Oliver Twist The Project Gutenberg EBook of Oliver Twist, by Charles Dickens #13 in our serie s by Charles Dickens

Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the copyright l aws for your country before downloading or redistributing this or any other Proj ect Gutenberg eBook. This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project Gutenberg f ile. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the header without written p ermission. Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the eBook and P roject Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is important information a bout your specific rights and restrictions in how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. **Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** **eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** *****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** Title: Oliver Twist Author: Charles Dickens Release Date: November, 1996 [EBook #730] [This file was last updated on July 2, 2003] Edition: 11 Language: English Character set encoding: ASCII *** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OLIVER TWIST *** This etext was created by Peggy Gaugy. Edition 11 editing by Leigh Little. OLIVER TWIST OR THE PARISH BOY'S PROGRESS BY CHARLES DICKENS

CHAPTER I TREATS OF THE PLACE WHERE OLIVER TWIST WAS BORN AND OF THE CIRCUMSTANCES ATTENDI NG HIS BIRTH Among other public buildings in a certain town, which for many reasons it will b e prudent to refrain from mentioning, and to which I will assign no fictitious n ame, there is one anciently common to most towns, great or small: to wit, a work house; and in this workhouse was born; on a day and date which I need not troubl e myself to repeat, inasmuch as it can be of no possible consequence to the read er, in this stage of the business at all events; the item of mortality whose nam e is prefixed to the head of this chapter. For a long time after it was ushered into this world of sorrow and trouble, by t he 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 somewhat more than pr obable that these memoirs would never have appeared; or, if they had, that being comprised within a couple of pages, they would have possessed the inestimable m erit 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 possibility have occurred. The fact is, tha t there was considerable difficulty in inducing Oliver to take upon himself the office of respiration,--a troublesome practice, but one which custom has rendere

d 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 bal ance being decidedly in favour of the latter. Now, if, during this brief period, Oliver had been surrounded by 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 w oman, who was rendered rather misty by an unwonted allowance of beer; and a pari sh surgeon who did such matters by contract; Oliver and Nature fought out the po int between them. The result was, that, after a few struggles, Oliver breathed, sneezed, and proceeded to advertise to the inmates of the workhouse 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 possess ed 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; t he pale face of a young woman was raised feebly from the pillow; and a faint voi ce imperfectly articulated the words, 'Let me see the child, and die.' The surgeon had been sitting with his face turned towards the fire: giving the p alms of his hands a warm and a rub alternately. As the young woman spoke, he ros e, and advancing to the bed's head, said, with more kindness than might have bee n 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 cor ner with evident satisfaction. 'Lor bless her dear heart, when she has lived as long as I have, sir, and had th irteen children of her own, and all on 'em dead except two, and them in the wurk us 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 produc ing its due effect. The patient shook her head, and stretched out her hand towar ds the child. The surgeon deposited it in her arms. She imprinted her cold white lips passiona tely on its forehead; passed her hands over her face; gazed wildly round; shudde red; fell back--and died. They chafed her breast, hands, and temples; but the bl ood had stopped forever. They talked of hope and comfort. They had been stranger s 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 bott le, which had fallen out on the pillow, as she stooped to take up the child. 'Po or 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 tr oublesome. 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; w here did she come from?' 'She was brought here last night,' replied the old woman, 'by the overseer's ord er. She was found lying in the street. She had walked some distance, for her sho es were worn to pieces; but where she came from, or where she was going to, nobo dy 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 app lied herself to the green bottle, sat down on a low chair before the fire, and p roceeded 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, h e was badged and ticketed, and fell into his place at once--a parish child--the orphan of a workhouse--the humble, half-starved drudge--to be cuffed and buffete d 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 church-wardens and overseers, perhaps he would have cried the louder.

CHAPTER II TREATS OF OLIVER TWIST'S GROWTH, EDUCATION, AND BOARD For the next eight or ten months, Oliver was the victim of a systematic course o f treachery and deception. He was brought up by hand. The hungry and destitute s ituation of the infant orphan was duly reported by the workhouse authorities to the parish authorities. The parish authorities inquired with dignity of the work house authorities, whether there was no female then domiciled in 'the house' who was in a situation to impart to Oliver Twist, the consolation and nourishment o f which he stood in need. The workhouse authorities replied with humility, that there was not. Upon this, the parish authorities magnanimously and humanely reso lved, that Oliver should be 'farmed,' or, in other words, that he should be disp atched 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, withou t the inconvenience of too much food or too much clothing, under the parental su perintendence of an elderly female, who received the culprits at and for the con sideration of sevenpence-halfpenny per small head per week. Sevenpence-halfpenny '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 uncomfor table. The elderly female was a woman of wisdom and experience; she knew what wa s 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, and consigned the rising parochial generation to even a shorter allowance than was originally provided for them. Thereby finding in the lowest depth a dee per still; and proving herself a very great experimental philosopher. Everybody knows the story of another experimental philosopher who had a great th eory about a horse being able to live without eating, and who demonstrated it so well, that he had got his own horse down to a straw a day, and would unquestion ably have rendered him a very spirited and rampacious animal on nothing at all, if he had not died, four-and-twenty hours before he was to have had his first co mfortable bait of air. Unfortunately for, the experimental philosophy of the fem ale to whose protecting care Oliver Twist was delivered over, a similar result u sually attended the operation of her system; for at the very moment when the chi ld had contrived to exist upon the smallest possible portion of the weakest poss ible 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 bei ng 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 p arish child who had been overlooked in turning up a bedstead, or inadvertently s calded 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 t he farm--the jury would take it into their heads to ask troublesome questions, o r the parishioners would rebelliously affix their signatures to a remonstrance. But these impertinences were speedily checked by the evidence of the surgeon, an d 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 i nvariably swore whatever the parish wanted; which was very self-devotional. Besi des, the board made periodical pilgrimages to the farm, and always sent the bead le the day before, to say they were going. The children were neat and clean to b

ehold, when they went; and what more would the people have! It cannot be expected that this system of farming would produce any very extraor dinary or luxuriant crop. Oliver Twist's ninth birthday found him a pale thin ch ild, somewhat diminutive in stature, and decidedly small in circumference. But n ature or inheritance had implanted a good sturdy spirit in Oliver's breast. It h ad had plenty of room to expand, thanks to the spare diet of the establishment; and perhaps to this circumstance may be attributed his having any ninth birth-da y at all. Be this as it may, however, it was his ninth birthday; and he was keep ing it in the coal-cellar with a select party of two other young gentleman, who, after participating with him in a sound thrashing, had been locked up for atroc iously presuming to be hungry, when Mrs. Mann, the good lady of the house, was u nexpectedly startled by the apparition of Mr. Bumble, the beadle, striving to un do 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 upstairs, and wash 'em directly.)--My heart alive! 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 tremen dous shake, and then bestowed upon it a kick which could have emanated from no l eg but a beadle's. 'Lor, only think,' said Mrs. Mann, running out,--for the three boys had been rem oved by this time,--'only think of that! That I should have forgotten that the g ate was bolted on the inside, on account of them dear children! Walk in sir; wal k in, pray, Mr. Bumble, do, sir.' Although this invitation was accompanied with a curtsey that might have softened the heart of a church-warden, 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 with the porochial orphans? Are you aweer, Mrs. Mann, that you are, as I may say, a porochial delegate, and a stipe ndiary?' '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 hu mility. 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 t o say.' Mrs. Mann ushered the beadle into a small parlour with a brick floor; placed a s eat for him; and officiously deposited his cocked hat and cane on the table befo re him. Mr. Bumble wiped from his forehead the perspiration which his walk had e ngendered, glanced complacently at the cocked hat, and smiled. Yes, he smiled. B eadles 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 mention it. Now, will you take a little drop of somethink, Mr. Bumble?' 'Not a drop. Nor 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 accompanied it. 'Just a leetle drop, with a little cold wa ter, 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 what I'm obliged to keep a little of in the house, to put into the bl essed infants' Daffy, when they ain't well, Mr. Bumble,' replied Mrs. Mann as sh e opened a corner cupboard, and took down a bottle and glass. 'It's gin. I'll no t deceive you, Mr. B. It's gin.'

'Do you give the children Daffy, Mrs. Mann?' inquired Bumble, following with his eyes the interesting process of mixing. 'Ah, bless 'em, that I do, dear as it is,' replied the nurse. 'I couldn't see 'e m suffer before my very eyes, you know sir.' 'No'; said Mr. Bumble approvingly; 'no, you could not. You are a humane woman, M rs. Mann.' (Here she set down the glass.) 'I shall take a early opportunity of m entioning it to the board, Mrs. Mann.' (He drew it towards him.) 'You feel as a mother, Mrs. Mann.' (He stirred the gin-and-water.) 'I--I drink your health with cheerfulness, Mrs. Mann'; and he swallowed half of it. 'And now about business,' said the beadle, taking out a leathern pocket-book. 'T he child that was half-baptized Oliver Twist, is nine year old to-day.' 'Bless him!' interposed Mrs. Mann, inflaming her left eye with the corner of her apron. 'And notwithstanding a offered reward of ten pound, which was afterwards increas ed to twenty pound. Notwithstanding the most superlative, and, I may say, supern at'ral exertions on the part of this parish,' said Bumble, 'we have never been a ble 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 reflecti on, '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 fondlings in alphabetical order. The last was a S,--S wubble, I named him. This was a T,--Twist, I named him. The next one comes will be Unwin, and the next Vilkins. I have got names ready made to the end of the al phabet, and all the way through it again, when we come to Z.' 'Why, you're quite a literary character, sir!' said Mrs. Mann. 'Well, well,' said the beadle, evidently gratified with the compliment; 'perhaps I may be. Perhaps I may be, Mrs. Mann.' He finished the gin-and-water, and adde d, 'Oliver being now too old to remain here, the board have determined to have h im 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. Ol iver, having had by this time as much of the outer coat of dirt which encrusted his face and hands, removed, as could be scrubbed off in one washing, was led in to 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 co cked 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 be adle's chair, and was shaking her fist at him with a furious countenance. He too k 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 as he was, however, he ha d 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 natura lly indeed. Mrs. Mann gave him a thousand embraces, and what Oliver wanted a gre at deal more, a piece of bread and butter, less he should seem too hungry when h e got to the workhouse. With the slice of bread in his hand, and the little brow n-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 inf ant 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 leavi ng behind, they were the only friends he had ever known; and a sense of his lone liness 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 goldlaced 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 ve ry brief and snappish replies; for the temporary blandness which gin-and-water a wakens in some bosoms had by this time evaporated; and he was once again a beadl e. 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. Bumbl e, who had handed him over to the care of an old woman, returned; and, telling h im it was a board night, informed him that the board had said he was to appear b efore it forthwith. Not having a very clearly defined notion of what a live board was, Oliver was ra ther 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. Bumb le 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 to 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 particularly fat gentleman with a very round, red face. 'Bow to the board,' said Bumble. Oliver brushed away two or three tears that wer e 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, which made him tremble: and the beadle gave him another tap behind, which made him cry. These two cause s 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 spir its, and putting him quite at his ease. 'Boy,' said the gentleman in the high chair, 'listen to me. You know you're an o rphan, I suppose?' 'What's that, sir?' inquired poor Oliver. 'The boy is a fool--I thought he was,' said the gentleman 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. 'What are you crying for?' inquired the gentleman in the white waistcoat. And to be sure it was very extraordinary. What could the boy be crying for? 'I hope you say your prayers every night,' said another gentleman in a gruff voi ce; 'and pray for the people who feed you, and take care of you--like a Christia n.' 'Yes, sir,' stammered the boy. The gentleman who spoke last was unconsciously ri ght. 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 h adn't, because nobody had taught him. 'Well! You have come here to be educated, and taught a useful trade,' said the r ed-faced gentleman in the high chair. 'So you'll begin to pick oakum to-morrow morning at six o'clock,' added the surl y 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 aw ay to a large ward; where, on a rough, hard bed, he sobbed himself to sleep. Wha t a novel illustration of the tender laws of England! They let the paupers go to sleep! Poor Oliver! He little thought, as he lay sleeping in happy unconsciousness of a ll around him, that the board had that very day arrived at a decision which woul d exercise the most material influence over all his future fortunes. But they ha d. And this was it: The members of this board were very sage, deep, philosophical men; and when they came to turn their attention to the workhouse, they found out at once, what ord

inary folks would never have discovered--the poor people liked it! It was a regu lar place of public entertainment for the poorer classes; a tavern where there w as nothing to pay; a public breakfast, dinner, tea, and supper all the year roun d; a brick and mortar elysium, where it was all play and no work. 'Oho!' said th e 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 sh ould have the alternative (for they would compel nobody, not they), of being sta rved by a gradual process in the house, or by a quick one out of it. With this v iew, 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 of Sundays. They made a great many other wise and humane regulations, havin g reference to the ladies, which it is not necessary to repeat; kindly undertook to divorce poor married people, in consequence of the great expense of a suit i n Doctors' Commons; and, instead of compelling a man to support his family, as t hey 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 wit h the workhouse; but the board were long-headed men, and had provided for this d ifficulty. The relief was inseparable from the workhouse and the gruel; and that frightened 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 t he undertaker's bill, and the necessity of taking in the clothes of all the paup ers, which fluttered loosely on their wasted, shrunken forms, after a week or tw o's gruel. But the number of workhouse inmates got thin as well as the paupers; and the board were in ecstasies. The room in which the boys were fed, was a large stone hall, with a copper at on e end: out of which the master, dressed in an apron for the purpose, and assiste d by one or two women, ladled the gruel at mealtimes. Of this festive compositio n each boy had one porringer, and no more--except on occasions of great public r ejoicing, when he had two ounces and a quarter of bread besides. The bowls never wanted washing. The boys polished them with their spoons till th ey shone again; and when they had performed this operation (which never took ver y long, the spoons being nearly as large as the bowls), they would sit staring a t the copper, with such eager eyes, as if they could have devoured the very bric ks of which it was composed; employing themselves, meanwhile, in sucking their f ingers most assiduously, with the view of catching up any stray splashes of grue l that might have been cast thereon. Boys have generally excellent appetites. Ol iver 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 w as 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 unless he had another basin of gruel per diem, he was afraid he might some night happen to ea t the boy who slept next him, who happened to be a weakly youth of tender age. H e had a wild, hungry eye; and they implicitly believed him. A council was held; lots were cast who should walk up to the master after supper that evening, and a sk for more; and it fell to Oliver Twist. The evening arrived; the boys took their places. The master, in his cook's unifo rm, stationed himself at the copper; his pauper assistants ranged themselves beh ind him; the gruel was served out; and a long grace was said over the short comm ons. The gruel disappeared; the boys whispered each other, and winked at Oliver; while his next neighbors nudged him. Child as he was, he was desperate with hun ger, and reckless with misery. He rose from the table; and advancing to the mast er, 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 stupefie d astonishment on the small rebel for some seconds, and then clung for support t o the 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 arm ; 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 distinct ly. Do I understand that he asked for more, after he had eaten the supper allott ed by the dietary?' 'He did, sir,' replied Bumble. 'That boy will be hung,' said the gentleman in the white waistcoat. 'I know that boy will be hung.' Nobody controverted the prophetic gentleman's opinion. An animated discussion to ok place. Oliver was ordered into instant confinement; and a bill was next morni ng pasted on the outside of the gate, offering a reward of five pounds to anybod y who would take Oliver 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 apprentic e to any trade, business, or calling. 'I never was more convinced of anything in my life,' said the gentleman in the w hite waistcoat, as he knocked at the gate and read the bill next morning: 'I nev er was more convinced of anything in my life, than I am that that boy will come to be hung.' As I purpose to show in the sequel whether the white waistcoated gentleman was r ight or not, I should perhaps mar the interest of this narrative (supposing it t o possess any at all), if I ventured to hint just yet, whether the life of Olive r Twist had this violent termination or no.

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 h e had been consigned by the wisdom and mercy of the board. It appears, at first sight not unreasonable to suppose, that, if he had entertained a becoming feelin g of respect for the prediction of the gentleman in the white waistcoat, he woul d 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 attachi ng himself to the other. To the performance of this feat, however, there was one obstacle: namely, that pocket-handkerchiefs being decided articles of luxury, h ad 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 you th and childishness. 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 ev en its cold hard surface were a protection in the gloom and loneliness which sur rounded him. Let it not be supposed by the enemies of 'the system,' that, during the period o f his solitary incarceration, Oliver was denied the benefit of exercise, the ple asure of society, or the advantages of religious consolation. As for exercise, i t was nice cold weather, and he was allowed to perform his ablutions every morni ng 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 rep eated applications of the cane. As for society, he was carried every other day i nto the hall where the boys dined, and there sociably flogged as a public warnin g and example. And so for from being denied the advantages of religious consolat

ion, he was kicked into the same apartment every evening at prayer-time, and the re 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 boar d, in which they entreated to be made good, virtuous, contented, and obedient, a nd 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 p owers of wickedness, and an article direct from the manufactory of the very Devi l himself. It chanced one morning, while Oliver's affairs were in this auspicious and comfo rtable state, that Mr. Gamfield, chimney-sweep, went his way down the High Stree t, 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 sa nguine estimate of his finances could not raise them within full five pounds of the desired amount; and, in a species of arthimetical desperation, he was altern ately cudgelling his brains and his donkey, when passing the workhouse, his eyes encountered 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 regaled with a cabbage-stalk or two when he had disposed o f the two sacks of soot with which the little cart was laden; so, without notici ng the word of command, he jogged onward. Mr. Gamfield growled a fierce imprecation on the donkey generally, but more part icularly on his eyes; and, running after him, bestowed a blow on his head, which would inevitably have beaten in any skull but a donkey's. Then, catching hold o f 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 an other blow on the head, just to stun him till he came back again. Having complet ed 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 b ehind him, after having delivered himself of some profound sentiments in the boa rd-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 on ce that Mr. Gamfield was exactly the sort of master Oliver Twist wanted. Mr. Gam field 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. Ga mfield, knowing what the dietary of the workhouse was, well knew he would be a n ice small pattern, just the very thing for register stoves. So, he spelt the bil l 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 waistcoat, with a condescending sm ile. 'What of him?' 'If the parish vould like him to learn a right pleasant trade, in a good 'specta ble 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 linger ed behind, to give the donkey another blow on the head, and another wrench of th e 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. Limbkins, 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 the chimbley to make ' em come down again,' said Gamfield; 'that's all smoke, and no blaze; vereas smok e ain't o' no use at all in making a boy come down, for it only sinds him to sle ep, and that's wot he likes. Boys is wery obstinit, and wery lazy, Gen'l'men, an d there's nothink like a good hot blaze to make 'em come down vith a run. It's h umane too, gen'l'men, acause, even if they've stuck in the chimbley, roasting th eir feet makes 'em struggle to hextricate theirselves.' The gentleman in the white waistcoat appeared very much amused by this explanati

on; but his mirth was speedily checked by a look from Mr. Limbkins. The board th en proceeded to converse among themselves for a few minutes, but in so low a ton e, that the words 'saving of expenditure,' 'looked well in the accounts,' 'have a printed report published,' were alone audible. These only chanced to be heard, indeed, or account of their being very frequently repeated with great emphasis. At length the whispering ceased; and the members of the board, having resumed th eir seats and their solemnity, Mr. Limbkins said: 'We have considered your proposition, and we don't approve of it.' '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 bruis ed three or four boys to death already, it occurred to him that the board had, p erhaps, in some unaccountable freak, taken it into their heads that this extrane ous circumstance ought to influence their proceedings. It was very unlike their general mode of doing business, 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 fr om the table. 'So you won't let me have him, gen'l'men?' said Mr. Gamfield, pausing near the d oor. 'No,' replied Mr. Limbkins; 'at least, as it's a nasty business, we think you ou ght to take something less than the premium we offered.' Mr. Gamfield's countenance brightened, as, with a quick step, he returned to the table, and said, 'What'll you give, gen'l'men? Come! Don't be too hard on a poor man. What'll you give?' 'I should say, three pound ten was plenty,' said Mr. Limbkins. 'Ten shillings too much,' said the gentleman in the white waistcoat. 'Come!' said Gamfield; 'say four pound, gen'l'men. Say four pound, and you've go t rid of him for good and all. There!' 'Three pound ten,' repeated Mr. Limbkins, firmly. 'Come! I'll split the diff'erence, gen'l'men,' urged Gamfield. 'Three pound fift een.' 'Not a farthing more,' was the firm reply of Mr. Limbkins. 'You're desperate hard upon me, gen'l'men,' said Gamfield, wavering. 'Pooh! pooh! nonsense!' said the gentleman in the white waistcoat. 'He'd be chea p with nothing at all, as a premium. Take him, you silly fellow! He's just the b oy for you. He wants the stick, now and then: it'll do him good; and his board n eedn't come very expensive, for he hasn't been overfed since he was born. Ha! ha ! ha!' Mr. Gamfield gave an arch look at the faces round the table, and, observing a sm ile 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 afterno on. In pursuance of this determination, little Oliver, to his excessive astonishment , was released from bondage, and ordered to put himself into a clean shirt. He h ad hardly achieved this very unusual gymnastic performance, when Mr. Bumble brou ght him, with his own hands, a basin of gruel, and the holiday allowance of two ounces and a quarter of bread. At this tremendous sight, Oliver began to cry ver y piteously: thinking, not unnaturally, that the board must have determined to k ill him for some useful purpose, or they never would have begun to fatten him up in that way. 'Don't make your eyes red, Oliver, but eat your food and be thankful,' said Mr. Bumble, in a tone of impressive pomposity. 'You're a going to be made a 'prentic e of, Oliver.' 'A prentice, sir!' said the child, trembling. 'Yes, Oliver,' said Mr. Bumble. 'The kind and blessed gentleman which is so many parents to you, Oliver, when you have none of your own: are a going to 'prentic e' you: and to set you up in life, and make a man of you: although the expense t o the parish is three pound ten!--three pound ten, Oliver!--seventy shillins--on

e hundred and forty sixpences!--and all for a naughty orphan which nobody can't love.' As Mr. Bumble paused to take breath, after delivering this address in an awful v oice, the tears rolled down the poor child's face, and he sobbed bitterly. 'Come,' said Mr. Bumble, somewhat less pompously, for it was gratifying to his f eelings to observe the effect his eloquence had produced; 'Come, Oliver! Wipe yo ur eyes with the cuffs of your jacket, and don't cry into your gruel; that's a v ery foolish action, Oliver.' It certainly was, for there was quite enough water in it already. On their way to the magistrate, Mr. Bumble instructed Oliver that all he would h ave to do, would be to look very happy, and say, when the gentleman asked him if he wanted to be apprenticed, that he should like it very much indeed; both of w hich injunctions Oliver promised to obey: the rather as Mr. Bumble threw in a ge ntle hint, that if he failed in either particular, there was no telling what wou ld be done to him. When they arrived at the office, he was shut up in a little r oom by himself, and admonished by Mr. Bumble to stay there, until he came back t o fetch him. There the boy remained, with a palpitating heart, for half an hour. At the expir ation of which time Mr. Bumble thrust in his head, unadorned with the cocked hat , and said aloud: 'Now, Oliver, my dear, come to the gentleman.' As Mr. Bumble said this, he put o n a grim and threatening look, and added, in a low voice, 'Mind what I told you, you young rascal!' Oliver stared innocently in Mr. Bumble's face at this somewhat contradictory sty le of address; but that gentleman prevented his offering any remark thereupon, b y leading him at once into an adjoining room: the door of which was open. It was a large room, with a great window. Behind a desk, sat two old gentleman with po wdered heads: one of whom was reading the newspaper; while the other was perusin g, with the aid of a pair of tortoise-shell spectacles, a small piece of parchme nt which lay before him. Mr. Limbkins was standing in front of the desk on one s ide; and Mr. Gamfield, with a partially washed face, on the other; while two or three bluff-looking men, in top-boots, were lounging about. The old gentleman with the spectacles gradually dozed off, over the little bit o f parchment; and there was a short pause, after Oliver had been stationed by Mr. Bumble in front of the desk. 'This is the boy, your worship,' said Mr. Bumble. The old gentleman who was reading the newspaper raised his head for a moment, an d pulled the other old gentleman by the sleeve; whereupon, the last-mentioned ol d gentleman woke up. 'Oh, is this the boy?' said the old gentleman. 'This is him, sir,' replied Mr. Bumble. 'Bow to the magistrate, my dear.' Oliver roused himself, and made his best obeisance. He had been wondering, with his eyes fixed on the magistrates' powder, whether all boards were born with tha t white stuff on their heads, and were boards from thenceforth 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 in timate that he had better not say he didn'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. Gamfield doggedly. 'You're a rough speaker, my friend, but you look an honest, open-hearted man,' s aid the old gentleman: turning his spectacles in the direction of the candidate for Oliver's premium, whose villainous countenance was a regular stamped receipt for cruelty. But the magistrate was half blind and half childish, so he couldn' t reasonably be expected to discern what other people did. 'I hope I am, sir,' said Mr. Gamfield, with an ugly leer. 'I have no doubt you are, my friend,' replied the old gentleman: fixing his spec

tacles more firmly on his nose, and looking about him for the inkstand. It was the critical moment of Oliver's fate. If the inkstand had been where the old gentleman thought it was, he would have dipped his pen into it, and signed t he indentures, and Oliver would have been straightway hurried off. But, as it ch anced to be immediately under his nose, it followed, as a matter of course, that he looked all over his desk for it, without finding it; and happening in the co urse of his search to look straight before him, his gaze encountered the pale an d terrified face of Oliver Twist: who, despite all the admonitory looks and pinc hes of Bumble, was regarding the repulsive countenance of his future master, wit h a mingled expression of horror and fear, too palpable to be mistaken, even by a half-blind magistrate. The old gentleman stopped, laid down his pen, and looked from Oliver to Mr. Limb kins; who attempted to take snuff with a cheerful and unconcerned aspect. 'My boy!' said the old gentleman, 'you look pale and alarmed. What is the matter ?' 'Stand a little away from him, Beadle,' said the other magistrate: laying aside the paper, and leaning forward with an expression of interest. 'Now, boy, tell u s what's the matter: don't be afraid.' Oliver fell on his knees, and clasping his hands together, prayed that they woul d order him back to the dark room--that they would starve him--beat him--kill hi m if they pleased--rather than send him away with that dreadful man. 'Well!' said Mr. Bumble, raising his hands and eyes with most impressive solemni ty. 'Well! of all the artful and designing orphans that ever I see, Oliver, you are one of the most bare-facedest.' 'Hold your tongue, Beadle,' said the second old gentleman, when Mr. Bumble had g iven vent to this compound adjective. 'I beg your worship's pardon,' said Mr. Bumble, incredulous of having heard arig ht. 'Did your worship speak to me?' 'Yes. Hold your tongue.' Mr. Bumble was stupefied with astonishment. A beadle ordered to hold his tongue! A moral revolution! The old gentleman in the tortoise-shell spectacles looked at his companion, he n odded significantly. 'We refuse to sanction these indentures,' said the old gentleman: tossing aside the piece of parchment as he spoke. 'I hope,' stammered Mr. Limbkins: 'I hope the magistrates will not form the opin ion that the authorities have been guilty of any improper conduct, on the unsupp orted testimony of a child.' 'The magistrates are not called upon to pronounce any opinion on the matter,' sa id the second old gentleman sharply. 'Take the boy back to the workhouse, and tr eat him kindly. He seems to want it.' That same evening, the gentleman in the white waistcoat most positively and deci dedly affirmed, not only that Oliver would be hung, but that he would be drawn a nd quartered into the bargain. Mr. Bumble shook his head with gloomy mystery, an d said he wished he might come to good; whereunto Mr. Gamfield replied, that he wished he might come to him; which, although he agreed with the beadle in most m atters, would seem to be a wish of a totally opposite description. The next morning, the public were once informed that Oliver Twist was again To L et, and that five pounds would be paid to anybody who would take possession of h im.

