happened, ma'am? Pray answer me; I'm on — on " Mr. Bumble, in his alarm, could not immediately think of the word '* tenter-hooks," so he said ** broken bottles." " Oh, Mr. Bumble!" cried the lady, " I have been so dreadfully put out !" " Put out, ma'am !" exclaimed Mr. Bum.ble ; *' who has dared to ? I know !" said Mr. Bumble, checking him- self, with native majesty, " this is them wicious paupers !" *' It's dreadful to think of !" said the lady, shuddering. ** Then don't think of it, ma'am," rejoined Mr. Bumble. ** I can't help it," whimpered the lady. *' Then take something, ma'am," said Mr. Bumble soothingly. "A little of the wine?" " Not for the world !" replied Mrs. Corney. ** I couldn't, — oh! The top shelf in the right-hand corner — oh!" Uttering these words, the good lady pointed, distractedly, to the cupboard, and underwent a convulsion from internal spasms. Mr. Bumble rushed to the closet; and, snatching a pint green-glass bottle from the shelf thus incoherently indicated, filled a tea-cup with its contents, and held it to the lady's lips. "I'm better now," said Mrs. Corney, falling back, after drinking half of it. Mr. Bumble raised his eyes piously to the ceiling in thankfulness ; and, bringing them down again to the brim of the cup, lifted it to his nose. Oliver Twist 195 '* Peppermint," exclaimed Mrs. Corney, in a famt voice, smiling gently on the beadle as she spoke. *' Try it ! There's a little — a little something else in it." Mr. Bumble tasted the medicine with a doubtful look ; smacked his lips; took another taste; and put the cup down empty. ** It's very comforting," said Mrs. Corney. "Very much so indeed, ma'am," said the beadle. As he spoke, he drew a chair beside the matron, and tenderly inquired what had happened to distress her. *' Nothing," replied Mrs. Corney. ** I am a foolish, excitable, weak creetur. " " Not weak, ma'am," retorted Mr. Bumble, drawing his chair a little closer. "Are you a weak creetur, Mrs. Corney?" " We are all weak creeturs," said Mrs. Corney, laying down a general principle. "So we are," said the beadle. Nothing was said, on either side, for a minute or two afterwards. By the expiration of that time, Mr. Bumble had illustrated the position by removing his left arm from the back of Mrs. Corney *s chair, where it had previously rested, to Mrs. Corney 's apron-string, round which it gradually became entwined. " We are all weak creeturs," said Mr. Bumble. Mrs. Corney sighed. " Don't sigh, Mrs. Corney," said Mr. Bumble. " I can't help it," said Mrs. Corney. And she sighed again. " This is a very comfortable room, ma'am," said Mr. Bumble, looking round. " Another room, and this, ma'am, would be a complete thing." " It would be too much for one," murmured the lady. " But not for two, ma'am," rejoined Mr. Bumble, in soft accents. " Eh, Mrs. Corney?" Mrs. Corney drooped her head, when the beadle said this ; the beadle drooped his, to get a view of Mrs. Cor- ney 's face. Mrs. Corney, with great propriety, turned her head away, and released her hand to get at her pocket- handkerchief; but insensibly replaced it in that of Mr. Bumble. " The board allow you coals, don't they, Mrs. Corney?" inquired the beadle, affectionately pressing her hand. 196 Oliver Twist " And candles," replied Mrs. Corney, slightly return- ing the pressure. " Coals, candles, and house-rent free," said Mr. Bumble. ** Oh, Mrs. Corney, what a Angel you are!" The lady was not proof against this burst of feeling. She sank into Mr. Bumble's arms ; and that gentleman in his agitation, imprinted a passionate kiss upon her chaste nose. "Such porochial perfection!" exclaimed Mr. Bumble, rapturously. " You know that Mr. Slout is worse to- night, my fascinator?" " Yes," replied Mrs. Corney, bashfully. " He can't live a week, the doctor says," pursued Mr. Bumble. ** He is the master of this establishment; his death will cause a wacancy : that wacancy must be filled up. Oh, Mrs. Corney, what a prospect this opens ! What a opportunity for a jining of hearts and housekeep- ings!" Mrs. Corney sobbed. **The little word?" said Mr. Bumble, bending over the bashful beauty. " The one little, httle, little wor.d, my blessed Corney?" ' * Ye — ye — yes ! ' ' sighed out the matron. " One more," pursued the beadle; *' compose your dar- ling feelings for only one more. When is it to come off?" Mrs. Corney twice essayed to speak : and twice failed. At length summoning up courage, she threw her arms round Mr. Bumble's neck, and said, it might be as soon as ever he pleased, and that he was ** a irresistible duck. " Matters being thus amicably and satisfactorily arranged, the contract was solemnly ratified in another teacupful of the peppermint mixture; which was rendered the more necessary, by the flutter and agitation of the lady's spirits. While it was being disposed of, she acquainted Mr. Bumble with the old Vv^oman's decease. '* Very good," said that gentleman, sipping his pepper- mint; ** I'll call at Sowerberry's as I go home, and tell him to send to-morrow morning. Was it that as frightened you, love?" " It wasn't anything particular, dear," said the lady, evasively. ** It must have been something, love," urged Mr. Bumble. "Won't you tell your own B. ?" Oliver Twist 197 "Not now," rejoined the lady; "one of these days. After we're married, dear." "After we're married!" exclaimed Mr. Bumble. "It wasn't any impudence from any of them male paupers as " "No, no, love!" interposed the lady, hastily. " If I thought it was," continued Mr. Bumble; " if 1 thought as any one of 'em had dared to lift his wulgar eyes to that lovely countenance " " They wouldn't have dared to do it, love," responded the lady. "They had better not!" said Mr. Bumble, clenching his fist. " Let me see any man, porochial or extra- porochial, as would presume to do it; and I can tell him that he wouldn't do it a second time !" Unembellished by any violence of gesticulation, this might have seemed no very high compliment to the lady's charms ; but, as Mr. Bumble accompanied the threat with many warlike gestures, she was much touched with this proof of his devotion, and protested, with great admiration, that he was indeed a dove. The dove then turned up his coat-collar, and put on his cocked hat; and, having exchanged a long and affectionate embrace with his future partner, once again braved the cold wind of the night : merely pausing, for a few minutes, in the male paupers' ward, to abuse them a little, with the view of satisfying himself that he could fill the office of workhouse-master with needful acerbity. Assured of his qualifications, Mr. Bumble left the building with a light heart, and bright visions of his future promotion : which served to occupy his mind until he reached the shop of the undertaker. Now, Mr. and Mrs. Sowerberry having gone out to tea and supper : and Noah Claypole not being at any time disposed to take upon himself a greater amount of physical exertion than is necessary to a convenient performance of the two functions of eating and drinking, the shop was not closed, although it was past the usual hour of shutting-up. Mr. Bumble tapped with his cane on the counter several times ; but, attracting no attention, and beholding a light shining through the glass-window of the little parlour at the back of the shop, he made bold to peep in and see what was going forward ; and when he saw what was going forward, he was not a little surprised. 198 Oliver Twist The cloth was laid for supper ; the table was covered with bread and butter, plates and glasses ; a porter-pot and a wine-bottle. At the upper end of the table, Mr. Noah Claypole lolled negligently in an easy-chair, with his legs thrown over one of the arms : an open clasp-knife in one hand, and a mass of buttered bread in the other. Close beside him stood Charlotte, opening oysters from a barrel : which Mr. Claypole condescended to swallow, with remark- able avidity. A more than ordinary redness in the region of the young gentleman's nose, and a kind of fixed wink in his right eye, denoted that he was in a slight degree intoxicated ; these symptoms were confirmed by the intense relish with which he took his oysters, for which nothing but a strong appreciation of their cooling properties, in cases of internal fever, could have sufficiently accounted. '* Here's a delicious fat one, Noah, dear!" said Char- lotte; "try him, do; only this one." "What a delicious thing is a oyster!" remarked Mr. Claypole, after he had swallowed it. " What a pity it is, a number of 'em should ever make you feel uncomfortable ; isn't it, Charlotte?" " It's quite a cruelty," said Charlotte. " So it is," acquiesced Mr. Claypole. " A'nt yer fond of oysters ? " " Not overmuch," replied Charlotte. *' I like to see you eat 'em, Noah dear, better than eating 'em myself." " Lor' !" said Noah, reflectively; " how queer !" " Have another," said Charlotte. " Here's one with such a beautiful, delicate beard !" " I can't manage any more," said Noah. "I'm very sorry. Come here, Charlotte, and I'll kiss yer." "What!" said Mr. Bumble, bursting into the room. ** Say that again, sir." Charlotte uttered a scream, and hid her face in her apron. Mr. Claypole, without making any further change in his position than suffering his legs to reach the ground, gazed at the beadle in drunken terror. " Say it again, you wile, owdacious fellow!" said Mr. Bumble. " How dare you mention such a thing, sifr? And how dare you encourage him, you insolent minx? Kiss her!" exclaimed Mr. Bumble, in strong Indignation. "Faugh!" "I didn't mean to do it!" said Noah, blubbering. " She's always a-kissing of me, whether I like it, or not." Oliver Twist 199 '* Oh, Noah," cried Charlotte, reproachfully. *' Yer are; yer know yer are !" retorted Noah. ** She's always a-doin' of it. Mr. Bumble, sir; she chucks me under the chin, please, sir; and makes all manner of love !" '* Silence !" cried Mr. Bumble, sternly. *' Take yourself down-stairs, ma'am. Noah, you shut up the shop; say another word till your master comes home, at your peril ; and, when he does come home, tell him that Mr. Bumble said he was to send a old woman's shell after breakfast to-morrow morning. Do you hear, sir? Kissing !" cried Mr. Bumble, holding up his hands. ** The sin and wicked- ness of the lower orders in this porochial district is fright- ful ! If parliament don't take their abominable courses under consideration, this country's ruined, and the char- acter of the peasantry gone for ever !" With these words, the beadle strode, with a lofty and gloomy air, from the undertaker's premises. And now that we have accompanied him so far on his road home, and have made all necessary preparations for the old woman's funeral, let us set on foot a few inquiries after young Oliver Twist, and ascertain whether he be still lying in the ditch where Toby Crackit left him. CHAPTER XXVIII LOOKS AFTER OLIVER, AND PROCEEDS WITH HIS ADVENTURES "Wolves tear your throats!" muttered Sikes, grinding his teeth. "I wish I was among some of you; you'd howl the hoarser for it." As Sikes growled forth this imprecation, with the most desperate ferocity that his desperate nature was capable of, he rested the body of the wounded boy across his bended knee; and turned his head, for an instant, to look back at his pursuers. There was little to be made out, in the mist and dark- ness ; but the loud shouting of men vibrated through the air, and the barking of the neighbouring dogs, roused bv the sound of the alarm bell, resounded in every direction. "Stop, you white-livered hound!" cried the robber, sfiouting after Toby Crackit, who, making the best use of his long legs, was already ahead. ** Stop!" 200 Oliver Twist The repetition of the word, brought Toby to a dead standstill. For he was not quite satisfied that he was beyond the range of pistol-shot ; and Sikes was in no mood to be played with. " Bear a hand with the boy," cri^.d Sikes, beckoning furiously to his confederate. "Come back!" Toby made a show of returning; but ventured, in a low voice, broken for want of breath, to intimate considerable reluctance as he came slowly along. " Quicker !" cried Sikes, laying the boy in a dry ditch at his feet, and drawing a pistol from his pocket. " Don't play booty with me." At this moment the noise grew louder. Sikes, again looking round, could discern that the men who had given chase were already climbing the gate of the field in which he stood ; and that a couple of dogs were some paces in advance of them. "It's all up, Bill!" cried Toby; "drop the kid, and show 'em your heels." With this parting advice, Mr. Crackit, preferring the chance of being shot by his friend, to the certainty of being taken by his enemies, fairly turned tail, and darted off at full speed. Sikes clenched his teeth; took one look around; threw over the prostrate form of Oliver the cape in which he had been hurriedly muffled ; ran along the front of the hedge, as if to distract the atten- tion of those behind, from the spot where the boy lay; paused, for a second, before another hedge which met it at right angles ; and whirling his pistol high into the air, cleared it at a bound, and was gone. " Ho, ho, there!" cried a tremulous voice in the rear. *' Pincher ! Neptune! Come here, come here!" The dogs, who, in common with their masters, seemed to have no particular relish for the sport in which they were engaged, readily answered to the command. Three men, who had by this time advanced some distance into the field, stopped to take counsel together. " My advice, or, leastways, I should say, my orders, is," said the fattest man of the party, " that we 'mediately go home again." " I am agreeable to anything which is agreeable to Mr. Giles," said a shorter man; who was by no means of a slim figure, and who was very pale in the face, and very polite : as frightened men frequently are. " I shouldn't wish to appear ill-mannered, gentlemen," Oliver Twist 201 said the third, who had called the dogs back, * ' Mr. Giles ought to know." ■*' Certainly," replied the shorter man; *' and whatever Mr. Giles says, it isn't our place to contradict him. No, no, I know my sitiwation ! Thank my stars, I know my sitiwation." To tell the truth, the little man did seem to know his situation, and to know perfectly well that it was by no means a desirable one ; for his teeth chattered in his head as he. spoke. "You are afraid, Brittles," said Mr. Giles. " I a'n't," said Brittles. . ■• "You are," said Giles. ** You're a falsehood, Mr. Giles," said Brittles. "You're a He, Brittles," said Mr. Giles. Now, these four retorts arose from Mr. Gileses taunt; and Mr. Giles's taunt had arisen from his indignation at having the responsibility of going home again, imposed upon himself under cover of a compliment. The third man brought the dispute to a close, most philosophically. " I'll tell you what it is, gentlemen," said he-, " we're all afraid." " Speak for yourself, sir," said Mr. Giles, who was the palest of the party. "So I do," replied the man. " It's natural and proper to be afraid, under such circumstances. I am." " So am I," said Brittles; " only there's no call to tell a man he is, so bounceably. " These frank admissions softened Mr. Giles, who at once owned that he was afraid; upon which, they all three faced about, and ran back again with the completest unanimity, until Mr. Giles (who had the shortest wind of the party, and was encumbered with a pitchfork) most handsomely insisted on stopping, to make an apology for his hastiness of speech. " But it's wonderful," said Mr.^ Giles, when he had ex- plained, "what a man will do, when his blood is up. I should have committed murder— I know / should— if we'd caught one of them rascals/" As the other two were impressed with a similar presenti- ment; and as their blood, like his, had all gone down again ; some speculation ensued upon the cause of this sudden change in their temperament. " I know what it was," said Mr. Giles; " it was the gate." \ ' 202 Oliver Twist •• I shouldn't wonder if it was," exclaimed Brittles, catching at the idea. ' You may depend upon it," said Giles, '* that that gate btopped the flow of the excitement. I felt all mine sud- denly going away, as I was climbing over it." By a remarkable coincidence, the other two had been visited with the same unpleasant sensation at that precise moment. It was quite obvious, therefore, that it was the gate ; especially as there was no doubt regarding the time at which the change had taken place, because all three remembered that they had come in sight of the robbers at the instant of its occurrence. This dialogue was held between the two men who had surprised the burglars, and a travelling tinker who had been sleeping in an outhouse, and who had been roused, together with his two mongrel curs, to join in the pursuit. Mr. Giles acted in the double capacity of butler and steward to the old lady of the mansion ; Brittles was a lad of all- work : who, having entered her service a mere child, was treated as a promising young boy still, though he was something past thirty. Encouraging each other with such converse as this ; but, keeping very close together, notwithstanding, and looking apprehensively round, whenever a fresh gust rattled through the boughs ; the three men hurried back to a tree, behind which they had left their lantern, lest its light should inform the thieves in what direction to fire. Catching up the light, they made the best of their way home, at a good round trot ; and long after their dusky forms had ceased to be discernible, the light might have been seen twinkling and dancing in the distance, like some exhalation of the damp and gloomy atmosphere through which it was swiftly borne. The air grew colder, as day came slowly on ; and the mist rolled along the ground like a dense cloud of smoke. The grass was wet; the pathways, and low places, were all mire and water ; the damp breath of an unwholesome wind went