CHAPTER IV OLIVER, BEING OFFERED ANOTHER PLACE, MAKES HIS FIRST ENTRY INTO PUBLIC LIFE In great families, when an advantageous place cannot be obtained, either in poss ession, reversion, remainder, or expectancy, for the young man who is growing up , it is a very general custom to send him to sea. The board, in imitation of so wise and salutary an example, took counsel together on the expediency of shippin g off Oliver Twist, in some small trading vessel bound to a good unhealthy port.

This suggested itself as the very best thing that could possibly be done with h im: the probability being, that the skipper would flog him to death, in a playfu l mood, some day after dinner, or would knock his brains out with an iron bar; b oth pastimes being, as is pretty generally known, very favourite and common recr eations among gentleman of that class. The more the case presented itself to the board, in this point of view, the more manifold the advantages of the step appe ared; so, they came to the conclusion that the only way of providing for Oliver effectually, was to send him to sea without delay. Mr. Bumble had been despatched to make various preliminary inquiries, with the v iew of finding out some captain or other who wanted a cabin-boy without any frie nds; and was returning to the workhouse to communicate the result of his mission ; when he encountered at the gate, no less a person than Mr. Sowerberry, the par ochial undertaker. Mr. Sowerberry was a tall gaunt, large-jointed man, attired in a suit of threadb are black, with darned cotton stockings of the same colour, and shoes to answer. His features were not naturally intended to wear a smiling aspect, but he was i n general rather given to professional jocosity. His step was elastic, and his f ace betokened inward pleasantry, as he advanced to Mr. Bumble, and shook him cor dially by the hand. 'I have taken the measure of the two women that died last night, Mr. Bumble,' sa id the undertaker. 'You'll make your fortune, Mr. Sowerberry,' said the beadle, as he thrust his th umb and forefinger into the proffered snuff-box of the undertaker: which was an ingenious little model of a patent coffin. 'I say you'll make your fortune, Mr. Sowerberry,' repeated Mr. Bumble, tapping the undertaker on the shoulder, in a f riendly manner, with his cane. 'Think so?' said the undertaker in a tone which half admitted and half disputed the probability of the event. 'The prices allowed by the board are very small, M r. Bumble.' 'So are the coffins,' replied the beadle: with precisely as near an approach to a laugh as a great official ought to indulge in. Mr. Sowerberry was much tickled at this: as of course he ought to be; and laughe d a long time without cessation. 'Well, well, Mr. Bumble,' he said at length, 't here's no denying that, since the new system of feeding has come in, the coffins are something narrower and more shallow than they used to be; but we must have some profit, Mr. Bumble. Well-seasoned timber is an expensive article, sir; and all the iron handles come, by canal, from Birmingham.' 'Well, well,' said Mr. Bumble, 'every trade has its drawbacks. A fair profit is, of course, allowable.' 'Of course, of course,' replied the undertaker; 'and if I don't get a profit upo n this or that particular article, why, I make it up in the long-run, you see--h e! he! he!' 'Just so,' said Mr. Bumble. 'Though I must say,' continued the undertaker, resuming the current of observati ons which the beadle had interrupted: 'though I must say, Mr. Bumble, that I hav e to contend against one very great disadvantage: which is, that all the stout p eople go off the quickest. The people who have been better off, and have paid ra tes for many years, are the first to sink when they come into the house; and let me tell you, Mr. Bumble, that three or four inches over one's calculation makes a great hole in one's profits: especially when one has a family to provide for, sir.' As Mr. Sowerberry said this, with the becoming indignation of an ill-used man; a nd as Mr. Bumble felt that it rather tended to convey a reflection on the honour of the parish; the latter gentleman thought it advisable to change the subject. Oliver Twist being uppermost in his mind, he made him his theme. 'By the bye,' said Mr. Bumble, 'you don't know anybody who wants a boy, do you? A porochial 'prentis, who is at present a dead-weight; a millstone, as I may say , round the porochial throat? Liberal terms, Mr. Sowerberry, liberal terms?' As Mr. Bumble spoke, he raised his cane to the bill above him, and gave three disti nct raps upon the words 'five pounds': which were printed thereon in Roman capit

als of gigantic size. 'Gadso!' said the undertaker: taking Mr. Bumble by the gilt-edged lappel of his official coat; 'that's just the very thing I wanted to speak to you about. You k now--dear me, what a very elegant button this is, Mr. Bumble! I never noticed it before.' 'Yes, I think it rather pretty,' said the beadle, glancing proudly downwards at the large brass buttons which embellished his coat. 'The die is the same as the porochial seal--the Good Samaritan healing the sick and bruised man. The board p resented it to me on Newyear's morning, Mr. Sowerberry. I put it on, I remember, for the first time, to attend the inquest on that reduced tradesman, who died i n a doorway at midnight.' 'I recollect,' said the undertaker. 'The jury brought it in, "Died from exposure to the cold, and want of the common necessaries of life," didn't they?' Mr. Bumble nodded. 'And they made it a special verdict, I think,' said the undertaker, 'by adding s ome words to the effect, that if the relieving officer had--' 'Tush! Foolery!' interposed the beadle. 'If the board attended to all the nonsen se that ignorant jurymen talk, they'd have enough to do.' 'Very true,' said the undertaker; 'they would indeed.' 'Juries,' said Mr. Bumble, grasping his cane tightly, as was his wont when worki ng into a passion: 'juries is ineddicated, vulgar, grovelling wretches.' 'So they are,' said the undertaker. 'They haven't no more philosophy nor political economy about 'em than that,' sai d the beadle, snapping his fingers contemptuously. 'No more they have,' acquiesced the undertaker. 'I despise 'em,' said the beadle, growing very red in the face. 'So do I,' rejoined the undertaker. 'And I only wish we'd a jury of the independent sort, in the house for a week or two,' said the beadle; 'the rules and regulations of the board would soon bring their spirit down for 'em.' 'Let 'em alone for that,' replied the undertaker. So saying, he smiled, approvin gly: to calm the rising wrath of the indignant parish officer. Mr Bumble lifted off his cocked hat; took a handkerchief from the inside of the crown; wiped from his forehead the perspiration which his rage had engendered; f ixed the cocked hat on again; and, turning to the undertaker, said in a calmer v oice: 'Well; what about the boy?' 'Oh!' replied the undertaker; 'why, you know, Mr. Bumble, I pay a good deal towa rds the poor's rates.' 'Hem!' said Mr. Bumble. 'Well?' 'Well,' replied the undertaker, 'I was thinking that if I pay so much towards 'e m, I've a right to get as much out of 'em as I can, Mr. Bumble; and so--I think I'll take the boy myself.' Mr. Bumble grasped the undertaker by the arm, and led him into the building. Mr. Sowerberry was closeted with the board for five minutes; and it was arranged th at Oliver should go to him that evening 'upon liking'--a phrase which means, in the case of a parish apprentice, that if the master find, upon a short trial, th at he can get enough work out of a boy without putting too much food into him, h e shall have him for a term of years, to do what he likes with. When little Oliver was taken before 'the gentlemen' that evening; and informed t hat he was to go, that night, as general house-lad to a coffin-maker's; and that if he complained of his situation, or ever came back to the parish again, he wo uld be sent to sea, there to be drowned, or knocked on the head, as the case mig ht be, he evinced so little emotion, that they by common consent pronounced him a hardened young rascal, and ordered Mr. Bumble to remove him forthwith. Now, although it was very natural that the board, of all people in the world, sh ould feel in a great state of virtuous astonishment and horror at the smallest t okens of want of feeling on the part of anybody, they were rather out, in this p articular instance. The simple fact was, that Oliver, instead of possessing too little feeling, possessed rather too much; and was in a fair way of being reduce

d, for life, to a state of brutal stupidity and sullenness by the ill usage he h ad received. He heard the news of his destination, in perfect silence; and, havi ng had his luggage put into his hand--which was not very difficult to carry, ina smuch as it was all comprised within the limits of a brown paper parcel, about h alf a foot square by three inches deep--he pulled his cap over his eyes; and onc e more attaching himself to Mr. Bumble's coat cuff, was led away by that dignita ry to a new scene of suffering. For some time, Mr. Bumble drew Oliver along, without notice or remark; for the b eadle carried his head very erect, as a beadle always should: and, it being a wi ndy day, little Oliver was completely enshrouded by the skirts of Mr. Bumble's c oat as they blew open, and disclosed to great advantage his flapped waistcoat an d drab plush knee-breeches. As they drew near to their destination, however, Mr. Bumble thought it expedient to look down, and see that the boy was in good orde r for inspection by his new master: which he accordingly did, with a fit and bec oming air of gracious patronage. 'Oliver!' said Mr. Bumble. 'Yes, sir,' replied Oliver, in a low, tremulous voice. 'Pull that cap off your eyes, and hold up your head, sir.' Although Oliver did as he was desired, at once; and passed the back of his unocc upied hand briskly across his eyes, he left a tear in them when he looked up at his conductor. As Mr. Bumble gazed sternly upon him, it rolled down his cheek. I t was followed by another, and another. The child made a strong effort, but it w as an unsuccessful one. Withdrawing his other hand from Mr. Bumble's he covered his face with both; and wept until the tears sprung out from between his chin an d bony fingers. 'Well!' exclaimed Mr. Bumble, stopping short, and darting at his little charge a look of intense malignity. 'Well! Of all the ungratefullest, and worst-disposed boys as ever I see, Oliver, you are the--' 'No, no, sir,' sobbed Oliver, clinging to the hand which held the well-known can e; 'no, no, sir; I will be good indeed; indeed, indeed I will, sir! I am a very little boy, sir; and it is so--so--' 'So what?' inquired Mr. Bumble in amazement. 'So lonely, sir! So very lonely!' cried the child. 'Everybody hates me. Oh! sir, don't, don't pray be cross to me!' The child beat his hand upon his heart; and looked in his companion's face, with tears of real agony. Mr. Bumble regarded Oliver's piteous and helpless look, with some astonishment, for a few seconds; hemmed three or four times in a husky manner; and after mutte ring something about 'that troublesome cough,' bade Oliver dry his eyes and be a good boy. Then once more taking his hand, he walked on with him in silence. The undertaker, who had just putup the shutters of his shop, was making some ent ries in his day-book by the light of a most appropriate dismal candle, when Mr. Bumble entered. 'Aha!' said the undertaker; looking up from the book, and pausing in the middle of a word; 'is that you, Bumble?' 'No one else, Mr. Sowerberry,' replied the beadle. 'Here! I've brought the boy.' Oliver made a bow. 'Oh! that's the boy, is it?' said the undertaker: raising the candle above his h ead, to get a better view of Oliver. 'Mrs. Sowerberry, will you have the goodnes s to come here a moment, my dear?' Mrs. Sowerberry emerged from a little room behind the shop, and presented the fo rm of a short, then, squeezed-up woman, with a vixenish countenance. 'My dear,' said Mr. Sowerberry, deferentially, 'this is the boy from the workhou se that I told you of.' Oliver bowed again. 'Dear me!' said the undertaker's wife, 'he's very small.' 'Why, he is rather small,' replied Mr. Bumble: looking at Oliver as if it were h is fault that he was no bigger; 'he is small. There's no denying it. But he'll g row, Mrs. Sowerberry--he'll grow.' 'Ah! I dare say he will,' replied the lady pettishly, 'on our victuals and our d rink. I see no saving in parish children, not I; for they always cost more to ke ep, than they're worth. However, men always think they know best. There! Get dow

nstairs, little bag o' bones.' With this, the undertaker's wife opened a side do or, and pushed Oliver down a steep flight of stairs into a stone cell, damp and dark: forming the ante-room to the coal-cellar, and denominated 'kitchen'; where in sat a slatternly girl, in shoes down at heel, and blue worsted stockings very much out of repair. 'Here, Charlotte,' said Mr. Sowerberry, who had followed Oliver down, 'give this boy some of the cold bits that were put by for Trip. He hasn't come home since the morning, so he may go without 'em. I dare say the boy isn't too dainty to ea t 'em--are you, boy?' Oliver, whose eyes had glistened at the mention of meat, and who was trembling w ith eagerness to devour it, replied in the negative; and a plateful of coarse br oken victuals was set before him. I wish some well-fed philosopher, whose meat and drink turn to gall within him; whose blood is ice, whose heart is iron; could have seen Oliver Twist clutching at the dainty viands that the dog had neglected. I wish he could have witnessed the horrible avidity with which Oliver tore the bits asunder with all the feroci ty of famine. There is only one thing I should like better; and that would be to see the Philosopher making the same sort of meal himself, with the same relish. 'Well,' said the undertaker's wife, when Oliver had finished his supper: which s he had regarded in silent horror, and with fearful auguries of his future appeti te: 'have you done?' There being nothing eatable within his reach, Oliver replied in the affirmative. 'Then come with me,' said Mrs. Sowerberry: taking up a dim and dirty lamp, and l eading the way upstairs; 'your bed's under the counter. You don't mind sleeping among the coffins, I suppose? But it doesn't much matter whether you do or don't , for you can't sleep anywhere else. Come; don't keep me here all night!' Oliver lingered no longer, but meekly followed his new mistress.

CHAPTER V OLIVER MINGLES WITH NEW ASSOCIATES. GOING TO A FUNERAL FOR THE FIRST TIME, HE FO RMS AN UNFAVOURABLE NOTION OF HIS MASTER'S BUSINESS Oliver, being left to himself in the undertaker's shop, set the lamp down on a w orkman's bench, and gazed timidly about him with a feeling of awe and dread, whi ch many people a good deal older than he will be at no loss to understand. An un finished coffin on black tressels, which stood in the middle of the shop, looked so gloomy and death-like that a cold tremble came over him, every time his eyes wandered in the direction of the dismal object: from which he almost expected t o see some frightful form slowly rear its head, to drive him mad with terror. Ag ainst the wall were ranged, in regular array, a long row of elm boards cut in th e same shape: looking in the dim light, like high-shouldered ghosts with their h ands in their breeches pockets. Coffin-plates, elm-chips, bright-headed nails, a nd shreds of black cloth, lay scattered on the floor; and the wall behind the co unter was ornamented with a lively representation of two mutes in very stiff nec kcloths, on duty at a large private door, with a hearse drawn by four black stee ds, approaching in the distance. The shop was close and hot. The atmosphere seem ed tainted with the smell of coffins. The recess beneath the counter in which hi s flock mattress was thrust, looked like a grave. Nor were these the only dismal feelings which depressed Oliver. He was alone in a strange place; and we all know how chilled and desolate the best of us will so metimes feel in such a situation. The boy had no friends to care for, or to care for him. The regret of no recent separation was fresh in his mind; the absence of no loved and well-remembered face sank heavily into his heart. But his heart was heavy, notwithstanding; and he wished, as he crept into his na rrow bed, that that were his coffin, and that he could be lain in a calm and las ting sleep in the churchyard ground, with the tall grass waving gently 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 a

nd impetuous manner, about twenty-five times. When he began to undo the chain, t he legs desisted, and a voice began. 'Open the door, will yer?' cried the voice which belonged 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 voice 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, th at's all, my work'us brat!' and having made this obliging promise, the voice beg an to whistle. Oliver had been too often subjected to the process to which the very expressive monosyllable just recorded bears reference, to entertain the smallest doubt that the owner of the voice, whoever he might be, would redeem his pledge, most hono urably. He drew back the bolts with a trembling hand, and opened the door. For a second or two, Oliver glanced up the street, and down the street, and over the way: impressed with the belief that the unknown, who had addressed him thro ugh the key-hole, 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 sl ice 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: seeing that no other visitor ma de his appearance; 'did you knock?' 'I kicked,' replied the charity-boy. 'Did you want a coffin, sir?' inquired Oliver, innocently. At this, the charity-boy looked monstrous fierce; and said that Oliver would wan t one before long, if he cut jokes with his superiors in that way. 'Yer don't know who I am, I suppose, Work'us?' said the charity-boy, in continua tion: descending from the top 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 dow n the shutters, yer idle young ruffian!' With this, Mr. Claypole administered a kick to Oliver, and entered the shop with a dignified air, which did him great c redit. It is difficult for a large-headed, small-eyed youth, of lumbering make a nd heavy countenance, to look dignified under any circumstances; but it is more especially so, when superadded to these personal attractions are a red nose and yellow smalls. Oliver, having taken down the shutters, and broken a pane of glass in his effort to stagger away beneath the weight of the first one to a small court at the sid e of the house in which they were kept during the day, was graciously assisted b y Noah: who having consoled him with the assurance that 'he'd catch it,' condesc ended to help him. Mr. Sowerberry came down soon after. Shortly afterwards, Mrs. Sowerberry appeared. Oliver having 'caught it,' in fulfilment of Noah's predict ion, followed that young gentleman down the stairs to breakfast. 'Come near the fire, Noah,' said Charlotte. 'I saved a nice little bit of bacon for you from master's breakfast. Oliver, shut that door at Mister Noah's back, a nd take them bits that I've put out on the cover of the bread-pan. There's your tea; take it away to that box, and drink it there, and make haste, for they'll w ant you to mind the shop. D'ye hear?' 'D'ye hear, Work'us?' said Noah Claypole. 'Lor, Noah!' said Charlotte, 'what a rum creature you are! Why don't you let the boy alone?' 'Let him alone!' said Noah. 'Why everybody lets him alone enough, for the matter of that. Neither his father nor his mother will ever interfere with him. All hi s relations let him have his own way pretty well. Eh, Charlotte? He! he! he!' 'Oh, you queer soul!' said Charlotte, bursting into a hearty laugh, in which she was joined by Noah; after which they both looked scornfully at poor Oliver Twis t, as he sat shivering on the box in the coldest corner of the 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 wi th 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 habit of brand ing Noah in the public streets, with the ignominious epithets of 'leathers,' 'ch arity,' and the like; and Noah had bourne them without reply. But, now that fort une had cast in his way a nameless orphan, at whom even the meanest could point the finger of scorn, he retorted on him with interest. This affords charming foo d for contemplation. It shows us what a beautiful thing human nature may be made to be; and how impartially the same amiable qualities are developed in the fine st lord and the dirtiest charity-boy. Oliver had been sojourning 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 lit tle back-parlour, when Mr. Sowerberry, after several deferential glances at his wife, said, 'My dear--' He was going to say more; but, Mrs. Sowerberry looking up, with a pe culiarly 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 was only going to say--' 'Oh, don't tell me what you were going to say,' interposed Mrs. Sowerberry. 'I a m nobody; don't consult me, pray. I don't want to intrude upon your secrets.' As Mrs. Sowerberry said this, she gave an hysterical laugh, which threatened viole nt consequences. 'But, my dear,' said Sowerberry, 'I want to ask your advice.' 'No, no, don't ask mine,' replied Mrs. Sowerberry, in 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-approved matrimonial cours e 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 duration, the permission was most graciously conceded. 'It's only about young Twist, my dear,' said Mr. Sowerberry. 'A very good-lookin g 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. Sowerber ry, 'which is very interesting. He would make a delightful mute, my love.' Mrs. Sowerberry looked up with an expression of considerable wonderment. Mr. Sow erberry remarked it and, without allowing time for any observation on the good l ady's part, proceeded. 'I don't mean a regular mute to attend grown-up people, my dear, but only for ch ildren's practice. It would be very new to have a mute in proportion, my dear. Y ou 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 s truck by the novelty of this idea; but, as it would have been compromising her d ignity to have said so, under existing circumstances, she merely inquired, with much sharpness, why such an obvious suggestion had not presented itself to her h usband'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 req uired. 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 f orth his large leathern pocket-book: from which he selected a small scrap of pap er, which he handed over to Sowerberry. 'Aha!' said the undertaker, glancing over it with a lively countenance; 'an orde

r for a coffin, eh?' 'For a coffin first, and a porochial funeral afterwards,' replied Mr. Bumble, fa stening the strap of the leathern pocket-book: which, like himself, was very cor pulent. 'Bayton,' said the undertaker, looking from the scrap of paper to Mr. Bumble. 'I never heard the name before.' Bumble shook his head, as he replied, 'Obstinate people, Mr. Sowerberry; very ob stinate. 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,' asquiesced the undertaker. 'We only heard of the family the night before last,' said the beadle; 'and we sh ouldn't have known anything about them, then, only a woman who lodges in the sam e house made an application to the porochial committee for them to send the poro chial 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-bot tle, offhand.' 'Ah, there's promptness,' said the undertaker. 'Promptness, indeed!' replied the beadle. 'But what's the consequence; what's th e ungrateful behaviour of these rebels, sir? Why, the husband sends back word th at 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, wholesome medicine, as was given with gr eat success to two Irish labourers and a coal-heaver, only a week before--sent ' em for nothing, with a blackin'-bottle in,--and he 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 t he counter sharply with his cane, and became flushed with indignation. 'Well,' said the undertaker, 'I ne--ver--did--' '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 don e, the better.' Thus saying, Mr. Bumble put on his cocked hat wrong side first, in a fever of pa rochial excitement; and flounced out of the shop. 'Why, he was so angry, Oliver, that he forgot even to ask after you!' said Mr. S owerberry, looking after the beadle as he strode down the street. 'Yes, sir,' replied Oliver, who had carefully kept himself 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 haven taken the trouble to shrink from Mr. Bumble's glance, however; for that functionary, on whom the prediction of the gentleman in the white waist coat 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 b e firmly bound for seven years, and all danger of his being returned upon the ha nds of the parish should be thus effectually and legally overcome. 'Well,' said Mr. Sowerberry, taking up his hat, 'the sooner this job is done, th e 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 pa rt 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 th e object of their search. The houses on either side were high and large, but ver y old, and tenanted by people of the poorest class: as their neglected appearanc e 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-fro nts; 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 preve nted from falling into the street, by huge beams of wood reared against the wall s, and firmly planted in the road; but even these crazy dens seemed to have been selected as the nightly haunts of some houseless wretches, for many of the roug

h boards which supplied the place of door and window, were wrenched from their p ositions, to afford an aperture wide enough for the passage of a human body. The kennel was stagnant and filthy. The very rats, which here and there lay putrefy ing in its rottenness, were hideous with famine. There was neither knocker nor bell-handle at the open door where Oliver and his master stopped; so, groping his way cautiously through the dark passage, and bid ding Oliver keep close to him and not be afraid the undertaker mounted to the to p of the first flight of stairs. Stumbling against a door on the landing, he rap ped at it with his knuckles. It was opened by a young girl of thirteen or fourteen. The undertaker at once sa w enough of what the room contained, to know it was the apartment to which he ha d been directed. He stepped in; Oliver followed him. There was no fire in the room; but a man was crouching, mechanically, over the e mpty stove. An 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, something covered w ith an old blanket. Oliver shuddered as he cast his eyes toward the place, and c rept involuntarily closer to his master; for though it was covered up, the boy f elt 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 prot ruded over her under lip; and her eyes were bright and piercing. Oliver was afra id to look at either her or the man. They seemed so like the rats he had seen ou tside. 'Nobody shall go near her,' said the man, starting fiercely up, as the undertake r approached the recess. 'Keep back! Damn you, keep back, if you've a life to lo se!' '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 f loor,--'I tell you I won't have her put into the ground. She couldn't rest there . The worms would worry her--not eat her--she is so worn away.' The undertaker offered no reply to this raving; but producing a tape from his po cket, 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, an d mark my words! I say she was starved to death. I never knew how bad she was, t ill 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, sh e was dying; and all the blood in my heart has dried up, 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: hi s eyes fixed, and the foam covering his lips. The terrified children cried bitterly; but the old woman, who had hitherto remai ned as quiet as if she had been wholly deaf to all that passed, menaced them int o silence. Having unloosened the cravat of the man who still remained extended o n 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, more ghastly than even the presen ce of death in such a place. 'Lord, Lord! Well, it is strange that I who gave bi rth to her, and was a woman then, should be alive and merry now, and she lying t here: so cold and stiff! Lord, Lord!--to think of it; it's as good as a play--as good as a play!' As the wretched creature mumbled and chuckled in her hideous merriment, the unde rtaker turned to go away. 'Stop, stop!' said the old woman in a loud whisper. 'Will she be buried to-morro w, 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 w

ine, 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 hi mself 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 lo af and a piece of cheese, left with them by Mr. Bumble himself,) Oliver and his master returned to the miserable abode; where Mr. Bumble had already arrived, ac companied by four men from the workhouse, who were to act as bearers. An old bla ck cloak had been thrown over the rags of the old woman and the man; and the bar e 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 th e old woman's ear; 'we are rather late; and it won't do, to keep the clergyman w aiting. Move on, my men,--as quick as you like!' Thus directed, the bearers trotted on under their light burden; and the two mour ners kept as near them, as they could. Mr. Bumble and Sowerberry walked at a goo d 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 anticipate d, however; for when they reached the obscure corner of the churchyard in which the nettles grew, and where the parish graves were made, the clergyman had not a rrived; 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, th ey 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 t he spectacle had attracted into the churchyard played a noisy game at hide-and-s eek among the tombstones, or varied their amusements by jumping backwards and fo rwards over the coffin. Mr. Sowerberry and Bumble, being personal 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 Sowerbe rry, and the clerk, were seen running towards the grave. Immediately afterwards, the clergyman appeared: putting on his surplice as he came along. Mr. Bumble th en thrashed a boy or two, to keep up appearances; and the reverend gentleman, ha ving read as much of 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!' It was no very difficult task, for the grave was so full, that the uppermost cof fin was within a few feet of the surface. The grave-digger shovelled in the eart h; 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 si de, started, raised his head, stared at the person who had addressed him, walked forward 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 dep arted on their different ways. 'Well, Oliver,' said Sowerberry, as they walked home, 'how do you like it?' 'Pretty well, thank you, sir' replied Oliver, with considerable hesitation. 'Not very much, sir.' 'Ah, you'll get used to it in time, Oliver,' said Sowerberry. '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 M r. 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 ASTON ISHES HIM The month's trial over, Oliver was formally apprenticed. It was a nice sickly se ason just at this time. In commercial phrase, coffins were looking up; and, in t he course of a few weeks, Oliver acquired a great deal of experience. The succes s of Mr. Sowerberry's ingenious speculation, exceeded even his most sanguine hop es. The oldest inhabitants recollected no period at which measles had been so pr evalent, 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 in describable admiration and emotion of all the mothers in the town. As Oliver acc ompanied his master in most of his adult expeditions too, in order that he might acquire that equanimity of demeanour and full command of nerve which was essent ial to a finished undertaker, he had many opportunities of observing the beautif ul resignation and fortitude with which some strong-minded people bear their tri als and losses. For instance; when Sowerberry had an order for the burial of some rich old lady or gentleman, who was surrounded by a great number of nephews and nieces, who ha d been perfectly inconsolable during the previous illness, and whose grief had b een wholly irrepressible even on the most public occasions, they would be as hap py among themselves as need be--quite cheerful and contented--conversing togethe r with as much freedom and gaiety, as if nothing whatever had happened to distur b them. Husbands, too, bore the loss of their wives with the most heroic calmnes s. 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 a ttractive as possible. It was observable, too, that ladies and gentlemen who wer e in passions of anguish during the ceremony of interment, recovered almost as s oon 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 c onfidence; but I can most distinctly say, that for many months he continued meek ly 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 pr omoted to the black stick and hatband, while he, the old one, remained stationar y in the muffin-cap and leathers. Charlotte treated him ill, because Noah did; a nd Mrs. Sowerberry was his decided enemy, because Mr. Sowerberry was disposed to be his friend; so, between these three on one side, and a glut of funerals on t he other, Oliver was not altogether as comfortable as the hungry pig was, when h e was shut up, by mistake, in the grain department of a brewery. And now, I come to a very important passage in Oliver's history; for I have to r ecord an act, slight and unimportant perhaps in appearance, but which indirectly produced a 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 o f the neck--when Charlotte being called out of the way, there ensued a brief int erval of time, which Noah Claypole, being hungry and vicious, considered he coul d not possibly devote to a worthier purpose than aggravating and tantalising you ng Oliver Twist. Intent upon this innocent amusement, Noah put his feet on the table-cloth; and p ulled Oliver's hair; and twitched his ears; and expressed his opinion that he wa s a 'sneak'; and furthermore announced his intention of coming to see him hanged , whenever that desirable event should take place; and entered upon various topi cs of petty annoyance, like a malicious and ill-conditioned charity-boy as he wa s. But, making Oliver cry, Noah attempted to be more facetious still; and in his attempt, did what many sometimes do to this day, when they want to be funny. He got rather personal.

'Work'us,' said Noah, 'how's your mother?' 'She's dead,' replied 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 curio us working of the mouth and nostrils, which Mr. Claypole thought must be the imm ediate precursor of a violent fit of crying. Under this impression he returned t o 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, sharply. 'There; that's enough. Don't say anything mo re to me about her; you'd better not!' 'Better not!' exclaimed Noah. 'Well! Better not! Work'us, don't be impudent. You r mother, too! She was a nice 'un she was. Oh, Lor!' And here, Noah nodded his h ead expressively; and curled up as much of his small red nose as muscular action could collect together, for the occasion. 'Yer know, Work'us,' continued Noah, emboldened by Oliver's silence, and speakin g 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 am 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 labouring in Bridewell, or transported, or hung; which is more likely than eithe r, 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 child, mild, dejected creature that h arsh 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 w as erect; his eye bright and vivid; his whole person changed, as he stood glarin g over the cowardly tormentor who now lay crouching at his feet; and defied him with an energy he had never known before. 'He'll murder me!' blubbered Noah. 'Charlotte! missis! Here's the new boy a murd ering 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 f rom 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 life, to come further down. 'Oh, you little wretch!' screamed Charlotte: seizing Oliver with her utmost forc e, 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 betw een every syllable, Charlotte gave Oliver a blow with all her might: accompanyin g it with a scream, for the benefit of society. Charlotte's fist was by no means a light one; but, lest it should not be effectu al in calming Oliver's wrath, Mrs. Sowerberry plunged into the kitchen, and assi sted 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 hi m behind. This was rather too violent exercise to last long. When they were all wearied ou t, and could tear and beat no longer, they dragged Oliver, struggling and shouti ng, but nothing daunted, into the dust-cellar, and there locked him up. This bei ng 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. Mak e haste!'

'Oh! Charlotte,' said Mrs. Sowerberry: speaking as well as she could, through a deficiency of breath, and a sufficiency of cold water, which Noah had poured ove r her head and shoulders. 'Oh! Charlotte, what a mercy we have not all been murd ered in our beds!' 'Ah! mercy indeed, ma'am,' was the reply. I only hope this'll teach master not t o have any more of these dreadful creatures, that are born to be murderers and r obbers from their very cradle. Poor Noah! He was all but killed, ma'am, when I c ome 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 c rown 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 snif fs. 'What's to be done!' exclaimed Mrs. Sowerberry. 'Your master's not at home; ther e's not a man in the house, and he'll kick that door down in ten minutes.' Olive r's vigorous plunges against the bit of timber in question, rendered this occura nce highly probable. 'Dear, dear! I don't know, ma'am,' said Charlotte, 'unless we send for the polic e-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 minut e; never mind your cap! Make haste! You can hold a knife to that black eye, as y ou run along. It'll keep the swelling down.' Noah stopped to make no reply, but started off at his fullest speed; and very mu ch it astonished the people who were out walking, to see a charity-boy tearing t hrough the streets pell-mell, with no cap on his head, and a clasp-knife at his eye.

CHAPTER VII OLIVER CONTINUES REFRACTORY Noah Claypole ran along the streets at his swiftest pace, and paused not once fo r breath, until he reached the workhouse-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 p auper 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 wi thout his cocked hat,--which is a very curious and remarkable circumstance: as s howing that even a beadle, acted upon a sudden and powerful impulse, may be affl icted with a momentary visitation of loss of self-possession, and forgetfulness of personal dignity. 'Oh, Mr. Bumble, sir!' said Noah: 'Oliver, sir,--Oliver has--' 'What? What?' interposed Mr. Bumble: with a gleam of pleasure in his metallic ey es. '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 tri ed 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 t hat, from the violent and sanguinary onset of Oliver Twist, he had sustained sev ere internal injury and damage, from which he was at that moment suffering the a cutest torture. When Noah saw that the intelligence he communicated perfectly paralysed Mr. Bumb le, he imparted additional effect thereunto, by bewailing his dreadful wounds te

n times louder than before; and when he observed a gentleman in a white waistcoa t crossing the yard, he was more tragic in his lamentations than ever: rightly c onceiving it highly expedient to attract the notice, and rouse the indignation, of the gentleman aforesaid. The gentleman's notice was very soon attracted; for he had not walked three pace s, when he turned angrily round, and inquired what that young cur was howling fo r, and why Mr. Bumble did not favour him with something which would render the s eries of vocular exclamations so designated, an involuntary process? 'It's a poor boy from the free-school, sir,' replied Mr. Bumble, 'who has been n early murdered--all but murdered, sir,--by young Twist.' 'By Jove!' exclaimed the gentleman in the white waistcoat, stopping short. 'I kn ew it! I felt a strange presentiment from the very first, that that audacious yo ung 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 wanted to.' 'Ah! Said he wanted to, did he, my boy?' inquired the gentleman in the white wai stcoat. 'Yes, sir,' replied Noah. 'And please, sir, missis wants to know whether Mr. Bum ble 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: smili ng benignly, and patting Noah's head, which was about three inches higher than h is own. 'You're a good boy--a very good boy. Here's a penny for you. Bumble, jus t 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. And the cocked hat and cane having be en, by this time, adjusted to their owner's satisfaction, Mr. Bumble and Noah Cl aypole betook themselves with all speed to the undertaker's shop. Here the position of affairs had not at all improved. Sowerberry had not yet ret urned, and Oliver continued to kick, with undiminished vigour, at the cellar-doo r. The accounts of his ferocity as related by Mrs. Sowerberry and Charlotte, wer e 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 prelud e; 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 ha bit of receiving, staggered Mr. Bumble not a little. He stepped back from the ke yhole; drew himself up to his full height; and looked from one to another of the three bystanders, 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 medit ation. 'It's Meat.' 'What?' exclaimed Mrs. Sowerberry. 'Meat, ma'am, meat,' replied Bumble, with stern emphasis. 'You've over-fed him, ma'am. You've raised a artificial soul and spirit in him, ma'am unbecoming a per son of his condition: as the board, Mrs. Sowerberry, who are practical philosoph ers, will tell you. What have paupers to do with soul or spirit? It's quite enou gh that we let 'em have live bodies. If you had kept the boy on gruel, ma'am, th

is would never have happened.' 'Dear, dear!' ejaculated Mrs. Sowerberry, piously raising her eyes to the kitche n ceiling: 'this comes of being liberal!' The liberality of Mrs. Sowerberry to Oliver, had consisted of a profuse bestowal upon him of all the dirty odds and ends which nobody else would eat; so there w as a great deal of meekness and self-devotion in her voluntarily remaining under Mr. Bumble's heavy accusation. Of which, to do her justice, she was wholly inno cent, 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 f or a day or so, till he's a little starved down; and then to take him out, and k eep him on gruel all through the apprenticeship. He comes of a bad family. Excit able 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 a ny well-disposed woman, weeks before.' At this point of Mr. Bumble's discourse, Oliver, just hearing enough to know tha t some allusion was being made to his mother, recommenced kicking, with a violen ce that rendered every other sound inaudible. Sowerberry returned at this junctu re. Oliver's offence having been explained to him, with such exaggerations as th e ladies thought best calculated to rouse his ire, he unlocked the cellar-door i n a twinkling, and dragged his rebellious apprentice out, by the collar. Oliver's clothes had been torn in the beating he had received; his face was brui sed and scratched; and his hair scattered over his forehead. The angry flush had not disappeared, however; and when he was pulled out of his prison, he scowled boldly on Noah, and looked quite undismayed. '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. '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 expe rienced 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 f or 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; p erhaps, 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. Bumbl e's subsequent application of the parochial cane, rather unnecessary. For the re st 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 outs ide 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 hi m upstairs to his dismal bed. It was not until he was left alone in the silence and stillness of the gloomy wo rkshop of the undertaker, that Oliver gave way to the feelings which the day's t reatment may be supposed likely to have awakened in a mere child. He had listene d 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 t o 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 you ng may ever have cause to pour out before him! For a long time, Oliver remained motionless in this attitude. The candle was bur

ning low in the socket when he rose to his feet. Having gazed cautiously round h im, and listened intently, he gently undid the fastenings of the door, and looke d abroad. It was a cold, dark night. The stars seemed, to the boy's eyes, farther from the earth than he had ever seen them before; there was no wind; and the sombre shad ows thrown by the trees upon the ground, looked sepulchral and death-like, from being so still. He softly reclosed the door. Having availed himself of the expir ing 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 of 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. H e took the same route; and arriving at a footpath across the fields: which he kn ew, after some distance, led out again into the road; struck into it, and walked quickly on. Along this same footpath, Oliver well-remembered he had trotted beside Mr. Bumbl e, when he first carried him to the workhouse from the farm. His way lay directl y in front of the cottage. His heart beat quickly when he bethought himself of t his; and he half resolved to turn back. He had come a long way though, and shoul d 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 ea rly 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 disclosed the featu res 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 b etween the rails to greet him. 'Is any one up?' 'Nobody but me,' replied the child. 'You musn't say you saw me, Dick,' said Oliver. 'I am running away. They beat an d 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 heard the doctor tell them I was dying,' replied the child with a faint smile . 'I am very glad to see you, 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 ag ain, 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 doc tor must be right, Oliver, because I dream so much of Heaven, and Angels, and ki nd 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, dea r! 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 VIII OLIVER WALKS TO LONDON. HE ENCOUNTERS ON THE ROAD A STRANGE SORT OF YOUNG GENTLE MAN Oliver reached the stile at which the by-path terminated; and once more gained t he high-road. It was eight o'clock now. Though he was nearly five miles away fro m the town, he ran, and hid behind the hedges, by turns, till noon: fearing that he might be pursued and overtaken. 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 tr y 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 trai n of ideas in the boy's mind. London!--that great place!--nobody--not even Mr. Bumble--could ever find him the re! He had often heard the old men in the workhouse, too, say that no lad of spi rit need want in London; and that there were ways of living in that vast city, w hich 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 hi m. As these things passed through his thoughts, he jumped upon his feet, and aga in walked forward. He had diminished the distance between himself and London by full four miles mor e, 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 slackene d his pace a little, and meditated upon his means of getting there. He had a cru st 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 which he had acquitted himself more than ordinarily well--in his pocket. 'A clean shirt,' thought Olive r, 'is a very comfortable thing; and so are two pairs of darned stockings; and s o is a penny; but they are small helps to a sixty-five miles' walk in winter tim e.' But Oliver's thoughts, like those of most other people, although they were e xtremely ready and active to point out his difficulties, were wholly at a loss t o suggest any feasible mode of surmounting them; so, after a good deal of thinki ng to no particular purpose, he changed his little bundle over to the other shou lder, and trudged on. Oliver walked twenty miles that day; and all that time tasted nothing but the cr ust of dry bread, and a few draughts of water, which he begged at the cottage-do ors by the road-side. When the night came, he turned into a meadow; and, creepin g close under a hay-rick, determined to lie there, till morning. He felt frighte ned at first, for the wind moaned dismally over the empty fields: and he was col d and hungry, and more alone than he had ever felt before. Being very tired with his walk, however, he soon fell asleep and forgot his troubles. He felt cold and stiff, when he got up next morning, and so hungry that he was o bliged to exchange the penny for a small loaf, in the very first village through which he passed. He had walked no more than twelve miles, when night closed in again. His feet were sore, and his legs so weak that they trembled beneath him. Another night passed in the bleak damp air, made him worse; when he set forward on his journey next morning he could hardly crawl along. He waited at the bottom of a steep hill till a stage-coach came up, and then beg ged of the outside passengers; but there were very few who took any notice of hi m: and even those told him to wait till they got to the top of the hill, and the n let them see how far he could run for a halfpenny. Poor Oliver tried to keep u p 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 t heir 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 be gged within the district, that they would be sent to jail. This frightened Olive r very much, and made him glad to get out of those villages with all possible ex pedition. 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 O liver'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 ol d lady, Oliver's troubles would have been shortened by the very same process whi ch 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 bre ad and cheese; and the old lady, who had a shipwrecked grandson wandering barefo

ot in some distant part of the earth, took pity upon the poor orphan, and gave h im 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 undergone. Early on the seventh morning after he had left his native place, Oliver limped s lowly into the little town of Barnet. The window-shutters were closed; the stree t was empty; not a soul had awakened to the business of the day. The sun was ris ing in all its splendid beauty; but the light only served to show the boy his ow n lonesomeness and desolation, as he sat, with bleeding feet and covered with du st, upon a door-step. By degrees, the shutters were opened; the window-blinds were drawn up; and peopl e began passing to and fro. Some few stopped to gaze at Oliver for a moment or t wo, or turned round to stare at him as they hurried by; but none relieved him, o r 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 o f public-houses (every other house in Barnet was a tavern, large or small), gazi ng listlessly at the coaches as they passed through, and thinking how strange it seemed that they could do, with ease, in a few hours, what it had taken him a w hole week of courage and determination beyond his years to accomplish: when he w as roused by observing that a boy, who had passed him carelessly some minutes be fore, had returned, and was now surveying him most earnestly from the opposite s ide of the way. He took little heed of this at first; but the boy remained in th e same attitude of close observation so long, that Oliver raised his head, and r eturned his steady look. Upon this, the boy crossed over; and walking close up t o Oliver, said, 'Hullo, my covey! What's the row?' The boy who addressed this inquiry to the young wayfarer, was about his own age: but one of the queerest looking boys that Oliver had even seen. He was a snub-n osed, 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 sho rt of his age: with rather bow-legs, and little, sharp, ugly eyes. His hat was s tuck on the top of his head so lightly, that it threatened to fall off every mom ent--and would have done so, very often, if the wearer had not had a knack of ev ery now and then giving his head a sudden twitch, which brought it back to its o ld 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 thrusting them into the pockets of his cor duroy trousers; for there he kept them. He was, altogether, as roystering and sw aggering a young gentleman as ever stood four feet six, or something less, in th e bluchers. 'Hullo, my covey! What's the row?' said this strange young gentleman to Oliver. 'I am very hungry and tired,' replied Oliver: the tears 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 gentleman. 'Why, a beak's a madgst'rat e; and when you walk by a beak's order, it's not straight forerd, but always ago ing up, and niver a coming down agin. Was you never on the mill?' 'What mill?' inquired Oliver. 'What mill! Why, the mill--the mill as takes up so little room that it'll work i nside 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 gent leman; '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 sufficiency of ready-dressed ham and a half-quartern loaf, or, as he himself expressed it, 'a fourpenny bran!' the ham being kept cl ean 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 gentlman turned into a small public-house, and le d the way to a tap-room in the rear of the premises. Here, a pot of beer was bro ught in, by direction of the mysterious youth; and Oliver, falling to, at his ne w friend's bidding, made a long and hearty meal, during the progress of which th e 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.' The strange boy whistled; and put his arms into his pockets, as far as the big c oat-sleeves would let them go. 'Do you live in London?' inquired Oliver. 'Yes. I do, when I'm at home,' replied the boy. 'I suppose you want some place t o 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 gentleman as lives there, wot 'll 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 leas t! By no means. Certainly not!' The young gentleman smiled, as if to intimate that the latter fragments of disco urse were playfully ironical; and finished the beer as he did so. 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 ti me. This led to a more friendly and confidential dialogue; from which Oliver dis covered that his friend's name was Jack Dawkins, and that he was a peculiar pet and protege of the elderly gentleman before mentioned. Mr. Dawkin's appearance did not say a vast deal in favour of the comforts which his patron's interest obtained for those whom he took under his protection; but, as he had a rather flightly and dissolute mode of conversing, and furthermore a vowed that among his intimate friends he was better known by the sobriquet of 'T he Artful Dodger,' Oliver concluded that, being of a dissipated and careless tur n, 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 incorrigible, as he more than half suspected he should, to decline the honour of his farther acquaintance. As John Dawkins objected to their entering London before nightfall, it was nearl y 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 Exmouth Street and Coppice Row; down the little court by the side of the workhouse; across the classic ground which once bore t he name of Hockley-in-the-Hole; thence into Little Saffron Hill; and so into Saf fron Hill the Great: along which the Dodger scudded at a rapid pace, directing O liver to follow close at his heels. Although Oliver had enough to occupy his attention in keeping sight of his leade r, 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 h eaps of children, who, even at that time of night, were crawling in and out at t he doors, or screaming from the inside. The sole places that seemed to prosper a

mid the general blight of the place, were the public-houses; and in them, the lo west 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 h ouses, where drunken men and women were positively wallowing in filth; and from several of the door-ways, great ill-looking fellows were cautiously emerging, bo und, 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 conductor, catching him by the arm, pushed open the door of a house near Field Lane; and drawing him into the passage, closed it be hind 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 shield ing 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?' 'Greenland. Is Fagin upstairs?' '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 hi s companion, ascended with much difficulty the dark and broken stairs: which his conductor mounted with an ease and expedition that showed he was well acquainte d 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-be er 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 strin g, some sausages were cooking; and standing over them, with a toasting-fork in h is hand, was a very old shrivelled Jew, whose villainous-looking and repulsive f ace was obscured by a quantity of matted red hair. He was dressed in a greasy fl annel gown, with his throat bare; and seemed to be dividing his attention betwee n the frying-pan and the clothes-horse, over which a great number of silk handke rchiefs 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 th an the Dodger, smoking long clay pipes, and drinking spirits with the air of mid dle-aged men. These all crowded about their associate as he whispered a few word s to the Jew; and then turned round and grinned at Oliver. So did the Jew himsel f, 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, an d hoped he should have the honour of his intimate acquaintance. Upon this, the y oung gentleman 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 wo uld probably be extended much farther, but for a liberal exercise of the Jew's t oasting-fork on the heads and shoulders of the affectionate youths who offered t hem. '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 ho