languidly by, with a hollow moaning. Still, Oliver lay motionless and insensible on the spot where Sikes had left him. Morning drew on apace. The air became more sharp and piercing, as its first dull hue — the death of night, rather than the birth of day — glimmered faintly in the sky. The objects which had looked dim and terrible in the dark- Oliver Twist 203 ness, grew more and more defined, and gradually resolved into their familiar shapes. The rain came down, thick and fast, and pattered noisily among the leafless bushes. But Oliver felt it not, as it beat against him ; for he still lay stretched, helpless and unconscious, on his bed of clay. At length, a low cry of pain broke the stillness that prevailed ; and uttering it, the boy awoke. His left arm, rudely bandaged in a shawl, hung heavy and useless at his side : the bandage was saturated with blood. He was so weak, that he could scarcely raise himself into a sitting posture ; when he had done so, he looked feebly round for help, and groaned with pain. Trembling in every joint, from cold and exhaustion, he made an effort to stand upright ; but, shuddering from head to foot, fell prostrate on the ground. .After a short return of the stupor in which he had been so long plunged, Oliver : urged by a creeping sickness at his heart, which seemed to warn him that if he lay there, he must surely die : got upon his feet, and essayed to walk. His head was dizzy, and he staggered to and fro like a drunken man. But he kept up, nevertheless, and, with his head drooping languidly on his breast, went stumbling onward, he knew not whither. And now, hosts of bewildering and confused ideas came crowding on his mind. He seemed to be still walking between Sikes and Crackit, who were angrily disputing — for the very words they said, sounded in his ears; and when he caught his own attention, as it were, by making some violent effort to save himself from falling, he found that he was talking to them. Then, he was alone with Sikes, plodding on as on the previous day ; and as shadowy people passed them, he felt the robber's grasp upon his wrist. Suddenly, he started back at the report of fire-arms ; there rose into the air, loud cries and shouts ; lights gleamed before his eyes ; all was noise and tumult, as some unseen hand bore him hurriedly away. Through all thes? rapid visions, there ran an undefined, uneasy consciousness of pain, which wearied and tormented him incessantly. ^Thus he staggered on, creeping, almost mechanically, between the bars of gates, or through hedge-gaps as they came in his way, until he reached a road. Here the rain began to fall so heavily, that it roused him. He looked about, and saw that at no great distance there was a house, which perhaps he could reach. Pitying his 204 Oliver Twist condition, they might have compassion on him ; and if they did not, it would be better, he thought, to die near human beings, than in the lonely open fields. He sum- moned up all his strength for one last trial, and bent his faltering steps towards it. As he drew nearer to this house, a feeling came over him that he had seen it before. He remembered nothing of its details ; but the shape and aspect of the building seemed familiar to him. That garden wall ! On the grass inside, he had fallen on his knees last night, and prayed the two men's mercy. It was the very house they had attempted to rob. Oliver felt such fear come over him when he recognised the place, that, for the instant, he forgot the agony of his wound, and thought only of flight. Flight ! He could scarcely stand : and if he were in full possession of all the best powers of his slight and youthful frame, whither could he fly ? He pushed against the garden-gate ; it was un- locked, and swung open on its hinges. He tottered across the lawn ; climbed the steps ; knocked faintly at the door ; and, his whole strength failing him, sunk down against one of the pillars of the little portico. It happened that about this time, Mr. Giles, Brittles, and the tinker, were recruiting themselves, after the fatigues and terrors of the night, with tea and sundries, in the kitchen. Not that it was Mr. Giles's habit to admit to too great familiarity the humbler servants : towards whom it was rather his wont to deport himself with a lofty affability, which, while it gratified, could not fail to remind them of his superior position in society. But death, fires, and burglary, make all men equals ; so Mr. Giles sat with his legs stretched out before the kitchen fender, leaning his left arm on the table, while, with his right, he illus- trated a circumstantial and minute account of the robbery, to which his hearers (but especially the cook and house- maid, who were of the party) listened with breathless interest. "It was about half-past two," said Mr. Giles, ** or I wouldn't swear that it mightn't have been a little near,er three, when I woke up, and, turning round in my bed, as it might be so, (here Mr. Giles turned round in his chair, and pulled the corner of the table-cloth over him to imitate bed-clothes,) I fancied I heerd a noise." At this point of the narrative the cook turned pale, and Oliver Twist 205 asked the housemaid to shut the door : who asked Brittles, who asked the tinker, who pretended not to hear. " — Heerd a noise," continued Mr. Giles. " I says, at first, 'This is illusion;* and was composing myself off to sleep, when I heerd the noise again, distinct." *' What sort of a noise?" asked the cook. " A kind of a busting noise," replied Mr. Giles, looking round him. " More like the noise of powdering a iron bar on a nutmeg-grater," suggested Brittles. ** It was, when you heerd it, sir," rejoined Mr. Giles; ** but, at this time, it had a busting sound. I turned down the clothes;" continued Giles, rolling back the table-cloth, " sat up in bed ; and listened." The cook and housemaid simultaneously ejaculated **Lor!" and drew their chairs closer together. ** I heerd it now, quite apparent," resumed Mr. Giles. ** * Somebody,' I says, ' is forcing of a door or window; what's to be done? I'll call up that poor lad, Brittles, and save him from being murdered in his bed ; or his throat, ' I says, * may be cut from his right ear to his left, without his ever knowing it.' " Here, all eyes were turned upon Brittles, who fixed his upon the speaker, and stared at him, with his mouth wide open, and his face expressive of the most unmitigated horror. *' I tossed off the clothes," said Giles, throwing away the table-cloth, and looking very hard at the cook and housemaid, "got softly out of bed; drew on a pair of " " Ladies present, Mr. Giles," murmured the tinker. ** — Of shoes, sir," said Giles, turning upon him, and laying great emphasis on the word ; * * seized the loaded pistol that always goes up stairs with the plate-basket; and walked on tiptoes to his room. ' Brittles,' I says, when I had woke him, ' don't be frightened !' " " So you did," observed Brittles, in a low voice. ** * We're dead men, I think, Brittles,' I says," continued Giles; " * but don't be frightened.' " " Was he frightened?" asked the cook. ** Not a bit of it," replied Mr. Giles. " He was as firm —ah ! pretty near as firm as I was." " I should have died at once, I'm sure, if it had been me," observed the housemaid. 2o6 Oliver Twist *' You're a woman," retorted Brittles, plucking up a little. " Brittles is right," said Mr. Giles, nodding his head, approvingly; *' from a woman, nothing else was to be ex- pected. VVe, being men, took a dark t-^ntern that was standing on Brittles 's hob, and groped our way down stairs in the pitch dark, — as it might be so." Mr. Giles had risen from his seat, and taken two steps with his eyes shut, to accompany his description with ap- propriate action, when he started violently, in common with the rest of the company, and hurried back to his chair. The cook and housemaid screamed. ** It was a knock," said Mr. Giles, assuming perfect serenity. "Open the door, somebody." Nobody moved. *' It seems a strange sort of a thing, a knock coming at such a time in the morning," said Mr. Giles, surveying the pale faces which surrounded him, and looking very blank himself; "but the door must be opened. Do you hear, somebody?" Mr. Giles, as he spoke, looked at Brittles ; but that young man, being naturally modest, probably considered himself nobody, and so held that the inquiry could not have any application to him ; at all events, he tendered no reply. Mr. Giles directed an appealing glance at the tinker ; but he had suddenly fallen asleep. The women were out of the question. ** If Brittles would rather open the door, in the presence of witnesses," said Mr. Giles, after a short silence, *' I am ready to make one." ** So am I," said the tinker, waking up, as suddenly as he had fallen asleep. Brittles capitulated on these terms ; and the party being somewhat re-assured by the discovery (made on throwing open the shutters) that it was now broad day, took their way