peful pupils of the merry old gentleman. In the midst of which they went to supp er. Oliver ate his share, and the Jew then mixed him a glass of hot gin-and-water: t elling him he must drink it off directly, because another gentleman wanted the t umbler. Oliver did as he was desired. Immediately afterwards he felt himself gen tly 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 HO PEFUL 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 boiling some coffee in a sa ucepan 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 ther e was the least noise below: and when he had satistified himself, he would go on whistling and stirring again, as before. Although Oliver had roused himself from sleep, he was not thoroughly awake. Ther e is a drowsy state, between sleeping and waking, when you dream more in five mi nutes with your eyes half open, and yourself half conscious of everything that i s passing around you, than you would in five nights with your eyes fast closed, and your senses wrapt in perfect unconsciousness. At such time, a mortal knows j ust enough of what his mind is doing, to form some glimmering conception of its mighty powers, its bounding from earth and spurning time and space, when freed f rom the restraint of its corporeal associate. Oliver was precisely in this condition. He saw the Jew 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 th e 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 i n an irresolute attitude for a few minutes, as if he did not well know how to em ploy himself, he turned round and looked at Oliver, and called him by his name. He did not answer, and was to all appearances asleep. After satisfying himself upon this head, the Jew stepped gently to the door: whi ch he fastened. He then drew forth: as it seemed to Oliver, from some trap in th e floor: a small box, which he placed carefully on the table. His eyes glistened as he raised the lid, and looked in. Dragging an old chair to the table, he sat down; and took from it a magnificent gold watch, sparkling with jewels. 'Aha!' said the Jew, shrugging up his shoulders, and distorting every feature wi th a hideous grin. 'Clever dogs! Clever dogs! Staunch to the last! Never told th e old parson where they were. Never poached upon old Fagin! And why should they? It wouldn't have loosened the knot, or kept the drop up, a minute longer. No, n o, 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 sev erally 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 workmanship, that Oliver had no idea, even of their names . Having replaced these trinkets, the Jew took out another: so small that it lay i n the palm of his hand. There seemed to be some very minute inscription on it; f or 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!' As the Jew uttered these words, his bright dark eyes, which had been staring vac antly before him, fell on Oliver's face; the boy's eyes were fixed on his in mut

e curiousity; and although the recognition was only for an instant--for the brie fest space of time that can possibly be conceived--it was enough to show the old man that he had been observed. 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 sor ry 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 thre atening attitude. 'Upon my word I was not, sir,' replied Oliver, earnestly. 'I was not, indeed, si r.' 'Tush, tush, my dear!' said the Jew, abruptly resuming his old manner, and playi ng with the knife a little, before he laid it down; as if to induce the belief t hat 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, notwit hstanding. '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 Do dger and the other boys, cost him a good deal of money, he only cast a deferenti al look at the Jew, and asked if he might get up. 'Certainly, my dear, certainly,' replied the old gentleman. 'Stay. There's a pit cher of water in the corner by the door. Bring it here; and I'll give you a basi n to wash in, my dear.' Oliver got up; walked across the room; and stooped for an instant to raise the p itcher. 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: accompanied by a very sprightly young friend, whom Oliver had seen smoking on th e previous night, and who was now formally introduced to him as Charley Bates. T he 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 Do dger, '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. 'What have you got, Dodger?' 'A couple of pocket-books,' replied that young gentlman. 'Lined?' inquired the Jew, with eagerness. 'Pretty well,' replied the Dodger, producing two pocket-books; one green, and th e other red. 'Not so heavy as they might be,' said the Jew, after looking at the insides care fully; 'but very neat and nicely made. Ingenious workman, ain't he, Oliver?' 'Very 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 same time producing four pocket-handkerchi efs.

'Well,' said the Jew, inspecting them closely; 'they're very good ones, very. Yo u haven't marked them well, though, Charley; so the marks shall be picked out wi th a needle, and we'll teach Oliver how to do it. Shall us, Oliver, eh? Ha! ha! ha!' 'If you please, sir,' said Oliver. 'You'd like to be able to make pocket-handkerchiefs as easy as Charley Bates, wo uldn'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 carryi ng it down some wrong channel, very nearly terminated in his premature suffocati on. 'He is so jolly green!' said Charley when he recovered, as an apology to the com pany for his unpolite behaviour. The Dodger said nothing, but he smoothed Oliver's hair over his eyes, and said h e'd know better, by and by; upon which the old gentleman, observing Oliver's col our mounting, changed the subject by asking whether there had been much of a cro wd 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 Olive r naturally wondered how they could possibly have found time to be so very indus trious. When the breakfast was cleared away; the merry old gentlman and the two boys pla yed at a very curious and uncommon game, which was performed in this way. The me rry old gentleman, placing a snuff-box in one pocket of his trousers, a note-cas e in the other, and a watch in his waistcoat pocket, with a guard-chain round hi s neck, and sticking a mock diamond pin in his shirt: buttoned his coat tight ro und 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 gent lemen walk about the streets any hour in the day. Sometimes he stopped at the fi re-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 th at he hadn't lost anything, in such a very funny and natural manner, that Oliver laughed till 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 rou nd, that it was impossible to follow their motions. At last, the Dodger trod upo n his toes, or ran upon his boot accidently, while Charley Bates stumbled up aga inst him behind; and in that one moment they took from him, with the most extrao rdinary rapidity, snuff-box, note-case, watch-guard, chain, shirt-pin, pocket-ha ndkerchief, even the spectacle-case. If the old gentlman felt a hand in any one of his pockets, he cried out where it was; and then the game began all over agai n. When this game had been played a great many times, a couple of young ladies call ed to see the young gentleman; one of whom was named Bet, and the other Nancy. T hey 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 hear ty. Being remarkably free and agreeable in their manners, Oliver thought them ve ry nice girls indeed. As there is no doubt they were. The visitors stopped a long time. Spirits were produced, in consequence of one o f the young ladies complaining of a coldness in her inside; and the conversation took a very convivial and improving turn. At length, Charley Bates expressed hi s opinion that it was time to pad the hoof. This, it occurred to Oliver, 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 amiab le 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 i t. 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 handk erchief 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, as he had seen the Dodger hold it, and drew the handkerchief 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 o n the head approvingly. 'I never saw a sharper lad. Here's a shilling for you. I f you go on, in this way, you'll be the greatest man of the time. And now come h ere, 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 deepl y 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, picking the marks out of the p ocket-handkerchief, (of which a great number were brought home,) and sometimes t aking 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 to ok many occasions of earnestly entreating the old gentleman to allow him to go o ut to work with his two companions. Oliver was rendered the more anxious to be actively employed, by what he had see n 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 v ehemence 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 carrying out his virtuous precepts to an unusual extent. At length, one morning, Oliver obtained the permission he had so eagerly sought. There had been no handkerchiefs to work upon, for two or three days, and the di nners 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, an d placed him under the joint guardianship of Charley Bates, and his friend the D odger. 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 pocket s; and Oliver between them, wondering where they were going, and what branch of manufacture he would be instructed in, first. The pace at which they went, was such a very lazy, ill-looking saunter, that Oli ver soon began to think his companions were going to deceive the old gentleman, by not going to work at all. The Dodger had a vicious propensity, too, of pullin g the caps from the heads of small boys and tossing them down areas; while Charl ey Bates exhibited some very loose notions concerning the rights of property, by pilfering divers apples and onions from the stalls at the kennel sides, and thr usting them into pockets which were so surprisingly capacious, that they seemed to undermine his whole suit of clothes in every direction. These things looked s o bad, that Oliver was on the point of declaring his intention of seeking his wa

y 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 Dod ger. They were just emerging from a narrow court not far from the open square in Cler kenwell, 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 Doger. '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; for the two boys walked stealthily across the r oad, and slunk close behind the old gentleman towards whom his attention had bee n directed. Oliver walked a few paces after them; and, not knowing whether to ad vance or retire, stood looking on in silent amazement. The old gentleman was a very respectable-looking personage, 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 h ad 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 possible that he fan cied 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 th e book itself: which he was reading straight through: turning 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 handkerchief! To s ee 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 hankerchiefs, and the watches, and the je wels, and the Jew, rushed upon the boy's mind. He stood, for a moment, with the blood so tingling through all his veins from te rror, that he felt as if he were in a burning fire; then, confused and frightene d, he took to his heels; and, not knowing what he did, made off as fast as he co uld 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, putting his hand to his pocket, and missing his handkerc hief, 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!' wi th 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 Do dger and Master Bates, unwilling to attract public attention by running down the open street, had merely retired into the very first doorway round the corner. T hey no sooner heard the cry, and saw Oliver running, than, guessing exactly how the matter stood, they issued forth with great promptitude; and, shouting 'Stop thief!' too, joined in the pursuit like good citizens. Although Oliver had been brought up by philosophers, he was not theoretically ac quainted with the beautiful axiom that self-preservation is the first law of nat ure. If he had been, perhaps he would have been prepared for this. Not being pre pared, 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 hi s counter, and the car-man his waggon; the butcher throws down his tray; the bak er his basket; the milkman his pail; the errand-boy his parcels; the school-boy his marbles; the paviour his pickaxe; the child his battledore. Away they run, p ell-mell, helter-skelter, slap-dash: tearing, yelling, screaming, knocking down the passengers as they turn the corners, rousing up the dogs, and astonishing th

e 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 turning. Away they fly, splashing through the mud, and ratt ling 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, joini ng 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 hunting something deeply implan ted in the human breast. One wretched breathless child, panting with exhaustion; terror in his looks; agony in his eyes; large drops of perspiration streaming d own his face; strains every nerve to make head upon his pursuers; and as they fo llow on his track, and gain upon him every instant, they hail his decreasing str ength with joy. 'Stop thief!' Ay, stop him for God's sake, were it only in mercy ! Stopped at last! A clever blow. He is down upon the pavement; and the crowd eage rly gather round him: each new comer, jostling and struggling with the others to catch a glimpse. 'Stand aside!' 'Give him a little air!' 'Nonsense! he don't de serve it.' 'Where's the gentleman?' 'Here his 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 from the mouth, looking wild ly round upon the heap of faces that surrounded him, when the old gentleman was officiously 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 good 'un!' 'Poor fellow!' said the gentleman, 'he has hurt himself.' 'I did that, sir,' said a great lubberly fellow, stepping forward; 'and precious ly I cut my knuckle agin' his mouth. I stopped him, sir.' The follow touched his hat with a grin, expecting something for his pains; but, the old gentleman, eyeing him with an expression of dislike, look anxiously roun d, as if he contemplated running away himself: which it is very possible he migh t have attempted to do, and thus have afforded another chase, had not a police o fficer (who is generally the last person to arrive in such cases) at that moment made his way through the crowd, and seized Oliver by the collar. 'Come, get up,' said the man, roughly. 'It wasn't me indeed, sir. Indeed, indeed, it was two 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 to be ironical, but it was true besides; for the Dodger and Charley Bates had filed off down the first conv enient court they came to. 'Come, get up!' 'Don't hurt him,' said the old gentleman, compassionately. 'Oh no, I won't hurt him,' replied the officer, tearing his jacket half off his back, in proof thereof. 'Come, I 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 himself on his feet, and w as at once lugged along the streets by the jacket-collar, at a rapid pace. The g entleman walked on with them by the officer's side; and as many of the crowd as could achieve the feat, got a little ahead, 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 neighborhood of, a very notorious metropolitan police office. The crowd had only the satisfaction of accompanying Oliver through two or three streets, and down a place called Mutton Hill, when he was led beneath a low archway, and up a dirt y court, into this dispensary of summary justice, by the back way. It was a smal

l paved yard into which they turned; and here they encountered a stout man with a bunch of whiskers on his face, and a bunch of keys in his hand. 'What's the matter now?' said the man carelessly. 'A young fogle-hunter,' replied the man who had Oliver in charge. 'Are you the party that's been robbed, sir?' inquired the man with the keys. 'Yes, I am,' replied the old gentleman; 'but I am not sure that this boy actuall y took the handkerchief. I--I would rather not press the case.' 'Must go before the magistrate now, sir,' replied the man. 'His worship will be disengaged in half a minute. Now, young gallows!' This was an invitation for Oliver to enter through a door which he unlocked as h e spoke, and which led into a stone cell. Here he was searched; and nothing bein g found upon him, locked up. This cell was in shape and size something like an area cellar, only not so light . It was most intolerably dirty; for it was Monday morning; and it had been tena nted by six drunken people, who had been locked up, elsewhere, since Saturday ni ght. But this is little. In our station-houses, men and women are every night co nfined on the most trivial charges--the word is worth noting--in dungeons, compa red with which, those in Newgate, occupied by the most atrocious felons, tried, found guilty, and under sentence of death, are palaces. Let any one who doubts t his, compare the two. The old gentleman looked almost as rueful as Oliver when the key grated in the l ock. He turned with a sigh to the book, which had been the innocent cause of all 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 thoughtfu l manner; 'something that touches and interests me. Can he be innocent? He looke d like--Bye the bye,' exclaimed the old gentleman, halting very abruptly, and st aring up into the sky, 'Bless my soul!--where have I seen something like that lo ok before?' After musing for some minutes, the old gentleman walked, with the same meditativ e face, into a back anteroom opening from the yard; and there, retiring into a c orner, 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 hi s head; 'it must be imagination. He wandered over them again. He had called them into view, and it was not easy t o replace the shroud that had so long concealed them. There were the faces of fr iends, 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 o ld 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 beaut y, 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 of which Oliver's features bore a trace. So, he heaved a sigh over the recollections he awakened; and bein g, happily for himself, an absent old gentleman, buried them again in the pages of the musty book. He was roused by a touch on the shoulder, and a request from the man with the ke ys to follow him into the office. He closed his book hastily; and was at once us hered into the 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 the door was a sort of wooden pen in which po or little Oliver was already deposited; trembling very much at the awfulness of the scene. Mr. Fang was a lean, long-backed, stiff-necked, middle-sized man, with no great quantity of hair, and what he had, growing on the back and sides of his head. Hi s face was stern, and much flushed. If he were really not in the habit of drinki ng rather more than was exactly good for him, he might have brought action again st his countenance for libel, and have recovered heavy damages.

The old gentleman bowed respectfully; and advancing to the magistrate's desk, sa id, suiting the action to the word, 'That is my name and address, sir.' He then withdrew a pace or two; and, with another polite and gentlemanly inclination of the head, waited to be questioned. Now, it so happened that Mr. Fang was at that moment perusing a leading article in a newspaper of the morning, adverting to some recent decision of his, and com mending him, for the three hundred and fiftieth time, to the special and particu lar notice of the Secretary of State for the Home Department. He was out of temp er; and he looked up with an angry scowl. 'Who are you?' said Mr. Fang. The old gentleman pointed, with some surprise, to his card. 'Officer!' said Mr. Fang, tossing the card contemptuously away with the newspape r. 'Who is this fellow?' 'My name, sir,' said the old gentleman, speaking like a gentleman, 'my name, sir , is Brownlow. Permit me to inquire the name of the magistrate who offers a grat uitous and unprovoked insult to a respectable person, under the protection of th e bench.' Saying this, Mr. Brownlow looked around the office as if in search of some person who would afford him the required information. 'Officer!' said Mr. Fang, throwing the paper on one side, 'what's this fellow ch arged with?' 'He's not charged at all, your worship,' replied the officer. 'He appears agains t this boy, your worship.' His worship knew this perfectly well; but it was a good annoyance, and a safe on e. 'Appears against the boy, does he?' said Mr. Fang, surveying Mr. Brownlow contem ptuously 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 magistra te!' '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 m ight only injure the boy by giving vent to it, he suppressed his feelings and su bmitted 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 bookstall--' 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 no t? 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 jailor coughed very loud, j ust at the right moment; and the former dropped a heavy book upon the floor, thu s preventing the word from being heard--accidently, of course. With many interruptions, and repeated insults, Mr. Brownlow contrived to state h is case; observing that, in the surprise of the moment, he had run after the boy because he had saw him running away; and expressing his hope that, if the magis

trate should believe him, although not actually the thief, to be connected with the thieves, he would deal as leniently with him as justice would allow. 'He 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 h ere, 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 who le place seemed turning round and round. 'What's your name, you hardened scoundrel?' demanded Mr. Fang. 'Officer, what's his name?' This was addressed to a bluff old fellow, in a striped waistcoat, who was standi ng by the bar. He bent over Oliver, and repeated the inquiry; but finding him re ally 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 sen tence; he hazarded a guess. 'He says his name's Tom White, your worship,' said the 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 O liver'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 im ploring 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 instincti vely; 'he'll fall down.' 'Stand away, officer,' cried Fang; 'let him, if he likes.' Oliver availed himself of the kind permission, and fell to the floor in a fainti ng 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?' inquired the clerk in a low voi ce. 'Summarily,' replied Mr. Fang. 'He stands committed for three months--hard labou r of course. Clear the office.' The door was opened for this purpose, and a couple of men were preparing to carr y the insensible boy to his cell; when an elderly man of decent but poor appeara nce, 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 ne w comer, breathless with haste. Although the presiding Genii in such an office as this, exercise a summary and a rbitrary power over the liberties, the good name, the character, almost the live s, of Her Majesty's subjects, expecially of the poorer class; and although, with in 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 dai ly press.[Footnote: Or were virtually, then.] Mr. Fang was consequently not a li ttle indignant 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 t he book-stall. I demand to 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 y ou got to say?' 'This,' said the man: 'I saw three boys: two others and the prisoner here: loite ring on the opposite side of the way, when this gentleman was reading. The robbe ry was committed by another boy. I saw it done; and I saw that this boy was perf ectly amazed and stupified by it.' Having by this time recovered a little breath , the worthy book-stall keeper proceeded to relate, in a more coherent manner th e 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 h elped me, had joined in the pursuit. I could get nobody till five minutes ago; a nd 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 hand.' '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 consider, sir, that you have obtained possession of t hat book, under very suspicious and disreputable circumstances; and you may thin k 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 i s discharged. Clear the office!' '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 offic e!' The mandate was obeyed; and the indignant Mr. Brownlow was conveyed out, with th e book in one hand, and the bamboo cane in the other: in a perfect phrenzy of ra ge and defiance. He reached the yard; and his passion vanished in a moment. Litt le Oliver Twist lay on his back on the pavement, with his shirt unbuttoned, and his temples bathed with water; his face a deadly white; and a cold tremble convu lsing his whole frame. 'Poor boy, poor boy!' said Mr. Brownlow, bending over him. 'Call a coach, somebo dy, pray. Directly!' A coach was obtained, and Oliver having been carefully laid on the seat, the old gentleman got in and sat himself on the other. '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, de ar! I have this unhappy book still! Jump in. Poor fellow! There's no time to los e.' 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 TH E 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 tra versed when he first entered London in company with the Dodger; and, turning a d ifferent 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 carefully and c omfortably deposited; and here, he was tended with a kindness and solicitude tha t knew no bounds. But, for many days, Oliver remained insensible to all the goodness of his new fr iends. 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 work more surely on the dead bo

dy, than does this slow creeping fire upon the living frame. Weak, and thin, and pallid, he awoke at last from what seemed to have been a lon g and troubled dream. Feebly raising himself in the bed, with his head resting o n 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 we re overheard at once. The curtain at the bed's head was hastily drawn back, and a motherly old lady, very neatly and precisely dressed, rose as she undrew it, f rom 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 very bad,--as bad as bad could be, pretty nigh. Lie down again; there's a dear!' With those words, the old lady very gently plac ed Oliver's head upon the pillow; and, smoothing back his hair from his forehead , looked so kindly and loving in his face, that he could not help placing his li ttle 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 de ar 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 his hands together; 'perhap s 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 bef ore she died. She can't know anything about me though,' added Oliver after a mom ent's silence. 'If she had seen me hurt, it would have made her sorrowful; and h er face has always looked sweet and happy, when I have dreamed of her.' The old lady made no reply to this; but wiping her eyes first, and her spectacle s, which lay on the counterpane, afterwards, as if they were part and parcel of those features, brought some cool stuff for Oliver to drink; and then, patting h im 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 l ady in all things; and partly, to tell the truth, because he was completely exha usted with what he had already said. He soon fell into a gentle doze, from which he was awakened by the light of a candle: which, being brought near the bed, sh owed 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. '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, an't you?' 'No, sir,' answered Oliver. 'Hem!' said the gentleman. 'No, I know you're not. He is not hungry, Mrs. Bedwin ,' 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 s ame 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 s hould be thirsty. You may give him a little tea, ma'am, and some dry toast witho ut any butter. Don't keep him too warm, ma'am; but be careful that you don't let him be too cold; will you have the goodness?' The old lady dropped a curtsey. The doctor, after tasting the cool stuff, and ex pressing a qualified approval of it, hurried away: his boots creaking in a very important and wealthy manner as he went downstairs. Oliver dozed off again, soon after this; when he awoke, it was nearly twelve o'c

lock. 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 c ome to sit up with him, drew her chair close to the fire and went off into a ser ies of short naps, chequered at frequent intervals with sundry tumblings forward , and divers moans and chokings. These, however, had no worse effect than causin g 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 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 the re, for many 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 sufferin g 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 turmoils 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 pi llows; and, as he was still too weak to walk, Mrs. Bedwin had him carried downst airs into the little housekeeper's room, which belonged to her. Having him set, here, by the fire-side, 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 c ry 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 lady; 'that's got nothing to do with your broth; and it's full time you had it; for the doctor says Mr. Brown low may come in to see you this morning; and we must get up our best looks, beca use 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: stro ng enough, Oliver thought, to furnish an ample dinner, when reduced to the regul ation 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 o pposite his chair. 'I don't quite know, ma'am,' said Oliver, without taking his eyes from the canva s; '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 likenesses might have known that would never succeed; it's a deal too hon est. 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 port rait.' 'Whose, ma'am?' asked Oliver. 'Why, really, my dear, I don't know,' answered the old lady in a good-humoured m anner. 'It's not a likeness of anybody that you or I know, I expect. It seems to strike your fancy, dear.' 'It is so pretty,' replied Oliver. 'Why, sure you're not afraid of it?' said the old lady: observing in great surpr ise, 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 t he 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 p osition; but he thought it better not to worry the kind old lady; so he smiled g ently when she looked at him; and Mrs. Bedwin, satisfied that he felt more comfo rtable, salted and broke bits of toasted bread into the broth, with all the bust le befitting so solemn a preparation. Oliver got through it with extraordinary e xpedition. He had scarcely swallowed the last spoonful, when there came a soft r ap at the door. 'Come in,' said the old lady; and in walked Mr. Brownlow. Now, the old gentleman came in as brisk as need be; but, he had no sooner raised his spectacles on his forehead, and thrust his hands behind the skirts of his d ressing-gown to take a good long look at Oliver, than his countenance underwent a very great variety of odd contortions. Oliver looked very worn and shadowy fro m sickness, and made an ineffectual attempt to stand up, out of respect to his b enefactor, which terminated in his sinking back into the chair again; and the fa ct 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 tea rs into his eyes, by some hydraulic process which we are not sufficiently philos ophical 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 air ed, 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 good ness to me.' 'Good by,' said Mr. Brownlow, stoutly. 'Have you given him any nourishment, Bedw in? Any slops, eh?' 'He has just had a basin of beautiful strong broth, sir,' replied Mrs. Bedwin: d rawing herself up slightly, and laying strong emphasis on the last word: to inti mate that between slops, and broth will compounded, there existed no affinity or connection whatsoever. 'Ugh!' said Mr. Brownlow, with a slight shudder; 'a couple of glasses of port wi ne 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 aston ishment. 'Oliver,' said Mr. Brownlow; 'Oliver what? Oliver White, eh?' 'No, sir, Twist, Oliver Twist.' 'Queer name!' said the old gentleman. 'What made you tell the magistrate your na me was White?' 'I never told him so, sir,' returned Oliver in amazement. This sounded so like a falsehood, that the old gentleman looked somewhat sternly in Oliver's face. It was impossible 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 featur es and some familiar face came upon him so strongly, that he could not withdraw his gaze. 'I hope you are not angry with me, sir?' said Oliver, raising his eyes beseechin gly. 'No, no,' replied the old gentleman. 'Why! what's this? Bedwin, look there!' As he spoke, he pointed hastily to the picture over Oliver's head, and then to t he boy's face. There was its living copy. The eyes, the head, the mouth; every f

eature was the same. The expression was, for the instant, so precisely alike, th at the minutest line seemed copied with startling accuracy! Oliver knew not the cause of this sudden exclamation; for, not being strong enou gh 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 when the Dodger, and his accomplished friend Master Bates, joined in the hu e-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 d escribed, they were actuated by a very laudable and becoming regard for themselv es; and forasmuch as the freedom of the subject and the liberty of the individua l are among the first and proudest boasts of a true-hearted Englishman, so, I ne ed 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 t his strong proof of their anxiety for their own preservation and safety goes to corroborate and confirm the little code of laws which certain profound and sound -judging philosophers have laid down as the main-springs of all Nature's deeds a nd actions: the said philosophers very wisely reducing the good lady's proceedin gs to matters of maxim and theory: and, by a very neat and pretty compliment to her exalted wisdom and understanding, putting entirely out of sight any consider ations of heart, or generous impulse and feeling. For, these are matters totally beneath a female who is acknowledged 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 conduc t 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 th eir 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 no t mean to assert that it is usually the practice of renowned and learned sages, to shorten the road to any great conclusion (their course indeed being rather to lengthen the distance, by various circumlocutions and discursive staggerings, l ike unto those in which drunken men under the pressure of a too mighty flow of i deas, are prone to indulge); still, I do mean to say, and do say distinctly, tha t it is the invariable practice of many mighty philosophers, in carrying out the ir theories, to evince great wisdom and foresight in providing against every pos sible 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 whi ch 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, comprehens ive, and impartial view of his own particular case. It was not until the two boys had scoured, with great rapidity, through a most i ntricate 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; a nd, bursting into an uncontrollable fit of laughter, flung himself upon a doorst ep, 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 wa nt 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 with the wip e in my pocket, singing out arter him--oh, my eye!' The vivid imagination of Mas ter Bates presented the scene before him in too strong colours. As he arrived at this apostrophe, he again rolled upon the door-step, and laughed louder than be fore. '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: stopping rather suddenly in his mer riment; for the Dodger's manner was impressive. 'What should he say?' Mr. Dawkins whistled for a couple of minutes; then, taking off his hat, scratche d 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 cockoloru m,' said the Dodger: with a slight sneer on his intellectual countenance. This was explanatory, but not satisfactory. Master Bates felt it so; and again s aid, '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, slappe d the bridge of his nose some half-dozen times in a familiar but expressive mann er, and turning on his heel, slunk down the court. Master Bates followed, with a thoughtful countenance. The noise of footsteps on the creaking stairs, a few minutes after the occurrenc e of this conversation, roused the merry old gentleman as he sat over the fire w ith a saveloy and a small loaf in his hand; a pocket-knife in his right; and a p ewter pot on the trivet. There was a rascally smile on his white face as he turn ed round, and looking sharply out from under his thick red eyebrows, bent his ea r towards the door, and listened. 'Why, how's this?' muttered the Jew: changing countenance; 'only two of 'em? Whe re's the third? They can't have got into trouble. Hark!' The footsteps approached nearer; they reached the landing. The door was slowly o pened; and the Dodger and Charley Bates entered, closing it behind them.

CHAPTER XIII SOME NEW ACQUAINTANCES ARE INTRODUCED TO THE INTELLIGENT READER, CONNECTED WITH WHOM VARIOUS PLEASANT MATTERS ARE RELATED, APPERTAINING TO THIS HISTORY 'Where's Oliver?' said the Jew, rising with a menacing look. 'Where's the boy?' The young thieves eyed their preceptor as if they were alarmed at his violence; and looked uneasily at each other. But they made no reply. 'What's become of the boy?' said the Jew, seizing the Dodger tightly by the coll ar, and threatening him with horrid imprecations. 'Speak out, or I'll throttle y ou!' Mr. Fagin looked so very much in earnest, that Charley Bates, who deemed it prud ent in all cases to be on the safe side, and who conceived it by no means improb able that it might be his turn to be throttled second, dropped upon his knees, a nd raised a loud, well-sustained, and continuous roar--something between a mad b ull 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,' said the Dodger, sullenl y. '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 t oasting 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 a nticipated in a man of his apparent decrepitude; and, seizing up the pot, prepar ed to hurl it at his assailant's head. But Charley Bates, at this moment, callin g his attention by a perfectly terrific howl, he suddenly altered its destinatio n, and flung it full at that young gentleman. 'Why, what the blazes is in the wind now!' growled a deep voice. 'Who pitched th at 'ere at me? It's well it'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 infernal, rich, plunderi ng, thundering old Jew could afford to throw away any drink but water--and not t

hat, unless he done the River Company every quarter. Wot's it all about, Fagin? D--me, if my neck-handkercher an't lined with beer! Come in, you sneaking warmin t; wot are you stopping outside for, as if you was ashamed of your master! Come in!' The man who growled out these words, was a stoutly-built fellow of about five-an d-thirty, in a black velveteen coat, very soiled drab breeches, lace-up half boo ts, and grey cotton stockings which inclosed a bulky pair of legs, with large sw elling calves;--the kind of legs, which in such costume, always look in an unfin ished and incomplete state without a set of fetters to garnish them. He had a br own hat on his head, and a dirty belcher handkerchief round his neck: with the l ong frayed ends of which he smeared the beer from his face as he spoke. He discl osed, 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 sy mptoms 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 m e 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 winking his very ill-lookin g eyes twenty times in a minute, appeared to occupy himself in taking a survey o f 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! I would if I was them. If I'd been your 'prentice, I'd have done i t long ago, and--no, I couldn't have sold you afterwards, for you're fit for not hing but keeping as a curiousity of ugliness in a glass bottle, and I suppose th ey don't blow glass bottles large enough.' '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 yo u come that. You know my name: out with it! I shan't disgrace it when the time c omes.' 'Well, well, then--Bill Sikes,' said the Jew, with abject humility. 'You seem ou t 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 toward s the boys. Mr. Sikes contented himself with tying an imaginary knot under his left ear, and jerking his head over on the right shoulder; a piece of dumb show which the Jew appeared to understand perfectly. He then, in cant terms, with which his whole conversation was plentifully besprinkled, but which would be quite unintelligibl e 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 whi ch the Jew bit his pale lip as he turned round to the cupboard, he might have th ought 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 hear t. After swallowing two of three glasses of spirits, Mr. Sikes condescended to take some notice of the young gentlemen; which gracious act led to a conversation, i n which the cause and manner of Oliver's capture were circumstantially detailed, with such alterations and improvements on the truth, as to the Dodger appeared most advisable under the circumstances. 'I'm afraid,' said the Jew, 'that he may say something which will get us into tr ouble.' '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, i f the game was up with us, it might be up with a good many more, and that it wou ld 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 shoulder s were shrugged up to his ears; and his eyes were vacantly staring on the opposi te wall. There was a long pause. Every member of the respectable coterie appeared plunged in his own reflections; not excepting the dog, who by a certain malicious licki ng of his lips seemed to be meditating an attack upon the legs of the first gent leman 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, th ere was one very strong objection to its being adopted. This was, that the Dodge r, and Charley Bates, and Fagin, and Mr. William Sikes, happened, one and all, t o entertain a violent and deeply-rooted antipathy to going near a police-office on any ground or pretext whatever. 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 necessar y to make any guesses on the subject, however; for the sudden entrance of the tw o young ladies whom Oliver had seen on a former occasion, caused the conversatio n 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 w ould not, but that she merely expressed an emphatic and earnest desire to be 'bl essed' if she would; a polite and delicate evasion of the request, which shows t he young lady to have been possessed of that 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 t o 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 her e 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 yes 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; f or, having recently removed into the neighborhood of Field Lane from the remote but genteel suburb of Ratcliffe, she was not under the same apprehension of bein g recognised by any of her numerous acquaintances. Accordingly, with a clean white apron tied over her gown, and her curl-papers tu cked up under a straw bonnet,--both articles of dress being provided from the Je

w's inexhaustible stock,--Miss Nancy prepared to issue forth on her errand. 'Stop a minute, my dear,' said the Jew, producing, a little covered basket. 'Car ry 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 o n the forefinger of the young lady's right hand. 'There; very good! Very good indeed, my dear!' said the Jew, rubbing his hands. 'Oh, my brother! My poor, dear, sweet, innocent little brother!' exclaimed Nancy , bursting into tears, and wringing 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, g entlemen, if you please, gentlemen!' Having uttered those words in a most lamentable and heart-broken tone: to the im measurable delight of her hearers: Miss Nancy paused, winked to the company, nod ded smilingly round, and disappeared. 'Ah, she's a clever girl, my dears,' said the Jew, turning round to his young fr iends, 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 Nan cy, that young lady made the best of her way to the police-office; whither, notw ithstanding a little natural timidity consequent upon walking through the street s 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-door s, and listened. There was no sound within: so she coughed and listened again. S till 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 appropriate and amusing remark that since he had so muc h breath to spare, it would be more wholesomely expended on the treadmill than i n a musical instrument. He made no answer: being occupied mentally bewailing the loss of the flute, which had been confiscated for the use of the county: so Nan cy passed on to the next cell, and knocked there. 'Well!' cried a faint and feeble voice. '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 fl ute; or, in other words, for begging in the streets, and doing nothing for his l ivelihood. In the next cell was another man, who was going to the same prison fo r hawking tin saucepans without 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 anyth ing about him, Nancy made straight up to the bluff officer in the striped waistc oat; and with the most piteous wailings and lamentations, rendered more piteous by a prompt and efficient use of the street-door key and the little basket, dema nded her own dear brother. 'I 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 questioning, the old man informed the deeply affecte d sister that Oliver had been taken ill in the office, and discharged in consequ ence of a witness having proved the robbery to have been committed by another bo y, not in custody; and that the prosecutor had carried him away, in an insensibl e condition, to his own residence: of and concerning which, all the informant kn

ew was, that it was somewhere in Pentonville, he having heard that word mentione d in the directions to the coachman. In a dreadful state of doubt and uncertainty, the agonised young woman staggered to the gate, and then, exchanging 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 expedition delivered, than he very hastily called up the white dog, and, putting on his hat, expeditiously dep arted: without devoting any time to the formality of wishing the company good-mo rning. 'We must know where he is, my dears; he must be found,' said the Jew greatly exc ited. 'Charley, do nothing 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 th e Artful for everything! Stay, stay,' added the Jew, unlocking a drawer with a s haking hand; 'there's money, my dears. I shall shut up this shop to-night. You'l l 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 dispos e 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 downstairs after his compa nions. 'He has not peached so far,' said the Jew as he pursued his occupation. 'If he m eans 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 REMA RKABLE PREDICTION WHICH ONE MR. GRIMWIG UTTERED CONCERNING HIM, WHEN HE WENT OUT ON AN ERRAND Oliver soon recovering from the fainting-fit into which Mr. Brownlow's abrupt ex clamation 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 in deed bore no reference to Oliver's history or prospects, but was confined to suc h topics as might amuse without exciting him. He was still too weak to get up to breakfast; but, when he came down into the housekeeper's room next day, his fir st 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. Brownlow said, that as it seemed to worry you, perhaps it might prevent your getting well, you know,' rejoined the o ld 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, le t us talk about something else.' This was all the information Oliver could 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 st ories she told him, about an amiable and handsome daughter of hers, who was marr ied to an amiable and handsome man, and lived in the country; and about a son, w ho was clerk to a merchant in the West Indies; and who was, also, such a good yo ung 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 h usband 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: wh ich 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 invalid 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 n eat, and orderly; everybody so kind and gentle; that after the noise and turbule nce 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 c aused a complete new suit, and a new cap, and a new pair of shoes, to be provide d for him. As Oliver was told that he might do what he liked with the old clothe s, he gave them to a servant who had been very kind to him, and asked her to sel l 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 a gain. 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 tal king 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 yo u, child,' said Mrs. Bedwin. 'Dear heart alive! If we had known he would have as ked for you, we would have put you a clean collar on, and made you as smart as s ixpence!' Oliver did as the old lady bade him; and, although she lamented grievously, mean while, 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 persona l advantage, that she went so far as to say: looking at him with great complacen cy 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 b efore 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 d own. 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. 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. Brownlow, observi ng the curiosity with which Oliver surveyed the shelves that reached from the fl oor 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 y ou will like that, better than looking at the outsides,--that is, some cases; be cause 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 smil ing 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 he artily, and declared he had said a very good thing. Which Oliver felt glad to ha ve 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 b rick-making to turn to.' 'Thank you, sir,' said Oliver. At the earnest manner of his reply, the old gentl eman laughed again; and said something about a curious instinct, which Oliver, n ot 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 wa nt you to pay great attention, my boy, to what I am going to say. I shall talk t o you without any reserve; because I am sure you are well able to understand me, as many older persons would be.' 'Oh, don't tell you are going to send me away, sir, pray!' exclaimed Oliver, ala rmed 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. Do n'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 I feel strongly disposed to trust you, nevertheless; and I am more interested in y our behalf than I can well account for, even to myself. The persons on whom I ha ve bestowed my dearest love, lie deep in their graves; but, although the happine ss and delight of my life lie buried there too, I have not made a coffin of my h eart, and sealed it up, forever, on my best affections. Deep affliction has but strengthened and refined them.' As the old gentleman said this in a low voice: more to himself than to his compa nion: and as he remained silent for a short time afterwards: Oliver sat quite st ill. 'Well, well!' said the old gentleman at length, in a more cheerful tone, 'I only say this, because you have a young heart; and knowing that I have suffered grea t 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 story; 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 o f beginning to relate how he had been brought up at the farm, and carried to the workhouse by Mr. Bumble, a peculiarly impatient little double-knock was heard a t the street-door: and the servant, running upstairs, announced Mr. Grimwig. 'Is he coming up?' inquired Mr. Brownlow. 'Yes, sir,' replied the servant. 'He asked if there were any muffins in the hous e; and, when I told him yes, he said he had come to tea.' Mr. Brownlow smiled; and, turning to Oliver, said that Mr. Grimwig was an old fr iend of his, and he must not mind his being a little rough in his manners; for h e was a worthy creature at bottom, as he had reason to know. 'Shall I go downstairs, sir?' inquired Oliver. 'No,' replied Mr. Brownlow, 'I 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 twist ed 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 screwing 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 attitu de, he fixed himself, the moment he made his appearance; and, holding out a smal l piece of orange-peel at arm's length, exclaimed, in a growling, discontented v oice. 'Look here! do you see this! Isn't it a most wonderful and extraordinary thing t hat I can't call at a man's house but I find a piece of this poor surgeon's frie nd on the staircase? I've been lamed with orange-peel once, and I know orange-pe el 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 e very assertion he made; and it was the more singular in his case, because, even admitting for the sake of argument, the possibility of scientific improvements b eing brought to that pass which will enable a gentleman to eat his own head in t he event of his being so disposed, Mr. Grimwig's head was such a particularly la rge 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 ver y thick coating of powder. 'I'll eat my head, sir,' repeated Mr. Grimwig, striking his stick upon the groun d. 'Hallo! what's that!' looking at Oliver, and retreating a pace or two. 'This is young Oliver Twist, whom we were speaking about,' said Mr. Brownlow. Oliver bowed. 'You don't mean to say that's the boy who had the fever, I hope?' said Mr. Grimw ig, recoiling 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 or ange, and threw this bit of peel upon the staircase, I'll eat my head, and his t oo.' '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, drawin g off his gloves. 'There's always more or less orange-peel on the pavement in ou r 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; direc tly she got up I saw her look towards his infernal red lamp with the pantomime-l ight. "Don't go to him," I called out of the window, "he's an assassin! A man-tr ap!" So he is. If he is not--' Here the irascible old gentleman gave a great kno ck on the ground with his stick; which was always understood, by his friends, to imply the customary offer, whenever it was not expressed in words. Then, still keeping his stick in his hand, he sat down; and, opening a double eye-glass, whi ch 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's 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 som ething disagreeable, asked Oliver to step downstairs and tell Mrs. Bedwin they w ere ready for tea; which, as he did not half like the visitor's manner, he was v ery happy to do. 'He is a nice-looking boy, is he not?' inquired Mr. Brownlow. 'I don't know,' replied Mr. Grimwig, pettishly. 'Don't know?' 'No. I don't know. I never see any difference in boys. I only knew two sort of b oys. 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; wit h 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 Tw ist; 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? What 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 kne w 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 p repossessing; but he had a strong appetite for contradiction, sharpened on this occasion by the finding of the orange-peel; and, inwardly determining that no ma n should dictate to him whether 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 inquiry 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 hear it; Mr. Grimwig chuckled maliciously. And he demanded, with a sneer, whether the housekeeper was in the habit of counting the plate at night; because if she didn't find a table-spoon or two missing some sunshiny mo rning, why, he would be content to--and so forth. All this, Mr. Brownlow, although himself somewhat of an impetuous gentleman: kno wing his friend's peculiarities, bore with great good humour; as Mr. Grimwig, at tea, was graciously pleased to express his entire approval of the muffins, matt ers 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 particular account of the life and adventures of Oliver Twist?' asked Grimwig of Mr. Brownlow, at the conclusi on of the meal; looking sideways at Oliver, as he resumed his 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 con fused by Mr. Grimwig's looking so hard at him. 'I'll tell you what,' whispered that gentleman to Mr. Brownlow; 'he won't come u p to you to-morrow morning. I saw him hesitate. He is deceiving you, my good fri end.' '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. Brownlow had that morning purchased of the identical bookstall-keeper, who has already figured in this history; having laid them on t he 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 the y are not paid for. There are some books to be taken back, too.' The street-door was opened. Oliver ran one way; and the girl ran another; and Mr s. Bedwin stood on the step and screamed for the boy; but there was no boy in si ght. Oliver and the girl returned, in a breathless state, to report that there w ere no tidings of him. 'Dear me, I am very sorry for that,' exclaimed Mr. Brownlow; 'I particularly wis

hed those books to be returned to-night.' 'Send Oliver with them,' said Mr. Grimwig, with an ironical smile; 'he will be s ure to deliver them safely, you know.' 'Yes; do let me take them, if you please, sir,' said Oliver. 'I'll run all the w ay, sir.' The old gentleman was just going to say that Oliver should not go out on any acc ount; 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 th e 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 s ay that you have brought those books back; and that you have come to pay the fou r pound ten I owe him. This is a five-pound note, so you will have to bring me b ack, ten shillings change.' 'I won't be ten minutes, sir,' said Oliver, eagerly. Having buttoned up the bank -note in his jacket pocket, and placed the books carefully under his arm, he mad e a respectful bow, and left the room. Mrs. Bedwin followed him to the street-do or, giving him many directions about the nearest way, and the name of the bookse ller, 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 permitted him to depart. 'Bless his sweet face!' said the old lady, looking after him. 'I can't bear, som ehow, to let him go out of my sight.' At this moment, Oliver looked gaily round, and nodded before he turned the corne r. The old lady smilingly returned his salutation, and, closing the door, went b ack 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 will be dark by that t ime.' '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; a nd 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 sui t of clothes on his back, a set of valuable books under his arm, and a five-poun d 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 words he drew his chair closer to the table; and there the two friend s sat, in silent expectation, with the watch between them. It is worthy of remark, as illustrating the importance we attach to our own judg ments, 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 decei ved, 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; b ut there the two old gentlemen continued to sit, in silence, with the watch betw een 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 Sa ffron Hill; a dark and gloomy den, where a flaring gas-light burnt all day in th e winter-time; and where no ray of sun ever shone in the summer: there sat, broo ding over a little pewter measure and a small glass, strongly impregnated with t

he smell of liquor, a man in a velveteen coat, drab shorts, half-boots and stock ings, whom even by that dim light no experienced agent of the police would have hesitated to recognise as Mr. William Sikes. At his feet, sat a white-coated, re d-eyed dog; who occupied himself, alternately, in winking at his master with bot h eyes at the same time; and in licking a large, fresh cut on one side of his mo uth, which appeared to be the result of some recent conflict. 'Keep quiet, you warmint! Keep quiet!' said Mr. Sikes, suddenly breaking silence . Whether his meditations were so intense as to be disturbed by the dog's winkin g, or whether his feelings were so wrought upon by his reflections that they req uired all the relief derivable from kicking an unoffending animal to allay them, is matter for argument and consideration. Whatever was the cause, the effect wa s a kick and a curse, bestowed upon the dog simultaneously. Dogs are not generally apt to revenge injuries inflicted upon them by their mast ers; 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 mo re ado but at once fixed his teeth in one of the half-boots. Having given in a h earty shake, he retired, growling, under a form; just escaping the pewter measur e which Mr. Sikes levelled at his head. 'You would, would you?' said Sikes, seizing the poker in one hand, and deliberat ely 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 ve ry harsh voice; but, appearing to entertain some unaccountable objection to havi ng his throat cut, he remained where he was, and growled more fiercely than befo re: 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, an d 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 other; when, the door suddenly opening, the dog darted out: leaving B ill 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, be ing disappointed of the dog's participation, at once transferred his share in th e quarrel to the new comer. 'What the devil do you come in between me and my dog for?' said Sikes, with a fi erce 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 no ise?' '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. 'Sneak ing in and out, so as nobody hears how you come or go! I wish you had been the d og, 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 hal f the pluck of curs, lets a man kill a dog how he likes,' replied Sikes, shuttin g 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 t he pleasantry of his friend. He was obviously very ill at ease, however. 'Grin away,' said Sikes, replacing the poker, and surveying him with savage cont empt; 'grin away. You'll never have the laugh at me, though, unless it's behind a nightcap. I've got the upper hand over you, Fagin; and, d--me, I'll keep it. T here! 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 int erest, 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 m e a good turn another time, and--' 'Stow that gammon,' interposed the robber, impatiently. 'Where is it? Hand over! ' '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 hi s breast; and untying a large knot in one corner, produced a small brown-paper p acket. Sikes, snatching it from him, hastily opened it; and proceeded to count t he sovereigns it contained. 'This is all, is it?' inquired Sikes. 'All,' replied the Jew. 'You haven't opened the parcel and swallowed one or two as you come along, have you?' inquired Sikes, suspiciously. 'Don't put on an injured look at the questio n; you've done it many a time. Jerk the tinkler.' These words, in plain English, conveyed an injunction to ring the bell. It was a nswered 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 Fagi n, 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 stooping at the m oment 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 that Sikes was loo king 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 B arney 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 g irl, 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.' 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, us hering in Nancy; who was decorated with the bonnet, apron, basket, and street-do or 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 eye-brows, and a half closi ng of his deeply-set eyes, warned Miss Nancy that she was disposed to be too com municative, 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 grac ious smiles upon Mr. Sikes, turned the conversation to other matters. In about t en minutes' time, Mr. Fagin was seized with a fit of coughing; upon which Nancy pulled her shawl over her shoulders, and declared it was time to go. Mr. Sikes, finding that he was walking a short part of her way himself, expressed his inten tion of accompanying her; they went away together, followed, at a little distant , by the dog, who slunk out of a back-yard as soon as his master was out of sigh t. The Jew thrust his head out of the room door when Sikes had left it; looked afte r him as we walked up the dark passage; shook his clenched fist; muttered a deep curse; and then, with a horrible grin, reseated 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 within so very short a dist ance of the merry old gentleman, was on his way to the book-stall. When he got i nto Clerkenwell, he accidently turned down a by-street which was not exactly in his way; but not discovering his mistake until he had got half-way down it, and knowing it must lead in the right direction, he did not think it worth while to turn back; and so marched on, as quickly as he could, with the books under his a rm. He was walking along, thinking how happy and contented he ought to feel; and how much he would give for only one look at poor little Dick, who, starved and beat en, might be weeping bitterly at that very moment; when he was startled by a you ng woman screaming out very loud. 'Oh, my dear brother!' And he had hardly looke d up, to see what the matter was, when he was stopped by having a pair of arms t hrown tight round his neck. 'Don't,' cried Oliver, struggling. 'Let go of me. Who is it? What are you stoppi ng me for?' The only reply to this, was a great number of loud lamentations from the young w oman 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 have found him! Oh! Oliver! Oliver! O h you naughty boy, to make me suffer such distress on your account! Come home, d ear, come. Oh, I've found him. Thank gracious goodness heavins, I've found him!' With these incoherent exclamations, the young woman burst into another fit of c rying, and got so dreadfully hysterical, that a couple of women who came up at t he moment asked a butcher's boy with a shiny head of hair anointed with suet, wh o was also looking on, whether he didn't think he had better run for the doctor. To which, the butcher's boy: who appeared of a lounging, not to say indolent di sposition: replied, that he thought not. 'Oh, no, no, never mind,' said the young woman, grasping Oliver's hand; 'I'm bet ter now. Come home directly, you cruel boy! Come!' 'Oh, ma'am,' replied the young woman, 'he ran away, near a month ago, from his p arents, who are hard-working and respectable people; and went and joined a set o f thieves and bad characters; and almost broke his mother's heart.' 'Young wretch!' 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 si ster, or father and mother either. I'm an orphan; I live at Pentonville.' 'Only hear him, how he braves it out!' cried the young woman. 'Why, it's Nancy!' exclaimed Oliver; who now saw her face for the first time; an d started back, in irrepressible astonishment. '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 d og at his heels; 'young Oliver! Come home to your poor mother, you young dog! Co me home directly.' 'I don't belong to them. I don't know them. Help! help!' cried Oliver, strugglin g 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 hea d. '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 g arret-window. 'It'll do him good!' said the two women. 'And he shall have it, too!' rejoined the man, administering another blow, and s eizing Oliver by the collar. 'Come on, you young villain! Here, Bull's-eye, mind him, boy! Mind him!' Weak with recent illness; stupified by the blows and the suddenness of the attac

k; terrified by the fierce growling of the dog, and the brutality of the man; ov erpowered by the conviction of the bystanders that he really was the hardened li ttle wretch he was described to be; what could one poor child do! Darkness had s et in; it was a low neighborhood; no help was near; resistance was useless. In a nother moment he was dragged into a labyrinth of dark narrow courts, and was for ced 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 intellig ible 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 o f Oliver; and still the two old gentlemen sat, perseveringly, in the dark parlou r, with the watch between them.