up stairs; with the dogs in front. The two women, who were afraid to stay below, brought up the rear. By the advice of Mr. Giles, they all talked very loud, to warn any evil-disposed person outside, that they were strong in numbers ; and by a master-stroke of policy, originating in the brain of the same ingenious gentleman, the dogs' tails were well pinched, in the hall, to make them bark savagely. These precautions having been taken, Mr. Giles held on fast by the tinker's arm (to prevent his running away, as I Oliver Twist 207 he pleasantly said), and gave the word of command to open the door. Brittles obeyed ; the group, peeping timor- ously over each other's shoulders, beheld no more for- midable object than poor little Oliver Twist, speechless and exhausted, who raised his heavy eyes, and mutely solicited their compassion. " A boy !" exclaimed Mr. Giles, valiantly pushing the tinker into the background. " What's the matter with the — eh? — Why — Brittles — look here — don't you know?" Brittles, who had got behind the door to open it, no sooner saw Oliver, than he uttered a loud cry. Mr. Giles, seizing the boy by one leg and one arm (fortunately not the broken limb) lugged him straight into the hall, and de- posited him at full length on the floor thereof. *' Here he is !" bawled Giles, calling, in a state of great excitement, up the staircase; "here's one of the thieves, ma'am ! Here's a thief, miss ! Wounded, miss ! I shot him, miss; and Brittles held the light." ** — In a lantern, miss," cried Brittles, applying one hand to the side of his mouth, so that his voice might travel the better. The two women-servants ran up stairs to carry the intelli- gence that Mr. Giles had captured a robber ; and the tinker busied himself in endeavouring to restore Oliver, lest he should die before he could be hanged. In the midst of all this noise and commotion, there was heard a sweet female voice, which quelled it in an instant. " Giles !" whispered the voice from the stair-head. "I'm here, miss," replied Mr. Giles. " Don't be fright- ened, miss; I ain't much injured. He didn't make a very desperate resistance, miss! I was soon too. manv for him." "Hush!" replied the young lady; "you frighten my aunt as much as the thieves did. Is the poor creature much hurt?" " Wounded desperate, miss," replied Giles, with in- describable complacency. " He looks as if he was a-going, miss," bawled Brittles, in the same manner as before. " Wouldn't you like to come and look at him, miss, in case he should !" " Hush, pray; there's a good man !" rejoined the lady. " Wait quietly only one instant, while I speak to aunt." With a footstep as soft and gentle as the voice, the speaker tripped away. She soon returned, with the direc- 2o8 Oliver Twist tion that the wounded person was to be carried, carefully, up stairs to Mr. Giles's room; and that Brittles was to saddle the pony and betake himself instantly to Chertsey : from which place he was to despatch, with all speed, a constable and doctor. ** But won't you take one look at him, first, miss?" asked Mr. Giles, with as much pride as if Oliver were some bird of rare plumage, that he had skilfully brought down. '* Not one little peep, miss?" "Not now, for the world," replied the young lady. ** Poor fellow! Oh! treat him kindly, Giles, for my sake!" The old servant looked up at the speaker, as she turned away, with a glance as proud and admiring as if she had been his own child. Then, bending over Oliver, he helped to carry him up stairs, with the care and solicitude of a woman. CHAPTER XXIX HAS AN INTRODUCTORY ACCOUNT OF THE INMATES OF THE HOUSE TO WHICH OLIVER RESORTED In a handsome room : though its furniture had rather the air of old-fashioned comfort than of modern elegance : there sat two ladies at a well-spread breakfast-table. Mr. Giles, dressed with scrupulous care in a full suit of black, was in attendance upon them. He had taken his station some half-way between the sideboard and the breakfast- table; and, with his body drawn up to its full height, his head thrown back, and inclined the merest trifle on one side, his left leg advanced, and his right hand thrust into his waistcoat, while his left hung down by his side, grasp- ing a waiter, looked like one who laboured under a very agreeable sense of his own merits and importance. Of the two ladies, one was well advanced in years; but the high-backed oaken chair in which she sat, was not more upright than she. Dressed with the utmost nicety and precision, in a quaint mixture of by-gone costume, with some slight concessions to the prevailing taste, which rather served to point the old style pleasantly than to impair its effect, she sat, in a stately manner, with her hands folded Oliver Twist 209 on the table before her. Her eyes (and age had dimmed but little of their brightness) were attentively fixed upon her young companion. The younger lady was in the lovely bloom and spring- time of womanhood; at that age, when, if ever angels be for God's good purposes enthroned in mortal forms, they may be, without impiety, supposed to abide in such as hers. She was not past seventeen. Cast in so slight ana exquisite a mould ; so mild and gentle ; so pure and beauti- ful ; that earth seemed not her element, nor its rough creatures her fit companions. The very intelligence that shone in her deep blue eye, and was stamped upon her noble head, seemed scarcely of her age, or of the world ; and yet the changing expression of sweetness and good humour, the thousand lights that played about the face, and left no shadow there; above all, the smile, the cheerful, happy smile, were made for Home, and fireside peace and happiness. She was busily engaged in the little offices of the table. Chancing to raise her eyes as the elder lady was regarding her, she playfully put back her hair, which was simply braided on her forehead ; and threw into her beaming look, such an expression of affection and artless loveliness, that blessed spirits might have smiled to look upon her. ** And Brittles has been gone upwards of an hour, has he?" asked the old lady, after a pause. " An hour and twelve minutes, ma'am," replied Mr. Giles, referring to a silver watch, which he drew forth by a black ribbon. ** He is always slow," remarked the old lady. '* Brittles always was a slow boy, ma'am," replied the attendant. And seeing, by-the-by, that Brittles had been a slow boy for upwards of thirty years, there appeared no great probability of his ever being a fast one. ** He gets worse instead of better, I think," said the elder lady. ^ *' It is very inexcusable in him if he stops to play with any other boys," said the young lady, smiling. Mr. Giles was apparently considering the propriety of indulging in a respectful smile himself, when a gig drove up to the garden gate : out of which there jumped a fat gentleman, who ran straight up to the door : and who, getting quickly into the house by some mysterious process, 2IO Oliver Twist burst into the room, and nearly overturned Mr. Giles and the breakfast-table together. " I never heard of such a thing!" exclaimed the fat gentleman. ** My dear Mrs. Maylie — bless my soul — in the silence of night, too — I never heard of such a thing 1" With these expressions of condolence, the fat gentleman shook hands with both ladies, and drawing up a chair, inquired how they found themselves. " You ought to be dead ; positively dead with the fright," said the fat gentleman. "Why didn't you send? Bless me, my man should have come in a minute ; and so would I ; and my assistant would have been delighted ; or any- body, I'm sure, under such circumstances. Dear, dear!] So unexpected ! In the silence of night, too !" The doctor seemed especially troubled by the fact of the robbery having been unexpected, and attempted in the night-time ; as if it were the established custom of gentle- men in the housebreaking way to transact business at noon, and to make an appointment, by post, a day or two previous. ** And you, Miss Rose," said the doctor, turning to the young lady, ** I " ** Oh ! very much so, indeed," said Rose, interrupting him; ** but there is a poor creature up stairs, whom aunt wishes you to see." ** Ah ! to be sure," replied the doctor, ** so there is. That was your handiwork, Giles, I understand." Mr. Giles, who had been feverishly putting the tea-cups to rights, blushed very red, and said that he had had that | honour. ** Honour, eh?" said the doctor; ** well, I don't know; perhaps it's as honourable to hit a thief in a back kitchen, as to hit your man at twelve paces. Fancy that he fired in the air, and you've fought a duel, Giles." Mr. Giles, who thought this light treatment of the matter an unjust attempt at diminishing his glory, answered respectfully, that it was not for the like of him to judge about that ; but he rather thought it was no joke to the opposite party. " Gad, that's true!" said the doctor. ** Where is he? Show me the way. I'll look in again, as I come down, Mrs. Maylie. That's the little window that he got in at, ch? Well, I couldn't have believed it!" Talking all the way, he followed Mr. Giles up stairs; Oliver Twist 211 and while he is going up stairs, the reader may be in- formed, that Mr. Losberne, a surgeon in the neighbour- hood, known through a circuit of ten miles round as " the doctor," had grown fat, more from good-humour than from good living : and was as kind and hearty, and withal as eccentric an old bachelor, as will be found in five times that space, by any explorer alive. The doctor was absent much longer than either he or the ladies had anticipated. A large flat box was fetched out of the gig ; and a bed-room bell was rung very oft-en ; and the servants ran up and down stairs perpetually ; from which tokens it was justly concluded that something im- portant was going on above. At length he returned ; and in reply to an anxious inquiry after his patient, looked very mysterious, and closed the door carefully. *' This is a very extraordinary thing, Mrs. Maylie," said the doctor, standing with his back to the door, as if to keep it shut. "He is not in danger, I hope?'* said the old lady. '* Why, that would not be an extraordinary thing, under the circumstances," replied the doctor; "though I don't think he is. Have you seen this thief?" '* No," rejoined the old lady. ** Nor heard anything about him?" *'No." "I beg your pardon, ma'am," interposed Mr. Giles; but I was going to tell you about him when Doctor Losberne came in." The fact was, that Mr. Giles had not, at first, been able to bring his mind to the avowal, that he had only shot a boy. Such commendations had been bestowed upon his bravery, that he could not, for the life of him, help post- poning the explanation for a few delicious minutes ; during which he had flourished, in the very zenith of a brief repu- tation for undaunted courage. •' Rose wished to see the man," said Mrs. Maylie, ** but r wouldn't hear of it." "Humph!" rejoined the doctor. "There is nothing v'ery alarming in his appearance. Have you any objection to see him in my presence?" " If it be necessary," replied the old lady, " certainly not." "Then T think it is necessary," said the doctor; *' at all events, I am quite sure that you would deeply regret not 212 Oliver Twist having done so, if you postponed it. He is perfectly quiet and comfortable now. Allow me — Miss Rose, will you permit me? Not the slightest fear, I pledge you my honour I** CHAPTER XXX RELATES WHAT OLIVER'S NEW VISITORS THOUGHT OF HIM> With many loquacious assurances that they would be agreeably surprised in the aspect of the criminal, the doctor drew the young lady's arm through one of his ; and offering his disengaged hand to Mrs. Maylie, led them, with much ceremony and stateliness, up stairs. ** Now," said the doctor, in a whisper, as he softly turned the handle of a bed-room door, " let us hear what you think of him. He has not been shaved very recently, but he don't look at all ferocious notwithstanding. Stop, though ! Let me first see that he is in visiting order." • Stepping before them, he looked into the room. Motion- ing them to advance, he closed the door when they had entered ; and gently drew back the curtains of the bed. Upon it, in lieu of the dogged, black-visaged ruffian they had expected to behold, there lay a mere child : worn with pain and exhaustion, and sunk into a deep sleep. His wounded arm, bound and splintered up, was crossed upon his breast; his head reclined upon the other arm, which was half hidden by his long hair, as it streamed over the pillow. The honest gentleman held the curtain in his hand, and looked on for a minute or so, in silence. Whilst he was watching the patient thus, the younger lady glided softly past, and seating herself in a chair by the bedside, gathered Oliver's hair from his face. As she stooped over him, her tears fell upon his forehead. The boy stirred, and smiled in his sleep, as though these marks of pity and compassion had awakened some pleasant dream of a love and affection he had never known. Thus, a strain of gentle music, or the rippling of water in a silent place, or the odour of a flower, or the mention of a familiar word, will sometimes call up sudden dim remem- brances of scenes that never were, in this life ; which vanish like a breath ; which some brief memory of a happier exist- Oliver Twist 213 cnce, long gone by, would seem to have awakened ; which no voluntary exertion of the mind can ever recall. '* What can this mean?" exclaimed the elder lady. " This poor child can never have been the pupil of robbers !" ** Vice," sighed the surgeon, replacing the curtain, ** takes up her abode in many temples; and who can say that a fair outside shall not enshrine her?" ** But at so early an age !" urged Rose. ** My dear young lady," rejoined the surgeon, mourn- fully shaking his head; '* crime, like death, is not confined to the old and withered alone. The youngest and fairest are too often its chosen victims." ** But, can you — oh ! can you really believe that this delicate boy has been the voluntary associate of the worst outcasts of society?" said Rose. The surgeon shook his head, in a manner which inti- mated that he feared it was very possible ; and observing that they might disturb the patient, led the way into an adjoining apartment. " But even if he has been wicked," pursued Rose, ** think bow young he is; think that he may never have known a mother's love, or the comfort of a home ; that ill-usage and 3lows, or the want of bread, may have driven him to herd with men who have forced him to guilt. Aunt, dear aunt, for mercy's sake, think of this, before you let them drag this sick child to a prison, which in any case must be the 3^rave of all his chances of amendment. Oh ! as you love me, and know that I have never felt the want of parents in your goodness and affection, but that I might have done 50, and might have been equally helpless and unprotected with this poor child, have pity upon him before it is too late!" ** My dear love," said the elder lady, as she folded the weeping girl to her bosom, *' do you think I would harm a hair of his head?" '* Oh, no!" replied Rose, eagerly. " No, surely," said the old lady; " my days are drawing to their close; and may mercy be shown to me as I show it to others ! What can I do to save him, sir?" "Let me think, ma'am," said the doctor; *Met me think." Mr. Losberne thrust his hands into his pockets, and took several turns up and down the room ; often stopping, and balancing: himself on his toes, and frowning frightfully. 214 Oliver Twist After various exclamations of " I've got it now " and '* no, I haven't," and as many renewals of the walking and frowning, he at length made a dead halt, and spoke as follows : " I think if you give me a full and unlimited commission to bully Giles, and that little boy, Brittles, 1 can manage it. Giles is a faithful fellow and an old servant, I know ; but you can make it up to him in a thousand ways, and reward him for being such a good shot besides. You don't object to that?" '' Unless there is some other way of preserving the child," replied Mrs. Maylie. '* There is no other," said the doctor. ** No other, take my word for it." ** Then my aunt invests you with full power," said Rose smiling through her tears ; '* but pray don't be harder upon the poor fellows than is indispensably necessary." " You seem to think," retorted the doctor, ** that every body is disposed to be hard-hearted to-day, except yourself, Miss Rose. I only hope, for the sake of the rising male sex generally, that you may be found in as vulnerable and! soft-hearted a mood by the first eligible young fellow whcj appeals to your compassion ; and I wish I were a young' fellow, that I might avail myself, on the spot, of such a favourable*opportunity for doing so, as the present." ' ** You are as great a boy as poor Brittles himself," re- turned Rose, blushing. " Well," said the doctor, laughing heartily, ** that is nc very difficult matter. But to return to this boy. Thegreat:^ point of our agreement is yet to come. He will wake w( an hour or so, I dare say ; and although I have told that! thick-headed constable-fellow down-stairs that he mustn't] be moved or spoken to, on peril of his life, I think we may converse with him without danger. Now I make this stipu- lation — that I shall examine him in your presence, and that, if, from what he says, we judge, and I can show tc the satisfaction of your cool reason, that he is a real and thorough bad one (which is more than possible), he shall be left to his fate, without any farther interference on my part, at all events." ** Oh no, aunt !" entreated Rose. " Oh yes, aunt !" said the doctor. "Is it a bargain? ** He cannot be hardened in vice," said Rose. ** It is impossible." »)( Oliver Twist 215 " Very good," retorted the doctor; ** then so much the more reason for acceding to my proposition." Finally the treaty was