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; scat tered about which, were pens for beasts, and other indications of a cattle-marke t. Sikes slackened his pace when they reached this spot: the girl being quite un able to support any longer, the rapid rate at which they had hitherto walked. Tu rning 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 h is hand, which Nancy clasped tight in hers. 'Give me the other,' said Sikes, seizing Oliver's unoccupied 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 s peaks 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 t o attach himself to his windpipe without delay. 'He's as willing as a Christian, strike me blind if he isn't!' said Sikes, regar ding the animal with a kind of grim and ferocious approval. 'Now, you know what you've got to expect, master, so call away as quick as you like; the dog will so on 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 scarecely struggle through the heavy mist, which thickened every moment and shrouded the streets and houses in gloom; rendering t he strange place still stranger in Oliver's eyes; and making his uncertainty the more dismal and depressing. They had hurried on a few paces, when a deep church-bell struck the hour. With i ts first stroke, his two conductors stopped, and turned their heads in the direc tion 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 Bartlemy time when I was shopped; a nd there warn't a penny trumpet in the fair, as I couldn't hear the squeaking on . Arter I was locked up for the night, the row and din outside made the thunderi ng old jail so silent, that I could almost have beat my brains out against the i ron plates of the door.' 'Poor fellow!' 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, t hey're as good as dead, so it don't much matter.' With this consolation, Mr. Sikes appeared to repress a rising tendency to jealou sy, 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 com ing 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 s hawl to cover me.' 'And what good would that do?' inquired the unsentimental 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 m e. Come on, and don't stand preaching there.' The girl burst into a laugh; drew her shawl more closely round her; and they wal ked 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: meeti ng very few people, and those appearing from their looks to hold much the same p osition in society as Mr. Sikes himself. At length they turned into a very filth y narrow street, nearly full of old-clothes shops; the dog running forward, as i f conscious that there was no further occasion for his keeping on guard, stopped before the door of a shop that was closed and apparently untenanted; 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 cro ssed to the opposite side of the street, and stood for a few moments under a lam p. A noise, as if a sash window were gently raised, was heard; and soon afterwar ds the door softly opened. Mr. Sikes then seized the terrified boy by the collar with very little ceremony; and all three were quickly inside the house. The passage was perfectly dark. They waited, while the person who had let them i n, 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 delivered it, seemed familia r to Oliver's ears: but it was impossible to distinguish even the form of the sp eaker in the darkness. 'Let's have a glim,' said Sikes, 'or we shall go breaking 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 fo otsteps 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 tall ow candle stuck in the end of a cleft stick. The young gentleman did not stop to bestow any other mark of recognition upon Ol iver than a humourous grin; but, turning away, beckoned the visitors to follow h im down a flight of stairs. They crossed an empty kitchen; and, opening the door of a low earthy-smelling room, which seemed to have been built in a small backyard, 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 cant' bear it. Hold me, somebody, while I laugh it out.' With this irrepressible ebullition of mirth, Master Bates laid himself flat on t he floor: and kicked convulsively for five minutes, in an ectasy of facetious jo y. Then jumping to his feet, he snatched the cleft stick from the Dodger; and, a dvancing to Oliver, viewed him round and round; while the Jew, taking off his ni ghtcap, made a great number of low bows to the bewildered boy. The Artful, meant ime, 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 j acket 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 gent leman, 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? W e'd have got something warm for supper.' At his, 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 ins tant, it is doubtful whether the sally of the discovery awakened his merriment. 'Hallo, what's that?' inquired Sikes, stepping forward as the Jew seized the not e. '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. '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 nothing else to do with our precious time but to spend it in scou ting 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 looking the old man coolly in the face, folded it up smal l, 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 ain't, sell 'em.' 'They're very pretty,' said Charley Bates: who, with sundry grimaces, had been a ffecting to read one of the volumes in question; 'beautiful writing, isn't is, O liver?' 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 a nother ectasy, more boisterous than the first. 'They belong to the old gentleman,' said Oliver, wringing his hands; 'to the goo d, 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 m oney. 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 sto le them. Oh, do have mercy upon me, and send them back!' With these words, which were uttered with all the energy of passionate grief, Ol iver fell upon his knees at the Jew's feet; and beat his hands together, in perf ect desperation. 'The boy's right,' remarked Fagin, looking covertly round, and knitting his shag gy eyebrows into a hard knot. 'You're right, Oliver, you're right; they WILL thi nk 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 comin g through Clerkenwell, with 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 t hey'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 scarecely understand what passed; but when Bil l 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 i t, as the Jew and his two pupils darted out in pursuit. 'Keep back the dog; he'l

l 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, struggl ing violently with the man, 'the child shan't be torn down by the dog, unless yo u kill me first.' 'Shan't he!' said Sikes, setting his teeth. 'I'll soon do that, if you don't kee p 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 has n'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 d o you think of that?' Mr. Fagin was sufficiently well acquainted with the manners and customs of that particular species of humanity to which Nancy belonged, to feel tolerably certai n that it would be rather unsafe to prolong any conversation with her, at presen t. 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 law in a corner of the fireplace; 'eh?' 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, cat ching 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 rais ing it for a second, when the girl, rushing forward, wrested it from his hand. S he flung it into the fire, with a force that brought some of the glowing coals w hirling 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 vented this threat; and with her lips compressed, and her hands clenched, looked alternately at the Jew and the other robber: her face quite colourless from the passion of rage into wh ich she had gradually worked herself. 'Why, Nancy!' said the Jew, in a soothing tone; after a pause, during which he a nd Mr. Sikes had stared at one another in a disconcerted manner; 'you,--you're m ore clever than ever to-night. Ha! ha! my dear, you are acting beautifully.' 'Am I!' said the girl. 'Take care I don't overdo it. You will be the worse for i t, 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 of recklessness and despair; which few men like to provoke. The Jew saw that it would be hopeless to affect any further mis take regarding the reality of Miss Nancy's rage; and, shrinking involuntarily ba ck a few paces, cast a glance, half imploring 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 ut terance to about a couple of score of curses and threats, the rapid production o f which reflected great credit on the fertility of his invention. As they produc ed no visible effect on the object against whom they were discharged, however, h e resorted to more tangible arguments. 'What do you mean by this?' said Sikes; backing the inquiry with a very common i mprecation concerning the most beautiful of human features: which, if it were he ard 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, laughing hysterically; and sha

king 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 accustom ed to use when addressing his dog, 'or I'll quiet you for a good long time to co me.' The girl laughed again: even less composedly than before; and, darting a hasty l ook 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, 't o 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 passionately; 'and I wish I had bee n struck dead in the street, or had changed places with them we passed so near t o-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 wret ch, 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 m ust 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, a nd in the same service, for twelve years since. Don't you know it? Speak out! Do n't you know it?' 'Well, well,' replied the Jew, with an attempt at pacification; 'and, if you hav e, 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 stree ts are my home; and you're the wretch that drove me to them long ago, and that'l l 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 pa ssion, made such a rush at the Jew as would probably have left signal marks of h er revenge 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 distu rbance over; but neither he, nor Sikes, nor the dog, nor the boys, seemed to con sider it in any other light than a common occurance 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 get on, in our line, without 'em. Charley, show Oliver to bed.' 'I suppose he'd better not wear his best clothes tomorrow, Fagin, had he?' inqui red Charley Bates. 'Certainly not,' replied the Jew, reciprocating the grin with which Charley put the question. Master Bates, apparently much delighted with his commission, took the cleft stic k: and led Oliver into an adjacent kitchen, where there were two or three of the beds on which he had slept before; and here, with many uncontrollable bursts of laughter, he produced the identical old suit of clothes which Oliver had so muc h congratulated himself upon leaving off at Mr. Brownlow's; and the accidental d isplay of which, to Fagin, by the Jew who purchased them, had been the very firs t clue received, of his whereabout. 'Put 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 up the new clothes under his arm, departed from the room, leaving Oliver in the dark, and locking the doo r behind him. The noise of Charley's laughter, and the voice of Miss Betsy, who opportunely ar rived to throw water over her friend, and perform other feminine offices for the

promotion of her recovery, might have kept many people awake under more happy c ircumstances than those in which Oliver was placed. But he was sick and weary; a nd 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, weighed do wn by fetters and misfortunes; in the next scene, his faithful but unconscious s quire regales the audience with a comic song. We behold, with throbbing 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 highest pitch, a whis tle is heard, and we are straightway transported to the great hall of the castle ; where a grey-headed seneschal sings a funny chorus with a funnier body of vass als, who are free of all sorts of places, from church vaults to palaces, and roa m about in company, carolling perpetually. Such changes appear absurd; but they are not so unnatural as they would seem at first sight. The transitions in real life from well-spread boards to death-beds, and from mourning-weeds to holiday garments, are not a whit less startling; onl y, there, we are busy actors, instead of passive lookers-on, which makes a vast difference. The actors in the mimic life of the theatre, are blind to violent tr ansitions and abrupt impulses of passion or feeling, which, presented before the eyes of mere spectators, are at once condemned as outrageous and preposterous. As sudden shiftings of the scene, and rapid changes of time and place, are not o nly sanctioned in books by long usage, but are by many considered as the great a rt of authorship: an author's skill in his craft being, by such critics, chiefly estimated with relation to the dilemmas in which he leaves his characters at th e end of every chapter: this brief introduction to the present one may perhaps b e deemed unnecessary. If so, let it be considered a delicate intimation on the p art 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 reas ons for making the journey, or he would not be invited to proceed upon such an e xpedition. Mr. Bumble emerged at early morning from the workhouse-gate, and walked with por tly carriage and commanding steps, up the High Street. He was in the full bloom and pride of beadlehood; his cocked hat and coat were dazzling in the morning su n; he clutched his cane with the vigorous tenacity of health and power. Mr. Bumb le always carried his head high; but this morning it was higher than usual. Ther e was an abstraction in his eye, an elevation in his air, which might have warne d an observant stranger that thoughts were passing in the beadle's mind, too gre at for utterance. Mr. Bumble stopped not to converse with the small shopkeepers and others who spo ke to him, deferentially, as he passed along. He merely returned their salutatio ns with a wave of his hand, and relaxed not in his dignified pace, until he reac hed the farm where Mrs. Mann tended the infant paupers with parochial care. 'Drat that beadle!' said Mrs. Mann, hearing the well-known shaking at the garden -gate. 'If it isn't him at this time in the morning! Lauk, Mr. Bumble, only thin k of its being you! Well, dear me, it IS a pleasure, this is! Come into the parl our, sir, please.' The first sentence was addressed to Susan; and the exclamations of delight were uttered to Mr. Bumble: as the good lady unlocked the garden-gate: and showed him , with great attention and respect, into the house. 'Mrs. Mann,' said Mr. Bumble; not sitting upon, or dropping himself into a seat, as any common jackanapes would: but letting himself gradually and slowly down i nto a chair; 'Mrs. Mann, ma'am, good morning.'

'Well, and good morning to you, sir,' replied Mrs. Mann, with many smiles; 'and hoping you find yourself well, sir!' 'So-so, Mrs. Mann,' replied the beadle. 'A porochial life is not a bed of roses, Mrs. Mann.' 'Ah, that it isn't indeed, Mr. Bumble,' rejoined the lady. And all the infant pa upers might have chorussed the rejoinder with great propriety, if they had heard it. 'A porochial life, ma'am,' continued Mr. Bumble, striking the table with his can e, '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 satisfactio n of the public character: who, repressing a complacent smile by looking sternly at his cocked hat, said, 'Mrs. Mann, I am going to London.' 'Lauk, Mr. Bumble!' cried Mrs. Mann, starting back. 'To London, ma'am,' resumed the inflexible beadle, '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 dispose to the matter before the quarter-sessio ns at Clerkinwell. And I very much question,' added Mr. Bumble, drawing himself up, 'whether the Cl erkinwell Sessions will not find themselves in the wrong box before they have do ne with me.' 'Oh! you mustn't be too hard upon them, sir,' said Mrs. Mann, coaxingly. 'The Clerkinwell Sessions have brought it upon themselves, ma'am,' replied Mr. B umble; 'and if the Clerkinwell Sessions find that they come off rather worse tha n they expected, the Clerkinwell Sessions have only themselves to thank.' There was so much determination and depth of purpose about the menacing manner i n which Mr. Bumble delivered himself of these words, that Mrs. Mann appeared qui te 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 takes them cheap,' said Mr. B umble. 'They are both in a very low state, and we find it would come two pound c heaper to move 'em than to bury 'em--that is, if we can throw 'em upon another p arish, which I think we shall be able to do, if they don't die upon the road to spite us. Ha! ha! ha!' When Mr. Bumble had laughed a little while, his eyes again encountered the cocke d hat; and he became grave. 'We are forgetting business, ma'am,' said the beadle; 'here is your porochial st ipend for the month.' Mr. Bumble produced some silver money rolled up in paper, from his pocket-book; and requested a receipt: which Mrs. Mann wrote. 'It's very much blotted, sir,' said the farmer of infants; 'but it's formal enou gh, I dare say. Thank you, Mr. Bumble, sir, I am very much obliged to you, I'm s ure.' Mr. Bumble nodded, blandly, in acknowledgment of Mrs. Mann's curtsey; and inquir ed how the children were. 'Bless their dear little hearts!' said Mrs. Mann with emotion, 'they're as well as can be, the dears! Of course, except the two that died last week. And little Dick.' 'Isn't that boy no better?' inquired Mr. Bumble. Mrs. Mann shook her head. 'He's a ill-conditioned, wicious, bad-disposed porochial child that,' said Mr. B umble angrily. 'Where is he?'

'I'll bring him to you in one minute, sir,' replied Mrs. Mann. 'Here, you Dick!' After some calling, Dick was discovered. Having had his face put under the pump, and dried upon Mrs. Mann's gown, he was led into the awful presence of Mr. Bumb le, the beadle. The child was pale and thin; his cheeks were sunken; and his eyes large and brig ht. The scanty parish dress, the livery of his misery, hung loosely on his feebl e body; and his young limbs had wasted away, like those of an old man. Such was the little being who stood trembling beneath Mr. Bumble's glance; not d aring to lift his eyes from the floor; and dreading even to hear the beadle's vo ice. 'Can't you look at the gentleman, you obstinate boy?' said Mrs. Mann. The child meekly raised his eyes, and encountered those of Mr. Bumble. 'What's the matter with you, porochial Dick?' inquired Mr. Bumble, with well-tim ed 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 like--' faltered the child. 'Hey-day!' interposed Mr. 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 author ity. 'Like what, sir, eh?' 'I should like,' faltered the child, 'if somebody that can write, would put a fe w 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 of the child had made some impression: accustomed as he was to su ch things. 'What do you mean, sir?' 'I should like,' said the child, 'to leave my dear love to poor Oliver Twist; an d to let him know how often I have sat by myself and cried to think of his wande ring about in the dark nights with nobody to help him. And I should like to tell him,' said the child pressing his small 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 f orget me, or be unlike me; and it would be so much happier if we were both child ren there together.' Mr. Bumble surveyed the little speaker, from head to foot, with indescribable as tonishment; and, turning to his companion, said, 'They're all in one story, Mrs. Mann. That out-dacious Oliver had demogalized them all!' 'I couldn't have believed it, sir' said Mrs Mann, holding up her hands, and look ing malignantly at Dick. 'I never see such a hardened little wretch!' 'Take him away, ma'am!' said Mr. Bumble imperiously. 'This must be stated to the board, Mrs. Mann. 'I hope the gentleman will understand that it isn't my fault, sir?' said Mrs. Ma nn, whimpering pathetically. 'They shall understand that, ma'am; they shall be acquainted with the true state of the case,' said Mr. Bumble. 'There; take him away, I can't bear the sight on him.' Dick was immediately taken away, and locked up in the coal-cellar. Mr. Bumble sh ortly afterwards took himself off, to prepare for his journey. At six o'clock next morning, Mr. Bumble: having exchanged his cocked hat for a r ound one, and encased his person in a blue great-coat with a cape to it: took hi s place on the outside of the coach, accompanied by the criminals whose settleme nt was disputed; with whom, in due course of time, he arrived in London. He experienced no other crosses on the way, than those which originated in the p erverse behaviour of the two paupers, who persisted in shivering, and complainin g of the cold, in a manner which, Mr. Bumble declared, caused his teeth to chatt er in his head, and made him feel quite uncomfortable; although he had a great-c oat on.

Having disposed of these evil-minded persons for the night, Mr. Bumble sat himse lf down in the house at which the coach stopped; and took a temperate dinner of steaks, oyster sauce, and porter. Putting a glass of hot gin-and-water on the ch imney-piece, he drew his chair to the fire; and, with sundry moral reflections o n the too-prevalent sin of discontent and complaining, composed himself to read the paper. The very first paragraph upon which Mr. Bumble's eye rested, was the following a dvertisement. 'FIVE GUINEAS REWARD 'Whereas a young boy, named Oliver Twist, absconded, or was enticed, on Thursday evening last, from his home, at Pentonville; and has not since been heard of. T he above reward will be paid to any person who will give such information as wil l lead to the discovery of the said Oliver Twist, or tend to throw any light upo n his previous history, in which the advertiser is, for many reasons, warmly int erested.' And then followed a full description of Oliver's dress, person, appearance, and disappearance: with the name and address of Mr. Brownlow at full length. 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 Pentonv ille: having actually, in his excitement, left the glass of hot gin-and-water, u ntasted. '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 explanation of his errand, than M rs. Bedwin, who had been listening at the parlour door, hastened into the passag e in 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 heard 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 susc eptible, had run upstairs meanwhile; and now returned with a request that Mr. Bu mble would follow her immediately: which he did. He was shown into the little back study, where sat Mr. Brownlow and his friend M r. 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 man ner. Mr. Brownlow moved the lamp, so as to obtain an uninterrupted view of the b eadle'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!' Mr. Brownlow gently shook his head to impose silence on 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 frie nd, if you have anything to say. What DO you know of him?' 'You don't happen to know any good of him, do you?' said Mr. Grimwig, causticall y; after an attentive perusal of Mr. Bumble's features. Mr. Bumble, catching at the inquiry very quickly, shook his head with portentous solemnity. 'You see?' said Mr. Grimwig, looking triumphantly at Mr. Brownlow. Mr. Brownlow looked apprehensively at Mr. Bumble's pursed-up countenance; and re quested him to communicate what he knew regarding Oliver, in as few words as pos sible.

Mr. Bumble put down his hat; unbuttoned his coat; folded his arms; inclined his head in a retrospective manner; and, after a few moments' reflection, commenced his story. It would be tedious if given in the beadle's words: occupying, as it did, some t wenty minutes in the telling; but the sum and substance of it was, that Oliver w as a foundling, born of low and vicious parents. That he had, from his birth, di splayed no better qualities than treachery, ingratitude, and malice. That he had terminated his brief career in the place of his birth, by making a sanguinary a nd cowardly attack on an unoffending lad, and running away in the night-time fro m his master's house. In proof of his really being the person he represented him self, Mr. Bumble laid upon the table the papers he had brought to town. Folding his arms again, he then awaited Mr. Brownlow's observations. 'I fear it is all too true,' said the old gentleman sorrowfully, after looking o ver the papers. 'This is not much for your intelligence; but I would gladly have given you treble the money, if it had been favourable to the boy.' It is not improbable that if Mr. Bumble had been possessed of this information a t an earlier period of the interview, he might have imparted a very different co louring to his little history. It was too late to do it now, however; so he shoo k his head gravely, and, pocketing the five guineas, withdrew. Mr. Brownlow paced the room to and fro for some minutes; evidently so much distu rbed 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 housekeeper appeared; 'that boy, Oliv er, is an imposter.' 'It can't be, sir. It cannot be,' said the old lady energetically. 'I tell you he is,' retorted the old gentleman. 'What do you mean by can't be? W e have just heard a full account of him from his birth; and he has been a thorou gh-paced little villain, all his life.' '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 advise in the beginning; you would if he hadn't had a fever, I suppose, eh? He was interestin g, 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't say the same, shouldn't say anything about them. That's my opinion!' This was a hard hit at Mr. Grimwig, who was a bachelor. As it extorted nothing f rom that gentleman but a smile, the old lady tossed her head, and smoothed down her apron preparatory to another speech, when she was stopped by Mr. Brownlow. 'Silence!' said the old gentleman, feigning an anger he was far from feeling. 'N ever let me hear the boy's name again. I rang to tell you that. Never. Never, on any pretence, mind! You may leave the room, Mrs. Bedwin. Remember! I am in earn est.' There were sad hearts at Mr. Brownlow's that night. Oliver's heart sank within him, when he thought of his good friends; it was well for him that he could not know what they had heard, or it might have broken out right.

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 the ir customary avocations, Mr. Fagin took the opportunity of reading Oliver a long lecture on the crying sin of ingratitude; of which he clearly demonstrated he h ad been guilty, to no ordinary extent, in wilfully absenting himself from the so ciety of his anxious friends; and, still more, in endeavouring to escape from th em after so much trouble and expense had been incurred in his recovery. Mr. Fagi n laid great stress on the fact of his having taken Oliver in, and cherished him , when, without his timely aid, he might have perished with hunger; and he relat

ed the dismal and affecting history of a young lad whom, in his philanthropy, he had succoured under parallel circumstances, but who, proving unworthy of his co nfidence and evincing a desire to communicate with the police, had unfortunately come to be hanged at the Old Bailey one morning. Mr. Fagin did not seek to conc eal his share in the catastrophe, but lamented with tears in his eyes that the w rong-headed and treacherous behaviour of the young person in question, had rende red it necessary that he should become the victim of certain evidence for the cr own: which, if it were not precisely true, was indispensably necessary for the s afety of him (Mr. Fagin) and a few select friends. Mr. Fagin concluded by drawin g a rather disagreeable picture of the discomforts of hanging; and, with great f riendliness and politeness of manner, expressed his anxious hopes that he might never be obliged to submit Oliver Twist to that unpleasant operation. Little Oliver's blood ran cold, as he listened to the Jew's words, and imperfect ly comprehended the dark threats conveyed in them. That it was possible even for justice itself to confound the innocent with the guilty when they were in accid ental companionship, he knew already; and that deeply-laid plans for the destruc tion of inconveniently knowing or over-communicative persons, had been really de vised and carried out by the Jew on more occasions than one, he thought by no me ans unlikely, when he recollected the general nature of the altercations between that gentleman and Mr. Sikes: which seemed to bear reference to some foregone c onspiracy of the kind. As he glanced timidly up, and met the Jew's searching loo k, he felt that his pale face and trembling limbs were neither unnoticed nor unr elished 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 grea t-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 lo ng hours to commune with his own thoughts. Which, never failing to revert to his kind friends, and the opinion they must long ago have formed of him, were sad i ndeed. After the lapse of a week or so, the Jew left the room-door unlocked; and he was at liberty to wander about the house. It was a very dirty place. The rooms upstairs had great high wooden chimney-piec es and large doors, with panelled walls and cornices to the ceiling; which, alth ough they were black with neglect and dust, were ornamented in various ways. Fro m all of these tokens Oliver concluded that a long time ago, before the old Jew was born, it had belonged to better people, and had perhaps been quite gay and h andsome: dismal and dreary as it looked now. Spiders had built their webs in the angles of the walls and ceilings; and someti mes, when Oliver walked softly into a room, the mice would scamper across the fl oor, and run back terrified to their holes. With these exceptions, there was nei ther sight nor sound of any living thing; and often, when it grew dark, and he w as tired of wandering from room to room, he would crouch in the corner of the pa ssage by the street-door, to be as near living people as he could; and would rem ain there, listening and counting 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, steali ng its way through round holes at the top: which made the rooms more gloomy, and filled them with strange shadows. There was a back-garret window with rusty bar s outside, which had no shutter; and out of this, Oliver often gazed with a mela ncholy face for hours together; but nothing was to be descried from it but a con fused and crowded mass of housetops, blackened chimneys, and gable-ends. Sometim es, indeed, a grizzly head might be seen, peering over the parapet-wall of a dis tant house; but it was quickly withdrawn again; and as the window of Oliver's ob servatory was nailed down, and dimmed with the rain and smoke of years, it was a s much as he could do to make out the forms of the different objects beyond, wit hout making any attempt to be seen or heard,--which he had as much chance of bei ng, as if he had lived inside the ball of St. Paul's Cathedral.