entered into ; and the parties there- jnto sat down to wait, with some impatience, until Oliver should awake. The patience of the two ladies was destined to undergo 1 longer trial than Mr. Losberne had led them to expect; for hour after hour passed on, and still Oliver slumbered heavily. It was evening, indeed, before the kind-hearted doctor brought them the intelligence, that he was at length sufficiently restored to be spoken to. The boy was very ill, he said, and weak from the loss of blood ; but his mind was so troubled with anxiety to disclose something, that he deemed it better to give him the opportunity, than to nsist upon his remaining quiet until next morning : which be should otherwise have done. The conference was a long one. Oliver told them all his simple history, and was often compelled to stop, by pain md want of strength. It was a solemn thing, to hear, in he darkened room, the feeble voice of the sick child re- :ounting a weary catalogue of evils and calamities which lard men had brought upon him. Oh ! if when we oppress md grind our fellow-creatures, we bestowed but one bought on the dark evidences of human error, which, like dense and heavy clouds, are rising, slowly it is true, but lot less surely, to Heaven, to pour their after-vengeance yn our heads ; if we heard but one instant, in imagination, he deep testimony of dead men's voices, which no power :an stifle, and no pride shut out : where would be the injury and injustice, the suffering, misery, cruelty, and wrong, :hat each day's life brings with it ! Oliver's pillow was smoothed by gentle hands that night ; and loveliness and virtue watched him as he slept. He elt calm and happy, and could have died without a nurmur. The momentous interview was no sooner concluded, and Dliver composed to rest again, than the doctor, after wip- ng his eyes, and condemning them for being weak all at 3nce, betook himself down stairs to open upon Mr. Giles. \nd finding nobody about the parlours, it occurred to him, :hat he could perhaps originate the proceedings with better iffect in the kitchen ; so into the kitchen he went. There were assembled, in that lower house of the domes- tic parliament, the women-servants, Mr. Brittles, Mr. 2i6 OKver Twist Giles, the tinker (who had received a special invitation to regale himself for the remainder of the day, in consider- ation of his services), and the constable. The latter gentle- man had & large staff, a large head, large features, and large half-boots ; and he looked as if he had been taking a proportionate allowance of ale — as indeed he had. The adventures of the previous night were still under discussion ; for Mr. Giles was expatiating upon his pre- sence of ijiind, when the doctor entered; Mr. Brittles, with a mug of ale in his hand, was corroborating everything, before his superior said it. *' Sit still !" said the doctor, waving his hand. "Thank you, sir," said Mr. Giles. *! Misses wished] some ale to be given out, sir ; and as I felt no ways inclined for my own little room, sir, and was disposed for company, I am taking mine among 'em here." Brittles headed a low murmur, by which the ladies and gentlemen generally were understood to express the grati- fication they derived from Mr. Giles's condescension. Mr. Giles looked round with a patronising air, as much as to say that so long as they behaved properly, he would never] desert them. - ** How is the patient to-night, sir?" asked Giles. ** So-so;" returned the doctor. ** I am afraid you have got yourself into a scrape there, Mr. Giles." " I hope you don't mean to say, sir," said Mr. Giles, trembling, '* that he's going to die. If I thought it, I should never be happy again. I wouldn't cut a boy off r no, not even Brittles here : not for all the plate in the county, sir." ** That's not the point," said the doctor, mysteriously. *' Mr. Giles, are you a Protestant?" "Yes, sir, I hope so," faltered Mr. Giles, who had turned very pale. "And what are you, boy?" said the doctor, turning sharply upon Brittles. "Lord bless me, sir !" replied Brittles, starting violently ; " I'm — the same as Mr. Giles, sir." "Then tell me this," said the doctor, "both of you, both of you! Are you going to take upon yourselves to swear, that that boy up stairs is the boy that was put through the little window last night ? Out with it ! Come ! We are prepared for you ! " The doctor, who was universally considered one of the Oliver Twist 217 best-tempered creatures on earth, made this demand in such a dreadful tone of anger, that Giles and Brittles, who were considerably muddled by ale and excitement, stared at each other in a state of stupefaction. ** Pay attention to the reply, constable, will you?" said the doctor, shaking his forefinger with great solemnity of manner, and tapping the bridge of his nose with it, to bespeak the exercise of that worthy's utmost acuteness. ** Something may come of this before long." The constable looked as wise as he could, and took up his staff of office : which had been reclining indolently in the chimney-corner. " It's a simple question of identity, you will observe," said the doctor. " That's what it is, sir," replied the constable, coughing with great violence ; for he had finished his ale in a hurry, and some of it had gone the wrong way. '* Here's a house broken into," said the doctor, '* and a couple of men catch one moment's glimpse of a boy, in the midst of gunpowder-smoke, and in all the distraction of ilarm and darkness. Here's a boy comes to that very ame house, next morning, and because he happens to have lis arm tied up, these men lay violent hands upon him — 3y doing which, they place his life in great danger — and wear he is the thief. Now, the question is, whether these nen are justified by the fact; if not, in what situation do ;hey place themselves?" The constable nodded profoundly. He said, if that ivasn't law, he would be glad to know what was. ' I ask you again," thundered the doctor, " are you, on ^our solemn oaths, able to identify that boy?** Brittles looked doubtfully at Mr. Giles ; Mr. Giles looked doubtfully at Brittles ; the constable put his hand behind lis ear, to catch the reply ; the two women and the tinker eaned forward to listen ; the doctor glanced keenly round ; tfvhen a ring was heard at the gate, and at the same mo- nent, the sound of wheels. "It's the runners!" cried Brittles, to all appearance nuch relieved. '' The what?" exclaimed the doctor, aghast in his turn, '*The Bow Street officers, sir," replied Brittles, taking jp a candle; *' me and Mr. Giles sent for 'em this morn- ng." " What?" cried the doctor. 2i8 Oliver Twist *• Yes," replied Brittles; *' I sent a message up by the coachman, and I only wonder they weren't here before, sir. You did, did you? Then confound your — slow coaches down here; that's all," said the doctor, walking away. CHAPTER XXXI INVOLVES A CRITICAL POSITION ** Who's that?" inquired Brittles, opening the door a; little way, with the chain up, and peeping out, shading; the candle with his hand. "Open the door," replied a man outside; "it's thci officers from Bow Street, as was sent to, to-day." Much comforted by this assurance, Brittles opened thet door to its full width, and confronted a portly man ir a great-coat; who walked in, without saying anything more, and wiped his shoes on the mat, as coolly as if he. lived there. *' Just send somebody out to relieve my mate, will you, young man?" said the officer; "he's in the gig, a-mind- ing the prad. Have you got a coach- 'us here, that youi could put it up in, for five or ten minutes?" Brittles replying in the affirmative, and pointing out the building, the portly man stepped back to the garden-gate, and helped his companion to put up the gig : while Brittles lighted them, in a state of great admiration. This done, they returned to the house, and, being shown into a par- lour, took off their great-coats and hats, and showed like what they were. The man who had knocked at the door, was a stout personage of middle height, aged about fifty : with shiny black hair, cropped pretty close; half-whiskers, a round face, and sharp eyes. The other was a red-headed, bon}) man, in top-boots ; with a rather ill-favoured countenance, and a tumed-up sinister-looking nose. " Tell your governor that Blathers and Duff is here, will you?" said the stouter man, smoothing down his hair, and laying a pair of handcuffs on the table. " Oh ! Gone evening, master. Can I have a word or two wiih you ic private, if you please?" Oliver Twist 2ig This was addressed to Mr. Losberne, who now made his appearance ; that gentleman, motioning Brittles to retire, brought in the two ladies, and shut the door. *' This is the lady of the house," said Mr. Losberne, motioning towards Mrs. Maylie. Mr. Blathers made a bow. Being desired to sit down, he put his hat on the floor, and taking a chair, motioned Duff to do the same. The latter gentleman, who did not appear quite so much accustomed to good society, or quite sO much at his ease in it — one of the two — seated himself, after undergoing several muscular affections of the limbs, md forced the head of his stick into his mouth, with some embarrassment. " Now, with regard to this here robbery, master," said Blathers. " What are the circumstances?" Mr. Losberne, who appeared desirous of gaining time, -ecounted them at great length, and with much circum- ocution. Messrs. Blathers and Duff looked very knowing neanwhile, and occasionally exchanged a nod. " I can't say, for certain, till I see the work, of course," ;aid Blathers; *' but my opinion at once is, — I don't mind committing myself to that extent, — that this wasn't done )y a yokel; eh, Duff?" * Certainly not," replied Duff. " And, translating the word yokel for the benefit of the adies, I apprehend your meaning to be, that this attempt vas not made by a cotmtryman ? " said Mr. Losberne, with smile. "That's it, master," replied Blathers. "This is all ibout the robbery, is it?" ' All," replied the doctor. * Now, what is this, about this here boy that the ser- vants are a-talking on?" said Blathers. " Nothing at all," replied the doctor. ** One of the rightened servants chose to take it into his head, that he lad something to do with this attempt to break into the louse; but it's nonsense : sheer absurdity, '' * Wery easy disposed of, if it is," remarked Duff. 'What he says is quite correct," observed Blathers, lodding his head in a confirmatory way, and playing care- essly with the handcuffs, as if they were a pair of castanets. ' Who is the boy? What account does he give of him- lelf? Where did he come from? He didn't drop out of he clouds, did he, master?" 220 Oliver Twist '* Of course not," replied the doctor, with a nervous g-Iance at the two ladies. ** I know his whole history: but we can talk about that presently. You would like, first, to see the place where the thieves made their attempt, I suppose?" I '* Certainly," rejoined Mr. Blathers. ** We had better inspect the premises first, and examine the servants arter- wards. That's the usual way of doing business." Lights were then procured; and Messrs. Blathers and,. Duff, .attended by the native constable, Brittles, Giles, andj everybody else in short, went into the little room at the,; end of the passage and looked out at the window; andl afterwards went round by way of the lawn, and looked injf at the window; and after that, had a candle handed out toj, inspect the shutter with ; and after that, a lantern to tracej, the footsteps with ; and after that, a pitchfork to poke the^, bushes with. This done, amidst the breathless interest ofjp all beholders, they came in again; and Mr. Giles andjQ Brittles were put through a melodramatic representation^ of their share in the previous night's adventures : whichjj they performed some six times over : contradicting each; other, in not more than one important respect, the first^, time, and in not more than a dozen the last. This con-j, summation being arrived at. Blathers and Duff cleared the room, and held a long council together, compared withjQ which, for secrecy and solemnity, a consultation of greatj doctors on the knottiest point of medicine, would be merej child's play. jrj Meanwhile, the doctor walked up and down the nextJQ room in a very uneasy state; and Mrs. Maylie and Rose looked on, with anxious faces. ** Upon my word," he said, making a halt, after a great number of very rapid turns, " I hardly know what to do. ' ** Surely," said Rose, ** the poor child's story, faithfullyj), repeated to these men, will be sufficient to exonerate him." " I doubt it, my dear young lady," said the doctor, shaking his head. " I don't think it would exonerate him, either with them, or with legal functionaries of a higher^,, grade. What is he, after all, they would say? A run away. Judged by mere worldly considerations and pro- babilities, his story is a very doubtful one." *' You believe it, surely?" interrupted Rose. " I believe it, strange as it is; and perhaps I may be an old fool for doing so," rejoined the doctor; ** but I don't Oliver Twist 221 hink it is exactly the tale for a practised police-officer, evertheless. " "Why not?" demanded Rose. ** Because, my pretty cross-examiner," replied the octor : " because, viewed with their eyes, there are many gly points about it ; he can only prove the parts that look 1, and none of those that look well. Confound the fellov/s, ley will have the why and the wherefore, and will take othing for granted. On his own showing, you see, he as been the companion of thieves for some time past; he as been carried to a police-office, on a charge of picking a entleman's pocket; he has been taken away, forcibly, •om that gentleman's house, to a place which he cannot escribe or point out, and of the situation of which he has ot the remotest idea. He is brought down to Chertsey, y men who seem to have taken a violent fancy to him, hether he will or no; and is put through a window to >b a house; and then, just at the very moment when he going to alarm the inmates, and so do the very thing lat would set him all to rights, there rushes into the way, blundering dog of a half-bred butler, and shoots him ! s if on purpose to prevent his doing any good for himself 1 on't you see all this?" I see it, of course," replied Rose, smiling at the actor's impetuosity; ** but still I do not see anything in to criminate the poor child." * No," replied the doctor; '* of course not! Bless the 'ight eyes of your sex ! They never see, whether for Dod or bad, more than one side of any question ; and at is, always, the one which first presents itself to em." Having given vent to this result of experience, the )ctor put his hands into his pockets, and walked up and )wn the room with even greater rapidity than before. ** The more I think of it," said the doctor, ** the more ee that it will occasion endless trouble and difficulty if we It these men in possession of the boy's real story. I am rtain it will not be believed; and even if they can do ►thing to him in the end, still the dragging it forward, d giving publicity to all the doubts that will be cast upon must interfere, materially, with vour benevolent plan of scuing him from misery." Oh ! what is to be done?" cried Rose. ** Dear, dear I ly did they send for these people?" 222 Oliver Twist "Why, indeed!" exclaimed Mrs. Maylie. "I wouh not have had them here, for the world." "All I know is," said Mr. Losbeme, at last: sittin down with a kind of desperate calmness, " that we mus try and carry it off with a bold face. The object is a goo« one, and that must be our excuse. The boy has strong symptoms of fever upon him, and is in no condition to b talked to any more; that's one comfort. We must mak the best of it ; and if bad be the best, it is no fault of ours Come in!" " Well, master," said Blathers, entering the roor followed by his colleague, and making the door fast, befor he said any more. " This warn't a put-up thing." " And what the devil's a put-up thing?" demanded th doctor, impatiently. " We call it a put-up robbery, ladies," said Blathers turning to them, as if he pitied their ignorance, but had contempt for the doctor's, " when the servants is in it." " Nobody suspected them, in this case/' said Mrs Maylie. " Wery likely not, ma'am," replied Blathers; " bu they might have been in it, for all tliat. " " More likely on that wery account," said Duff. " We find it was a town hand," said Blathers, contini:?!' ing his report ; * * for the style of work is first-rate. ' ' " Wery pretty indeed it is," remarked Duff, in an undei tone. " There was two of 'em in it," continued Blathers ; " an they had a boy with 'em ; that's plain from the size of th window. That's all to be said at present. We'll see thi lad that you've got up stairs at once, if you please." " Perhaps they will take something to drink first, Mrr Maylie?" said the doctor : his face brightening, as if son- new thought had occurred to him. " Oh! to be sure!" exclaimed Rose, eagerly. " Yc shall have it immediately, if you will." " Why, thank you, miss !" said Blathers, drawing h coatsleeve across his mouth; " it's dry work, this sort < duty. Anythink that's handy, miss; don't put yourse out of the way, on our accounts." ^^' "What shall it be?" asked the doctor, following tl '^; young lady to the sideboard. J " A little drop of spirits, master, if it's all the san-:e, replied Blathers. " It's a cold ride from London, ma'an Oliver Twist 223 ind I always find that spirits comes home warmer to the eelings. " This interesting communication was addressed to Mrs. iaylie, who received it very graciously. While it was eing conveyed to her, the doctor slipped out of the room. Ah!" said Mr. Blathers: not holding his wine-glass y the stem, but grasping the bottom between the thumb nd forefinger of his left hand : and placing it in front of is chest; " 1 have seen a good many pieces of business ke this, in my