One afternoon, the Dodger and Master Bates being engaged out that evening, the f irst-named young gentleman took it into his head to evince some anxiety regardin g the decoration of his person (to do him justice, this was by no means an habit ual 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, ho wever bad, to look upon; too desirous to conciliate those about him when he coul d honestly do so; to throw any objection in the way of this proposal. So he at o nce expressed his readiness; and, kneeling on the floor, while the Dodger sat up on the table so that he could take his foot in his laps, he applied himself to a process which Mr. Dawkins designated as 'japanning his trotter-cases.' The phra se, rendered into plain English, signifieth, cleaning his boots. Whether 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 ti me, without even the past trouble of having taken them off, or the prospective m isery of putting them on, to disturb his reflections; or whether it was the good ness 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 looke d down on Oliver, with a thoughtful countenance, for a brief space; and then, ra ising his head, and heaving a gentle sign, said, half in abstraction, and half t o 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 s moked, for some seconds, in silence. 'I suppose you don't even know what a prig is?' said the Dodger mournfully. 'I think I know that,' replied Oliver, looking up. 'It's a the--; you're one, ar e you not?' inquired Oliver, checking himself. 'I am,' replied the Doger. 'I'd scorn to be anything else.' Mr. Dawkins gave his hat a ferocious cock, after delivering this sentiment, and looked at Master Bat es, as if to denote that he would feel obliged by his saying anything to the con trary. '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; n o, not if you tied him up in one, and left him there without wittles for a fortn ight,' 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 w hen 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 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 a ppropriate 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, be tween whom, and Mr. Sikes' dog, there exist strong and singular points of resemb lance. 'Well, well,' said the Dodger, recurring to the point from which they had straye d: with that mindfulness of his profession which influenced all his proceedings. 'This hasn't go anything to do with young Green here.' 'No more it has,' said Charley. 'Why don't you put yourself 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 gen-teel: as I mean to, i n the very next leap-year but four that ever comes, and the forty-second Tuesday in Trinity-week,' 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 dangerous to express his fee lings more openly, he only sighed, and went on with his boot-cleaning. 'Go!' exclaimed the Dodger. 'Why, where's your spirit?' Don't you take any pride out of yourself? Would you go and be dependent on your friends?' 'Oh, blow that!' said Master Bates: drawing two or three silk handkerchiefs from his pocket, and tossing them into a cupboard, 'that's too mean; that is.' 'I couldn't do it,' said the Dodger, with an air of haughty disgust. 'You can leave your friends, though,' said Oliver with a half smile; 'and let th em be punished for what you did.' 'That,' rejoined the Dodger, with a wave of his pipe, 'That was all out of consi deration for Fagin, 'cause the traps know that we work together, and he might ha ve got into trouble if we hadn't made our lucky; that was the move, wasn't it, C harley?' Master Bates nodded assent, and would have spoken, but the recollection of Olive r's flight came so suddenly upon him, that the smoke he was inhaling got entangl ed with a laugh, and went up into his head, and down into his throat: and brough t on a fit of coughing and stamping, about five minutes long. 'Look here!' said the Dodger, drawing forth a handful of shillings and halfpence . 'Here's a jolly life! What's the odds where it comes from? Here, catch hold; t here's plenty more where they were took from. You won't, won't you? Oh, you prec ious flat!' 'It's naughty, ain't it, Oliver?' inquired Charley Bates. 'He'll come to be scra gged, won't he?' 'I don't know what that means,' replied Oliver. 'Something in this way, old feller,' said Charly. As he said it, Master Bates ca ught up an end of his neckerchief; and, holding it erect in the air, dropped his head on his shoulder, and jerked a curious sound through his teeth; thereby ind icating, 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 that 'ere boy; he'll be the death of me, I know he will.' Master Charley Bates, having laughed heartily again, resumed his pipe with tears in his eyes. 'You've been brought up bad,' said the Dodger, surveying his boots with much sat isfaction when Oliver had polished them. 'Fagin will make something of you, thou gh, or you'll be the first he ever had that turned out unprofitable. You'd bette r begin at once; for you'll come to the trade long before you think of it; and y ou're only losing time, Oliver.' Master Bates backed this advice with sundry moral admonitions of his own: which, being exhausted, he and his friend Mr. Dawkins launched into a glowing descript ion 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 secur e Fagin's favour without more delay, by the means which they themselves had empl oyed 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 fogels and tickers--' 'What's the good of talking in that way?' interposed Master Bates; 'he don't kno w what you mean.' 'If you don't take pocket-handkechers and watches,' said the Dodger, reducing hi s 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 yo u've just as good a right to them as they have.' 'To be sure, to be sure!' said the Jew, who had entered unseen by Oliver. 'It al l 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.

The conversation proceeded no farther at this time, for the Jew had returned hom e 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 eightee n winters; but there was a degree of deference in his deportment towards that yo ung gentleman which seemed to indicate that he felt himself conscious of a sligh t inferiority in point of genius and professional aquirements. He had small twin kling eyes, and a pock-marked face; wore a fur cap, a dark corduroy jacket, grea sy fustian trousers, and an apron. His wardrobe was, in truth, rather out of rep air; but he excused himself to the company by stating that his 'time' was only o ut an hour before; and that, in consequence of having worn the regimentals for s ix weeks past, he had not been able to bestow any attention on his private cloth es. Mr. Chitling added, with strong marks of irritation, that the new way of fum igating clothes up yonder was infernal unconstitutional, for it burnt holes in t hem, and there was no remedy against the County. The same remark he considered t o apply to the regulation mode of cutting the hair: which he held to be decidedl y unlawful. Mr. Chitling wound up his observations by stating that he had not to uched a drop of anything for forty-two moral 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 contemptuous look at Oliver. 'A young friend of mine, my dear,' replied the Jew. 'He's in luck, then,' said the young man, with a meaning look at Fagin. 'Never m ind where I came from, young 'un; you'll find your way there, soon enough, 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 withdrew. After some words apart between the last comer and Fagin, they drew their chairs towards the fire; and the Jew, telling Oliver to come and sit by him, led the co nversation to the topics most calculated to interest his hearers. These were, th e great advantages of the trade, the proficiency of the Dodger, the amiability o f Charley Bates, and the liberality of the Jew himself. At length these subjects displayed signs of being thoroughly exhausted; and Mr. Chitling did the same: f or the house of correction becomes fatiguing after a week or two. Miss Betsy acc ordingly withdrew; and left the party to their repose. From this day, Oliver was seldom left alone; but was placed in almost constant c ommunication with the two boys, who played the old game with the Jew every day: whether for their own improvement or Oliver's, Mr. Fagin best knew. At other tim es the old man would tell them stories of robberies he had committed in his youn ger days: mixed up with so much that was droll and curious, that Oliver could no t help laughing heartily, and showing that he was amused in spite of all his bet ter feelings. In short, the wily old Jew had the boy in his toils. Having prepared his mind, b y 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: buttoning his great-coat tight round his shrivelled body, and pulling the collar up over his ears so as complet ely to obscure the lower part of his face: emerged from his den. He paused on th e step as the door was locked and chained behind him; and having listened while the boys made all secure, and until their retreating footsteps were no longer au dible, slunk down the street as quickly as he could.

The house to which Oliver had been conveyed, was in the neighborhood of Whitecha pel. The Jew stopped for an instant at the corner of the street; and, glancing s uspiciously round, crossed the road, and struck off in the direction of the Spit alfields. The mud lay thick upon the stones, and a black mist hung over the streets; the r ain fell sluggishly down, and everything felt cold and clammy to the touch. It s eemed just the night when it befitted such a being as the Jew to be abroad. As h e glided stealthily along, creeping beneath the shelter of the walls and doorway s, the hideous old man seemed like some loathsome reptile, engendered in the sli me and darkness through which he moved: crawling forth, by night, in search of s ome rich offal for a meal. He kept on his course, through many winding and narrow ways, until he reached Be thnal 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-popu lated quarter. The Jew was evidently too familiar with the ground he traversed to be at all bew ildered, 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 one, light ed only by a single lamp at the farther end. At the door of a house in this stre et, he knocked; having exchanged a few muttered words with the person who opened it, he walked upstairs. A dog growled as he touched the handle of a room-door; and a man's voice demande d who was there. 'Only me, Bill; only me, my dear,' said the Jew looking in. 'Bring in your body then,' said Sikes. 'Lie down, you stupid brute! Don't you kn ow 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 sh e had interfered in behalf of Oliver. All doubts upon the subject, 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 f ire. '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 tu rn a man ill, to see his lean old carcase shivering in that way, like a ugly gho st 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 af ter 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 remai nder of its contents into the ashes: as a preparatory ceremony to filling it aga in for himself: which he did at once. The Jew glanced round the room, as his companion tossed down the second glassful ; not in curiousity, for he had seen it often before; but in a restless and susp icious manner 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 anyth ing but a working man; and with no more suspicious articles displayed to view th an 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 you've got to say.' 'About the crib at Chertsey, Bill?' said the Jew, drawing his chair forward, and speaking in a very low voice. 'Yes. Wot about it?' inquired Sikes. '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. Spea k out, and call things by their right names; don't sit there, winking and blinki ng, and talking to me in hints, as if you warn't the very first that thought abo ut the robbery. Wot d'ye mean?' 'Hush, Bill, hush!' said the Jew, who had in vain attempted to stop this burst o f 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 reflec tion, he dropped his 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 h ands, 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 expe cted.' '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 tel l you that Toby Crackit has been hanging about the place for a fortnight, and he can't get one of the servants in 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 years; and if you were to give 'em five hundred pound, they wouldn't be i n it.' 'But do you mean to say, my dear,' remonstrated the Jew, 'that the women can't b e got over?' 'Not a bit of it,' replied Sikes. 'Not by flash Toby Crackit?' said the Jew incredulously. 'Think what women are, Bill,' 'No; not even by flash Toby Crackit,' replied Sikes. 'He says he's worn sham whi skers, and a canary waistcoat, the whole blessed time he's been loitering down t here, and it's all of no use.' 'He should have tried mustachios and a pair of military trousers, my dear,' said the Jew. 'So he did,' rejoined Sikes, 'and they warn't of no more use than the other plan t.' 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, tha t 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 hi s face wrinkled into an expression of villainy perfectly demoniacal. Sikes eyed him furtively from time to time. Nancy, apparently fearful of irritating the hou sebreaker, 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 wort h 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 glistening, and every muscle in his face working, with the excitement that the inquiry had awakened. 'Then,' said Sikes, thrusting aside the Jew's hand, with some disdain, 'let it c ome off as soon as you like. Toby and me were over the garden-wall the night afo re last, sounding the panels of the door and shutters. The crib's barred up at n ight 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, look ed suddenly round, and pointed for an instant to the Jew's face. 'Never mind whi ch part it is. You can't do it without me, I know; but it's best to be on the sa fe side when one deals with you.' 'As you like, my dear, as you like' replied the Jew. 'Is there no help wanted, b ut 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 musn't be a big 'un . Lord!' said Mr. Sikes, reflectively, 'if I'd only got that young boy of Ned, t he 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 earning money, teaches him to read and write, and in time makes a 'prentice of him. And so they go on,' said Mr. S ikes, his wrath rising with the recollection of his wrongs, 'so they go on; and, if they'd got money enough (which it's a Providence 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 sp eech, 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 int imated, by a sign, that he would have her told to leave the room. Sikes shrugged his shoulders impatiently, as if he thought the precaution unnecessary; but com plied, 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 s ay, 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, Fagin?' he asked at length. 'You've k nown 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. 'No, no, my dear, I know you're not,' said the Jew; 'but--' and again the old ma n 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 exclama tions of 'Keep the game a-going!' 'Never say die!' and the like. These seemed to have the effect of re-assuring both gentlemen; for the Jew nodded his head with a satisfied air, and resumed his seat: as did Mr. Sikes likewise. 'Now, Fagin,' said Nancy with a laugh. 'Tell Bill at 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. He mayn't be so much up, as any of the others; but that's not what you want, if he's only to ope n 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,' interposed 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 fo r 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. '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 h is 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, drawing his head and shoulders into a heap, literally hugged himse lf 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 agreeable friend, 'wot makes you take so much pains about one chalk-faced kid, when you know there are fifty boy s snoozing 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 co uldn't with twenty of them. Besides,' said the Jew, recovering his self-possessi on, 'he has us now if he could only give us leg-bail again; and he must be in th e same boat with us. Never mind how he came there; it's quite enough for my powe r over him that he was in a robbery; that's all I want. Now, how much better thi s 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 aff ectation 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 voic e, '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 him. 'Never mind partic ulars. You'd better bring the boy here to-morrow night. I shall get off the ston e an hour arter daybreak. Then you hold your tongue, and keep the melting-pot re ady, and that's all you'll have to do.' After some discussion, in which all three took an active part, it was decided th at 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 di sinclination to the task, he would be more willing to accompany the girl who had

so recently interfered in his behalf, than anybody else. It was also solemnly a rranged that poor Oliver should, for the purposes of the contemplated expedition , be unreservedly consigned to the care and custody of Mr. William Sikes; and fu rther, that the said Sikes should deal with him as he thought fit; and should no t be held responsible by the Jew for any mischance or evil that might be necessa ry 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 important particulars, by the testimon y of flash Toby Crackit. These preliminaries adjusted, Mr. Sikes proceeded to drink brandy at a furious r ate, and to flourish the crowbar in an alarming manner; yelling forth, at the sa me time, most unmusical snatches of song, mingled with wild execrations. At leng th, in a fit of professional enthusiasm, he insisted upon producing his box of h ousebreaking 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 con tained, and the peculiar beauties of their construction, than he fell over the b ox upon the floor, and went to sleep where he fell. 'Good-night, Nancy,' said the Jew, muffling himself up as before. 'Good-night.' Their eyes met, and the Jew scrutinised her, narrowly. There was no flinching ab out 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 turned homeward. 'The worst of these women is, that a very little thing serves to call up some long-forgotte n feeling; and, the best of them is, that it never lasts. Ha! ha! The man agains t the child, for a bag of gold!' Beguiling the time with these pleasant reflections, Mr. Fagin wended his way, th rough mud and mire, to his gloomy abode: where the Dodger was sitting up, impati ently awaiting his return. 'Is Oliver a-bed? I want to speak to him,' was his first remark as they descende d 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 anxie ty, and sadness, and the closeness of his prison, that he looked like death; not death as it shows in shroud and coffin, but in the guise it wears when life has just departed; when a young and gentle spirit has, but an instant, fled to Heav en, 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 OLVER IS DELIVERED OVER TO MR. WILLIAM SIKES When Oliver awoke in the morning, he was a good deal surprised to find that a ne w pair of shoes, with strong thick soles, had been placed at his bedside; and th at 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 qu ickly dispelled, on his sitting down to breakfast along with the Jew, who told h im, in a tone and manner which increased his alarm, that he was to be taken to t he residence of Bill Sikes that night. 'To--to--stop there, sir?' asked Oliver, anxiously. 'No, no, my dear. Not to stop there,' replied the Jew. 'We shouldn't like to los e 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!' The old man, who was stooping over the fire toasting a piece of bread, looked ro und 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 p erusal of the boy's face. 'Wait till Bill tells you, then.' The Jew seemed much vexed by Oliver's not expressing any greater curiosity on th e subject; but the truth is, that, although Oliver felt very anxious, he was too much confused 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, till 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. Sud denly 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 g azing fixedly at him, with lowering and contracted brows, from the dark end of t he 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!' Pla cing a strong emphasis on the last word, he suffered his features gradually to r esolve themselves into a ghastly grin, and, nodding his head, left the room. Oliver leaned his head upon his hand when the old man disappeared, and pondered, with a trembling heart, on the words he had just heard. The more he thought of the Jew's admonition, the more he was at a loss to divine its real purpose and m eaning. He could think of no bad object to be attained by sending him to Sikes, which wo uld not be equally well answered by his remaining with Fagin; and after meditati ng for a long time, concluded that he had been selected to perform some ordinary menial offices for the housebreaker, until another boy, better suited for his p urpose could be engaged. He was too well accustomed to suffering, and had suffer ed too much where he was, to bewail the prospect of change very severely. He rem ained lost in thought for some minutes; and then, with a heavy sigh, snuffed the candle, and, taking up the book which the Jew had left with him, began to read. He turned over the leaves. Carelessly at first; but, lighting on a passage which attracted his attention, he soon became intent upon the volume. It was a histor y of the lives and trials of great criminals; and the pages were soiled and thum bed with use. Here, he read of dreadful crimes that made the blood run cold; of secret murders that had been committed by the lonely wayside; of bodies hidden f rom 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 maddened the murderers with the sight, that in their horror they had confessed their gui lt, 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 o n, by their own bad thoughts, to such dreadful bloodshed as it made the flesh cr eep, and the limbs quail, to think of. The terrible descriptions were so real an d 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, b y the spirits of the dead. In a paroxysm of fear, the boy closed the book, and thrust it from him. Then, fa lling 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 voic e, that he might be rescued from his present dangers; and that if any aid were t o be raised up for a poor outcast boy who had never known the love of friends or

kindred, it might come to him now, when, desolate and deserted, he stood alone in the midst of wickedness and guilt. He had concluded his prayer, but still remained with his head buried in his hand s, 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 Nan cy. 'Put down the light,' said the girl, turning away her head. 'It hurts my eyes.' Oliver saw that she was very pale, and gently inquired if she were ill. The girl threw herself into a chair, with her back towards him: and wrung her hands; but made no reply. 'God forgive me!' she cried after a while, 'I never thought of this.' 'Has anything happened?' asked Oliver. 'Can I help you? I will if I can. I will, indeed.' She rocked herself to and fro; caught her throat; and, uttering a gurgling sound , gasped for breath. 'Nancy!' cried Oliver, 'What is it?' The girl beat her hands upon her knees, and her feet upon the ground; and, sudde nly stopping, drew her shawl close round her: and shivered with cold. Oliver stirred the fire. Drawing her chair close to it, she sat there, for a lit tle time, without speaking; but at length she raised her head, and looked round. 'I don't know what comes over me sometimes,' said she, affecting to busy herself in arranging her dress; 'it's this damp dirty room, I think. Now, Nolly, dear, are you ready?' 'Am I to go with you?' asked Oliver. 'Yes. I have come from Bill,' replied the girl. 'You are to go with me.' 'What for?' asked Oliver, recoiling. 'What for?' echoed the girl, raising her eyes, and averting them again, the mome nt 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 girl, affecting to laugh. 'For no good, the n.' Oliver could see that he had some power over the girl's better feelings, and, fo r an instant, thought of appealing to her compassion for his helpless state. But , then, the thought darted across his mind that it was barely eleven o'clock; an d that many people were still in the streets: of whom surely some might be found to give credence to his tale. As the reflection occured to him, he stepped forw ard: and said, somewhat hastily, that he was ready. Neither his brief consideration, nor its purport, was lost on his companion. She eyed him narrowly, while he spoke; and cast upon him a look of intelligence whi ch sufficiently showed that she guessed what had been passing in his thoughts. 'Hush!' said the girl, stooping over him, and pointing to the door as she looked cautiously round. 'You can't help yourself. I have tried hard for you, but all to no purpose. You are hedged round and round. If ever you are to get loose from here, this is not the time.' Struck by the energy of her manner, Oliver looked up in her face with great surp rise. She seemed to speak the truth; her countenance was white and agitated; and she trembled with very earnestness. 'I have saved you from being ill-used once, and I will again, and I do now,' con tinued the girl aloud; 'for those who would have fetched you, if I had not, woul d have been far more rough than me. I have promised for your being quiet and sil ent; if you are not, you will only do harm to yourself and me too, and perhaps b e my death. See here! I have borne all this for you already, as true as God sees me show it.' She pointed, hastily, to some livid bruises on her neck and arms; and continued, with great rapidity: 'Remember this! And don't let me suffer more for you, just now. If I could help you, I would; but I have not the power. They don't mean to harm you; whatever th

ey make you do, is no fault of yours. Hush! Every word from you is a blow for me . Give me your hand. Make haste! Your hand!' She caught the hand which Oliver instinctively placed in hers, and, blowing out the light, drew him after her up the stairs. The door was opened, quickly, by so me one shrouded in the darkness, and was as quickly closed, when they had passed out. A hackney-cabriolet was in waiting; with the same vehemence which she had exhibited in addressing Oliver, the girl pulled him in with her, and drew the cu rtains close. The driver wanted no directions, but lashed his horse into full sp eed, 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 hurr ied, that he had scarcely time to recollect where he was, or how he came there, when the carriage stopped at the house to which the Jew's steps had been directe d 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, beseechin g 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 girl, 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' 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 all 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 hi s young carcase: as would otherways 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 in to 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 replied in the affirmative. 'Well, then, look here,' continued Sikes. 'This is powder; that 'ere's a bullet; and this is a little bit of a old hat for waddin'.' Oliver murmured his comprehension of the different bodies referred to; and Mr. S ikes proceeded to load the pistol, with great nicety and deliberation. 'Now it's loaded,' said Mr. Sikes, when he had finished. 'Yes, I see it is, sir,' replied Oliver. 'Well,' said the robber, grasping Oliver's wrist, and putting the barrel so clos e to his temple that they touched; at which moment the boy could not repress a s tart; 'if you speak a word when you're out o'doors with me, except when I speak to you, that loading will be in your head without notice. So, if you do make up your mind to speak without leave, say your prayers first.' Having bestowed a scowl upon the object of this warning, to increase its effect, Mr. Sikes continued. 'As near as I know, there isn't anybody as would be asking very partickler arter you, if you was disposed of; so I needn't take this devil-and-all of trouble to explain matters to you, if it warn't for your own good. D'ye hear me?' 'The short and the long of what you mean,' said Nancy: speaking very emphaticall y, and slightly frowning at Oliver as if to bespeak his serious attention to her

words: 'is, that if you're crossed by him in this job you have on hand, you'll prevent his ever telling tales afterwards, by shooting him through the head, and will take your chance of swinging for it, as you do for a great many other thin gs in the way of business, every month of your life.' 'That's it!' observed Mr. Sikes, approvingly; 'women can always put things in fe west words.--Except when it's blowing up; and then they lengthens it out. And no w that he's thoroughly up to it, let's have some supper, and get a snooze before starting.' In pursuance of this request, Nancy quickly laid the cloth; disappearing for a f ew minutes, she presently returned with a pot of porter and a dish of sheep's he ads: which gave occasion to several pleasant witticisms on the part of Mr. Sikes , founded upon the singular coincidence of 'jemmies' being a can name, common to them, and also to an ingenious implement much used in his profession. Indeed, t he worthy gentleman, stimulated perhaps by the immediate prospect of being on ac tive service, was in great spirits and good humour; in proof whereof, it may be here remarked, that he humourously drank all the beer at a draught, and did not utter, on a rough calculation, more than four-score oaths during the whole progr ess of the meal. Supper being ended--it may be easily conceived that Oliver had no great appetite for it--Mr. Sikes disposed of a couple of glasses of spirits and water, and thr ew 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 com mand of the same authority, on a mattress upon the floor; and the girl, mending the fire, sat before it, in readiness to rouse them at the appointed time. For a long time Oliver lay awake, thinking it not impossible that Nancy might se ek 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 va rious 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, o r 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 replie d to a surly inquiry from Sikes, by saying that he was quite ready. Nancy, scarcely looking at the boy, threw him a handkerchief to tie round his th roat; Sikes gave him a large rough cape to button over his shoulders. Thus attir ed, he gave his hand to the robber, who, merely pausing to show him with a menac ing gesture that he had that same pistol in a side-pocket of his great-coat, cla sped it firmly in his, and, exchanging a farewell with Nancy, led him away. Oliver turned, for an instant, when they reached the door, in the hope of meetin g a look from the girl. But she had resumed her old seat in front of the fire, a nd sat, perfectly motionless before it.

CHAPTER XXI THE EXPEDITION It was a cheerless morning when they got into the street; blowing and raining ha rd; and the clouds looking dull and stormy. The night had been very wet: large p ools of water had collected in the road: and the kennels were overflowing. There was a faint glimmering of the coming day in the sky; but it rather aggravated t han relieved the gloom of the scene: the sombre light only serving to pale that which the street lamps afforded, without shedding any warmer or brighter tints u pon the wet house-tops, and dreary streets. There appeared to be nobody stirring in that quarter of the town; the windows of the houses were all closely shut; a nd the streets through which they passed, were noiseless and empty. By the time they had turned into the Bethnal Green Road, the day had fairly begu

n to break. Many of the lamps were already extinguished; a few country waggons w ere slowly toiling on, towards London; now and then, a stage-coach, covered with mud, rattled briskly by: the driver bestowing, as he passed, and admonitory las h upon the heavy waggoner who, by keeping on the wrong side of the road, had end angered his arriving at the office, a quarter of a minute after his time. The pu blic-houses, with gas-lights burning inside, were already open. By degrees, othe r shops began to be unclosed, and a few scattered people were met with. Then, ca me straggling groups of labourers going to their work; then, men and women with fish-baskets on their heads; donkey-carts laden with vegetables; chaise-carts fi lled with live-stock or whole carcasses of meat; milk-women with pails; an unbro ken concourse of people, trudging out with various supplies to the eastern subur bs of the town. As they approached the City, the noise and traffic gradually inc reased; when they threaded the streets between Shoreditch and Smithfield, it had swelled into a roar of sound and bustle. It was as light as it was likely to be , till night came on again, and the busy morning of half the London population h ad begun. Turning down Sun Street and Crown Street, and crossing Finsbury square, Mr. Sike s struck, by way of Chiswell Street, into Barbican: thence into Long Lane, and s o into Smithfield; from which latter place arose a tumult of discordant sounds t hat filled Oliver Twist with amazement. It was market-morning. The ground was covered, nearly ankle-deep, with filth and mire; a thick steam, perpetually rising from the reeking bodies of the cattle, and mingling with the fog, which seemed to rest upon the chimney-tops, hung heav ily above. All the pens in the centre of the large area, and as many temporary p ens as could be crowded into the vacant space, were filled with sheep; tied up t o posts by the gutter side were long lines of beasts and oxen, three or four dee p. Countrymen, butchers, drovers, hawkers, boys, thieves, idlers, and vagabonds of every low grade, were mingled together in a mass; the whistling of drovers, t he barking dogs, the bellowing and plunging of the oxen, the bleating of sheep, the grunting and squeaking of pigs, the cries of hawkers, the shouts, oaths, and quarrelling on all sides; the ringing of bells and roar of voices, that issued from every public-house; the crowding, pushing, driving, beating, whooping and y elling; the hideous and discordant dim that resounded from every corner of the m arket; and the unwashed, unshaven, squalid, and dirty figures constantly running to and fro, and bursting in and out of the throng; rendered it a stunning and b ewildering scene, which quite confounded the senses. Mr. Sikes, dragging Oliver after him, elbowed his way through the thickest of th e crowd, and bestowed very little attention on the numerous sights and sounds, w hich so astonished the boy. He nodded, twice or thrice, to a passing friend; and , resisting as many invitations to take a morning dram, pressed steadily onward, until they were clear of the turmoil, and had made their way through Hosier Lan e into Holborn. 'Now, young 'un!' said Sikes, looking up at the clock of St. Andrew's Church, 'h ard upon seven! you must step out. Come, don't lag behind already, Lazy-legs!' Mr. Sikes accompanied this speech with a jerk at his little companion's wrist; O liver, quickening his pace into a kind of trot between a fast walk and a run, ke pt up with the rapid strides of the house-breaker 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 ca rt which was at some little distance behind, came up. Seeing 'Hounslow' 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, my man?' inquired the dri ver: seeing that Oliver was out of breath. 'Not a bit of it,' replied Sikes, interposing. 'He's used to it. Here, take hold of my hand, Ned. In with you!' Thus addressing Oliver, he helped him into the cart; and the driver, pointing to

a heap of sacks, told him to lie down there, and rest himself. As they passed the different mile-stones, Oliver wondered, more and more, where his companion meant to take him. Kensington, Hammersmith, Chiswick, Kew Bridge, Brentford, were all passed; and yet they went on as steadily as if they had only just begun their journey. At length, they came to a public-house called the Coa ch and Horses; a little way beyond which, another road appeared to run off. And here, the cart stopped. Sikes dismounted with great precipitation, holding Oliver by the hand all the wh ile; and lifting him down directly, bestowed a furious look upon him, and rapped the 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 Oliver he might look ab out him if he wanted, once again led him onward on his journey. They turned round to the left, a short way past the public-house; and then, taki ng a right-hand road, walked on for a long time: passing many large gardens and gentlemen's houses on both sides of the way, and stopping for nothing but a litt le 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 fiel ds, for some hours. At length they came back into the town; and, turning into an old public-house with a defaced sign-board, ordered some dinner by the kitchen fire. The kitchen was an old, low-roofed room; with a great beam across the middle of the ceiling, and benches, with high backs to them, by the fire; on which were se ated several rough men in smock-frocks, drinking and smoking. They took no notic e 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, without being much troubled by their company. They had some cold meat for dinner, and sat so long after it, while Mr. Sikes in dulged 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 dozed a little at first; then, quite overpowered by fatigue and th e fumes of the tobacco, fell asleep. It was quite dark when he was awakened by a push from Sikes. Rousing himself suf ficiently to sit up and look about him, he found that worthy in close fellowship and communication 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 c ase might be--for drinking; 'and not slow about it neither. My horse hasn't got a load behind him going back, as he had coming up in the mornin'; and he won't b e long a-doing of it. Here's luck to him. Ecod! he's a good 'un!' 'Could you give my boy and me a lift as far as there?' demanded Sikes, pushing t he ale towards his new friend. 'If you're going directly, I can,' replied the man, looking 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. 'Is all paid, Becky?' 'Yes, the other gentleman's paid,' replied the girl. 'I say!' said the man, with tipsy gravity; 'that won't do, you know.' 'Why not?' rejoined Sikes. 'You're a-going to accommodate us, and wot's to preve nt my standing treat for a pint or so, in return?' The stranger reflected upon this argument, with a very profound face; having don e so, he seized Sikes by the hand: and declared he was a real good fellow. To wh ich Mr. Sikes replied, he was joking; as, if he had been sober, there would have been strong reason to suppose he was. After the exchange of a few more compliments, they bade the company good-night, and went out; the girl gathering up the pots and glasses as they did so, and lou

nging out to the door, with her hands full, to see the party start. The horse, whose health had been drunk in his absence, was standing outside: rea dy harnessed to the cart. Oliver and Sikes got in without any further ceremony; and the man to whom he belonged, having lingered for a minute or two 'to bear hi m up,' and to defy the hostler and the world to produce his equal, mounted also. Then, the hostler was told to give the horse his head; and, his head being give n him, he made a very unpleasant use of it: tossing it into the air with great d isdain, and running into the parlour windows over the way; after performing thos e feats, and supporting himself for a short time on his hind-legs, he started of f at great speed, and rattled out of the town right gallantly. The night was very dark. A damp mist rose from the river, and the marshy ground about; and spread itself over the dreary fields. It was piercing cold, too; all was gloomy and black. Not a word was spoken; for the driver had grown sleepy; an d Sikes was in no mood to lead him into conversation. Oliver sat huddled togethe r, in a corner of the cart; bewildered with alarm and apprehension; and figuring strange objects in the gaunt trees, whose branches waved grimly to and fro, as if in some fantastic joy at the desolation of the scene. As they passed Sunbury Church, the clock struck seven. There was a light in the ferry-house window opposite: which streamed across the road, and threw into more sombre shadow a dark yew-tree with graves beneath it. There was a dull sound of falling water not far off; and the leaves of the old tree stirred gently in the night wind. It seemed like quiet music for the repose of the dead. Sunbury was passed through, and they came again into the lonely road. Two or thr ee miles more, and the cart stopped. Sikes alighted, took Oliver by the hand, an d they once again walked on. They turned into no house at Shepperton, as the weary boy had expected; but stil l 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 distanc e. On looking intently forward, Oliver saw that the water was just below them, a nd that they were coming to the foot of a bridge. Sikes kept straight on, until they were close upon the bridge; then turned sudde nly 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 deca yed. 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 the all app earance, uninhabited. Sikes, with Oliver's hand still in his, softly approached the low porch, and rai sed the latch. The door yielded to the pressure, and they passed in together.

CHAPTER XXII 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 such article, at the person h e addressed, to rouse him from his slumbers: for the noise of a wooden body, fal ling violently, was heard; and then an indistinct muttering, as of a man between sleep and awake. 'Do you hear?' cried the same voice. 'There's Bill Sikes in the passage with nob ody to do the civil to him; and you sleeping there, as if you took laudanum with your meals, and nothing stronger. Are you any fresher now, or do you want the i ron 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; fi

rst, a feeble candle: and next, the form of the same individual who has been her etofore described as labouring under the infirmity of speaking through his nose, and officiating as waiter at the public-house on Saffron Hill. 'Bister Sikes!' exclaimed Barney, with real or counterfeit joy; 'cub id, sir; cu b id.' 'Here! you get on first,' said Sikes, putting Oliver in front of him. 'Quicker! or I shall tread upon your heels.' Muttering a curse upon his tardiness, Sikes pushed Oliver before him; and they e ntered a low dark room with a smoky fire, two or three broken chairs, a table, a nd a very old couch: on which, with his legs much higher than his head, a man wa s reposing at full length, smoking a long clay pipe. He was dressed in a smartly -cut snuff-coloured coat, with large brass buttons; an orange neckerchief; a coa rse, staring, shawl-pattern waistcoat; and drab breeches. Mr. Crackit (for he it was) had no very great quantity of hair, either upon his head or face; but what he had, was of a reddish dye, and tortured into long corkscrew curls, through w hich he occasionally thrust some very dirty fingers, ornamented with large commo n rings. He was a trifle above the middle size, and apparently rather weak in th e legs; but this circumstance by no means detracted from his own admiration of h is top-boots, which he contemplated, in their elevated situation, with lively sa tisfaction. 'Bill, my boy!' said this figure, turning his head towards the door, 'I'm glad t o see you. I was almost afraid you'd given it up: in which case I should have ma de a personal wentur. Hallo!' Uttering this exclamation in a tone of great surprise, as his eyes rested on Oli ver, Mr. Toby Crackit brought himself into a sitting posture, and demanded who t hat was. 'The boy. Only the boy!' replied Sikes, drawing a chair towards the fire. 'Wud of Bister Fagid's lads,' exclaimed Barney, with a grin. '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 fortin' to him.' 'There--there's enough of that,' interposed Sikes, impatiently; and stooping ove r his recumbant friend, he whispered a few words in his ear: at which Mr. Cracki t 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 a nd drink while we're waiting, you'll put some heart in us; or in me, at all even ts. 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; and drawing a stool to the fir e, sat with his aching head upon his hands, scarecely knowing where he was, or w hat 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, carefu lly depositing his empty pipe in a corner, advanced to the table, filled a glass with spirits, and drank off its contents. Mr. Sikes did the same. 'A drain for the boy,' said Toby, half-filling a wine-glass. 'Down with it, inno cence.' 'Indeed,' said Oliver, looking piteously up into the man's face; 'indeed, I--' 'Down with it!' echoed Toby. 'Do you think I don't know what's good for you? Tel l him to drink it, Bill.' 'He had better!' said Sikes clapping his hand upon his pocket. 'Burn my body, if he isn't more trouble than a whole family of Dodgers. Drink it, you perwerse im p; 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: whi ch delighted Toby Crackit and Barney, and even drew a smile from the surly Mr. S ikes. This done, and Sikes having satisfied his appetite (Oliver could eat nothing but a small crust of bread which they made him swallow), the two men laid themselve s down on chairs for a short nap. Oliver retained his stool by the fire; Barney wrapped in a blanket, stretched himself on the floor: close outside the fender.

They slept, or appeared to sleep, for some time; nobody stirring but Barney, who rose once or twice to throw coals on the fire. Oliver fell into a heavy doze: i magining himself straying along the gloomy lanes, or wandering about the dark ch urchyard, or retracing some one or other of the scenes of the past day: when he was roused by Toby Crackit jumping up and declaring it was half-past one. In an instant, the other two were on their legs, and all were actively engaged i n busy preparation. Sikes and his companion enveloped their necks and chins in l arge dark shawls, and drew on their great-coats; Barney, opening a cupboard, bro ught forth several articles, which he hastily crammed into the pockets. 'Barkers for me, Barney,' said Toby Crackit. 'Here they are,' replied Barney, producing a pair of pistols. 'You loaded them y ourself.' 'All right!' replied Toby, stowing them away. 'The persuaders?' 'I've got 'em,' replied Sikes. 'Crape, keys, centre-bits, darkies--nothing forgotten?' inquired Toby: fastening a small crowbar to a loop inside the skirt of his coat. 'All right,' rejoined his companion. 'Bring them bits of timber, Barney. That's the time of day.' With these words, he took a thick stick from Barney's hands, who, having deliver ed another to Toby, busied himself in fastening on Oliver's cape. 'Now then!' said Sikes, holding out his hand. Oliver: who was completely stupified by the unwonted exercise, and the air, and the drink which had been forced upon him: put his hand mechanically into that wh ich Sikes extended for the purpose. 'Take his other hand, Toby,' said Sikes. 'Look out, Barney.' The man went to the door, and returned to announce that all was quiet. The two r obbers issued forth with Oliver between them. Barney, having made all fast, roll ed himself up as before, and was soon asleep again. It was now intensely dark. The fog was much heavier than it had been in the earl y 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 leaving the house, had become stiff with the half-frozen moisture that was floating about. They crossed the bridge, and kept 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-nig ht, to see us.' Toby acquiesced; and they hurried through the main street of the little town, wh ich at that late hour was wholly deserted. A dim light shone at intervals from s ome bed-room window; and the hoarse barking of dogs occasionally broke the silen ce 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 a bout a quarter of a mile, they stopped before a detached house surrounded by a w all: 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 i n three or four seconds he and Toby were lying on the grass on the other side. S ikes followed directly. And they stole cautiously towards the house. And now, for the first time, Oliver, well-nigh mad with grief and terror, saw th at housebreaking and robbery, if not murder, were the objects of the expedition. He clasped his hands together, and involuntarily uttered a subdued exclamation of horror. A mist came before his eyes; the cold 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 p ocket; '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 fi elds. I will never come near London; never, never! Oh! pray have mercy on me, an d do not make me steal. For the love of all the bright Angels that rest in Heave

n, have mercy upon me!' The man to whom this appeal was made, swore a dreadful oath, and had cocked the pistol, when Toby, striking it from his grasp, placed his hand upon the boy's mo uth, 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 min ute or two, on a cold night.' Sikes, invoking terrific imprecations upon Fagin's head for sending Oliver on su ch an errand, plied the crowbar vigorously, but with little noise. After some de lay, 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 half above the ground, at the back of the house: which belonged 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. Sike 's art, sufficed to overcome the fastening of the lattice; and it soon stood wid e open also. 'Now listen, you young limb,' whispered Sikes, drawing a dark lantern from his p ocket, and throwing the glare full on Oliver's face; 'I'm a going to put you thr ough there. Take this light; go softly up the steps straight afore you, and alon g 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 bl ue unicorn and gold pitchfork on 'em: which is the old lady's arms.' 'Keep quiet, can't you?' replied Sikes, with a threatening look. 'The room-door is open, is it?' 'Wide,' replied Toby, after peeping in to satisfy himself. 'The game of that is, that they always leave it open with a catch, so that the dog, who's got a bed i n 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 no ise, Sikes imperiously commanded him to be silent, and to get to work. Toby comp lied, by first producing his lantern, and placing it on the ground; then by plan ting himself firmly with his head against the wall beneath the window, and his h ands upon his knees, so as to make a step of his back. This was no sooner done, than Sikes, mounting upon him, put Oiver gently through the window with his feet first; and, without 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 afor e you?' Oliver, more dead than alive, gasped out, 'Yes.' Sikes, pointing to the street-d oor with the pistol-barrel, briefly advised him to take notice that he was withi n 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 attempt or not, he would make one effort to dart up stairs from the hall, and alarm the family. Filled with this idea, he advanced a t once, but stealthily. 'Come back!' suddenly cried Sikes aloud. 'Back! back!' 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 adva nce or fly. The cry was repeated--a light appeared--a vision of two terrified half-dressed m

en 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 co llar before the smoke had cleared away. He fired his own pistol after the men, w ho were already retreating; and dragged the boy up. 'Clasp your arm tighter,' said Sikes, as he drew him through the window. 'Give m e a shawl here. They've hit him. Quick! How the boy bleeds!' Then came the loud ringing of a bell, mingled with the noise of fire-arms, and t he shouts of men, and the sensation of being carried over uneven ground at a rap id pace. And then, the noises grew confused in the distance; and a cold deadly f eeling crept over the boy's heart; and he saw or heard no more.

CHAPTER XXIII WHICH CONTAINS THE SUBSTANCE OF A PLEASANT CONVERSATION 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 byways and corners were affe cted 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 int o 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 tha nk 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 o f Oliver Twist, sat herself down before a cheerful fire in her own little room, and glanced, with no small degree of complacency, at a small round table: on whi ch stood a tray of corresponding size, furnished with all necessary materials fo r the most grateful meal that matrons enjoy. In fact, Mrs. Corney was about to s olace 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 Mr s. Corney smiled. 'Well!' said the matron, leaning her elbow on the table, and looking reflectivel y at the fire; 'I'm sure we have all on us a great deal to be grateful for! A gr eat deal, if we did but know it. Ah!' Mrs. Corney shook her head mournfully, as if deploring the mental blindness of t hose paupers who did not know it; and thrusting a silver spoon (private property ) into the inmost recesses of a two-ounce tin tea-caddy, proceeded to make the t ea. How slight a thing will disturb the equanimity of our frail minds! The black tea pot, being very small and easily filled, ran over while Mrs. Corney was moralisi ng; 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 anybody! Except,' said Mrs. Corney, pausing, 'except to a poor desolate creatur e 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 sing le cup, had awakened in her mind sad recollections of Mr. Corney (who had not be en dead more than five-and-twenty years); and she was overpowered. 'I shall never get another!' said Mrs. Corney, pettishly; 'I shall never get ano ther--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 to ok it up afterwards. She had just tasted her first cup, when she was disturbed b

y 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 co ld 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 appear ance, bearing the cocked hat in one hand and a bundle in the other. 'Shall I shu t the door, ma'am?' The lady modestly hesitated to reply, lest there should be any impropriety in ho lding an interview with Mr. Bumble, with closed doors. Mr. Bumble taking advanta ge of the hesitation, and being very cold himself, shut it without permission. '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 pauper s are not contented.' 'Of course not. When would they be, Mr. Bumble?' said the matron, sipping her te a. 'When, indeed, ma'am!' rejoined Mr. Bumble. 'Why here's one man that, in conside ration of his wife and large family, has a quartern loaf and a good pound of che ese, 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 po cket handkerchief full, he says! Coals! What would he do with coals? Toast his c heese 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, t he day after to-morrow, as brazen as alabaster.' The matron expressed her entire concurrence in this intelligible simile; and the beadle went on. 'I never,' said Mr. Bumble, 'see anything like the pitch it's got to. The day af ore 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; an d says, he must be relieved, Mrs. Corney. As he wouldn't go away, and shocked th e company very much, our overseer sent him out a pound of potatoes and half a pi nt 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 o ur 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. Grannett, wasn't it?' interposed the ma tron. '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 could have believed,' observed the matron emphatically. 'Bu t 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 superi or 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 giv e 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 princip le; and that's the reason why, if you look at any cases that get into them owdac ious newspapers, you'll always observe that sick families have been relieved wit h 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 s ecrets, ma'am; not to be spoken of; except, as I may say, among the porochial of ficers, 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 for enoon; clear as a bell, and no sediment!' Having held the first bottle up to the light, and shaken it well to test its exc ellence, Mr. Bumble placed them both on top of a chest of drawers; folded the ha ndkerchief in which they had been wrapped; put it carefully in his pocket; and t ook 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 cu t 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, bas hfully 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 himsel f, he looked at the lady. She fixed her eyes upon the little teapot. 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 herself to the task of making his tea. Again Mr. Bumble coughed--louder this time than he had coughed 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. Corne y as he said this; and if ever a beadle looked tender, Mr. Bumble was that beadl e at that moment. The tea was made, and handed in silence. Mr. Bumble, having spread a handkerchie f 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 th e contrary, rather seemed to facilitate his operations in the tea and toast depa rtment. 'You have a cat, ma'am, I see,' said Mr. Bumble, glancing at one who, in the cen tre of her family, was basking before the fire; 'and kittens too, I declare!' 'I am so fond of them, Mr. Bumble, you can't think,' replied the matron. 'They'r e so happy, so frolicsome, and so cheerful, that they are quite companions for m e.' 'Very nice animals, ma'am,' replied Mr. Bumble, approvingly; '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 tea spoon, '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 th e teaspoon with a kind of amorous dignity which made him doubly impressive; 'I w ould 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 with out another word; squeezed Mrs. Corney's little finger as she took it; and infli cting two open-handed slaps upon his laced waistcoat, gave a mighty sigh, and hi tched 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 opposit e each other, with no great space between them, and fronting the fire, it will b e seen that Mr. Bumble, in receding from the fire, and still keeping at the tabl e, increased the distance between himself and Mrs. Corney; which proceeding, som e prudent readers will doubtless be disposed to admire, and to consider an act o f great heroism on Mr. Bumble's part: he being in some sort tempted by time, pla ce, and opportunity, to give utterance to certain soft nothings, which however w ell 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 s

tate, lord mayors, and other great public functionaries, but more particularly b eneath 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 be st): it unfortunately happened, as has been twice before remarked, that the tabl e was a round one; consequently Mr. Bumble, moving his chair by little and littl e, soon began to diminish the distance between himself and the matron; and, cont inuing 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 scorche d 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 gla nce) 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 i nto 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 th e crumbs off his knees; wiped his lips; and deliberately kissed the matron. '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 ma de 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 scre amed 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 dar ted, with much agility, to the wine bottles, and began dusting them with great v iolence: while the matron sharply demanded who was there. It is worthy of remark, as a curious physical instance of the efficacy of a sudd en surprise in counteracting the effects of extreme fear, that her voice had qui te recovered all its official asperity. 'If you please, mistress,' said a withered old female pauper, hideously ugly: pu tting 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 rea ch 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 w hen 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 q uiet till you come, mistress.' At this intelligence, the worthy Mrs. Corney muttered a variety of invectives ag ainst old women who couldn't even die without purposely annoying their betters; and, muffling herself in a thick shawl which she hastily caught up, briefly requ ested Mr. Bumble to stay till she came back, lest anything particular should occ ur. Bidding the messenger 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 himself, was rather inexplicable. He opene d 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 sat isfied his curiosity on these points, put on his cocked hat corner-wise, and dan ced with much 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, seem ed to be mentally engaged in taking an exact inventory of the furniture.

CHAPTER XXIV

TREATS ON A VERY POOR SUBJECT. BUT IS A SHORT ONE, AND MAY BE FOUND OF IMPORTANC E 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, distort ed into a mumbling leer, resembled more the grotesque shaping of some wild penci l, 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, and leave Heaven's surface clear. It is a common thing for the countenances of the dead, even in that fixed and rigid s tate, to subside into the long-forgotten expression of sleeping infancy, and set tle 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 ind istinct answers to the chidings of her companion; being at length compelled to p ause 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 wa s another old woman watching by the bed; the parish apothecary's apprentice was standing 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 her most civil tones, and dro pping a curtsey as she spoke. 'You should get better coals out of your contractors,' said the apothecary's dep uty, 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 mag, turning his face towards the bed, as if he had previou sly 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 ap prentice, intent upon the toothpick's point. 'It's a break-up of the system alto gether. Is she dozing, old lady?' The attendant stooped over the bed, to ascertain; and nodded in the affirmative. 'Then perhaps she'll go off in that way, if you don't make a row,' said the youn g 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 s ide of the other nurse, who had by this time returned. The mistress, with an exp ression of impatience, wrapped herself 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, a nd 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. T he flame threw a ghastly light on their shrivelled faces, and made their uglines