time, ladies." That crack down in the back lane at Edmonton, llathers," said Mr. Duff, assisting his colleague's memory. '* That was something in this way, warn't it?" rejoined Ir. Blathers ; " that was done by Conkey Chickweed, that l^as." You always gave that to him," replied Duff. ** It as the Family Pet, I tell you. Conkey hadn't any more > do with it than I had." J " Get out!" retorted Mr. Blathers; *' I know better. >o you mind that time when Conkey was robbed of his loney, though? What a start that was! Better than ly novel-book / ever see !" "What was that?" inquired Rose: anxious to en- jy)urage any symptoms of good-humour in the unwelcome sitors. ^^ '* It was a robbery, miss, that hardly anybody would ive been down upon," siiid Blathers. " This here Conkey hick weed ' ' jL *' Conkey means Nosey, ma'am," interposed Duff. ^j ** Of course the lady knows that, don't she?" demanded r. Blathers. "Always interrupting, you are, partner! j lis here Conkey Chickweed, miss, kept a public-house ^er Battlebridge way, and he had a cellar, where a good any young lords went to see cock-fighting, and badger- y awing, and that ; and a wery intellectual manner the lorts was conducted in, for I've seen 'em off 'en. He rarn't one of the family, at that time; and one night he ■IS robbed of three hundred and twenty-seven guineas in canvas bag, that was stole out of his bedroom in the ad of night, by a tall man with a black patch over his e, who had concealed himself under the bed, and after mmitting the robbery, jumped slap out of the window : lich was only a story high. He was wery quick about But Conkey was quick, too; for he was woke by the 224 Oliver Twist noise, and darting out of bed, he fired a blunderbuss arter him, and roused the neighbourhood. They set up a hue- and-cry, directly, and when they came to look about 'em, found that Conkey had' hit the robber; for there was traces of blood, all the way to some palings a good dis tance off; and there they lost 'em. However, he had made off with the blunt; and, consequently, the name ol Mr. Chickweed, licensed witler, appeared in the Gazette among the other bankrupts ; and all manner of benefits and subscriptions, and I don't know what all, was got uf for the poor man, who was in a wery low state of mine about his loss, and went up and down the streets, for thret or four days, a pulling his hair off in such a desperate! ' manner that many people was afraid he might be going ten make away with himself. One day he come up to th<| office, all in a hurry, and had a private interview with thtii magistrate, who, after a deal of talk, rings the bell, an(|i orders Jem Spyers in (Jem was a active oflScer), and tell;: J him to go and assist Mr. Chickweed in apprehending th«|^ man as robbed his house. * I see him, Spyers/ saidt Chickweed, 'pass my house yesterday morning.' * Wh;ii didn't you up, and collar him?' says Spyers. * I was s»|(l struck all of a heap, that you might have fractured mj' skull with a toothpick,' says the poor man; * but we'r o sure to have him; for between ten and eleven o'clock aa night he passed again.* Spyers no sooner heard this, thaU he put some clean linen and a comb, in his pocket, ijai case he should have to stop a day or two; and away h!pi goes, and sets himself down at one of the public-hous tc windows behind the little red curtain, with his hat on, a ready to bolt out, at a moment's notice. He was smokin his pipe here, late at night, when all of a sudden ChicI^ weed roars out * Here he is ! Stop thief ! Murder ! ' Jei Spyers dashes out ; and there he sees Chickweed, a-tearin down the street full cry. Away goes Spyers ; on go€ Chickweed ; round turns the people ; everybody roars oi * Thieves !' and Chickweed himself keeps on shouting, a the time, like mad. Spyers loses sight of him a minul as he turns a comer ; shoots round ; sees a little crowc dives in; 'Which is the man?' *D — me!' says Chicl weed, * I've lost him again r' It was a remarkable occu rence, but he warn't to be seen nowhere, so they wei back to the public-house. Next morning, Spyers took h old place, and looked out, from behind the curtain, for ben Oliver Twist 225 tall man with a black patch over his eye, till his own two eyes ached again. At last, he couldn't help shutting 'em, CO ease 'em a minute; and the very moment he did so, he hears Chickweed a-roaring out, 'Here he is!' Off he starts once more, with Chickweed halfway down the street ahead of him; and after twice as long a run as the yester- day's one, the man's lost again ! This was done, once or twice more, till one-half the neighbours gave out that Mr. Chickweed had been robbed by the devil, who was playing tricks with him arterwards ; and the other half, that poor Mr. Chickweed had gone mad with grief." ** What did Jem Spyers say?" inquired the doctor: who had returned to the room shortly after the commencement of the story. ** Jem Spyers," resumed the officer, ** for a long time said nothing at all, and listened to everything without seeming to, which showed he understood his business. But, one morning, he walked into the bar, and taking out his snuff-box, says, * Chickweed, I've found out who done this here robbery.' * Have you?' said Chickweed. ' Oh, my dear Spyers, only let me have wengeance, and I shall die contented ! Oh, my dear Spyers, where is the villain !' Come !' said Spyers, offering him a pinch of snuff, * none of that gammon ! You did it yourself. ' So he had : and a good bit of money he had made by it, too ; and nobody would never have found it out, if he hadn't been so precious anxious to keep up appearances!" said Mr. Blathers, putting down his wine-glass, and clinking the handcuff's together. '* Very curious, indeed," observed the doctor. '* Now, if you please, you can walk up stairs." *' If you please, sir," returned Mr. Blathers. Closely following Mr. Losberne, the two officers ascended to Oliver's bedroom ; Mr. Giles preceding the party, with a lighted candle. Oliver had been dozing ; but looked worse, and was more feverish than he had appeared yet. Being assisted by the doctor, he managed to sit up in bed for a minute or so ; and looked at the strangers without at all understand- ing what was going forward — in fact, without seeming to recollect where he was, or what had been passing. "This," said Mr. Losberne, speaking softly, but with great vehemence notwithstanding, " this is the lad, who, being accidentally wounded by a spring-gun in some boyish 226 Oliver Twist trespass on Mr. What-d'ye-call-him's grounds, at the back here, comes to the house for assistance this morning, and is immediately laid hold of and maltreated, by that ingenious gentleman with the candle in his hand : who has placed his life in considerable danger, as I can professionally certify." Messrs. Blathers and Duff looked at Mr. Giles, as he was thus recommended to their notice. The bewildered butler gazed from them towards Oliver, and from Oliver towards Mr. Losberne, with a most ludicrous mixture of fear and perplexity. " You don't mean to deny that, I suppose?" said the doctor, laying Oliver gently down again. " It was all done for the — for the best, sir!" answered Giles. ** I am sure I thought it was the boy, or 1 wouldn't have meddled with him. I am not of an inhuman disposi- tion, sir." " Thought it was what boy?" inquired the senior officer. * The housebreaker's boy, sir!" replied Giles. *' They — they certainly had a boy." *' Well? Do you think so now?" inquired Blathers, f ** Think what, now?" replied Giles, looking vacantly at his questioner. *' Think it's the same boy. Stupid-head?" rejoined Blathers, impatiently. ** I don't know; I really don't know," said Giles, with a rueful countenance. ** I couldn't swear to him." ** What do you think?" asked Mr. Blathers. ** I don't know what to think," replied poor Giles. ** I don't think it is the boy; indeed, I'm almost certain that it isn't. You know it can't be." ** Has this man been a-drinking, sir?" inquired Blathers, turning to the doctor. " What a precious muddle-headed chap you are !" said Duff, addressing Mr. Giles, with supreme contempt. Mr. Losberne had been feeling the patient's pulse durino- this short dialogue ; but he now rose from the chair by the bedside, and remarked, that if the officers had any doubts upon the subject, they would perhaps like to step into the next room, and have Brittles before them. Acting upon this suggestion, they adjourned to a neigli- bouring apartment, where Mr. Brittles, being called in, involved himself and his respected superior in such a vvonderful maze of fresh contradictions and impossibilities, Oliver Twist 227 as tended to throw no particular light on anything, but th^e fact of his own strong mystification; except,- indeed, his declarations that he shouldn't know the real boy, if he were put before him that instant; that he had only ta^en Oliver to be he, because Mr. Giles had* said he was ; and that Mr. Giles had, five minutes previously, admitted i