Oliver Twist

CHAPTER III
RELATES HOW OLIVER TWIST WAS VERY NEAR GETTING A PLACE WHICH
WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN A SINECURE
For a week after the commission of the impious and profane offence of asking for more,
Oliver remained a close prisoner in the dark and solitary room to which he had been
consigned by the wisdom and mercy of the board. It appears, at first sight not
unreasonable to suppose, that, if hehad entertained a becoming feeling of respect for the
prediction of the gentleman in the white waistcoat, he would have established that sage
individual's prophetic character, once and for ever, by tying one end of his pocket handkerchief
to a hook in the wall, and attaching himself to the other. To the performance of this feat, however, there was one obstacle: namely, that pocket handkerchiefsbeing decided articles of luxury, had been, for all future times and ages, removed from the noses of paupers by the express order of the board, in council assembled: solemnly given and pronounced under their hands and seals. There was a still greater obstacle in Oliver's youth and childishness. He only cried bitterly all day;
and, when the long, dismal night came on, spread his little hands beforehis eyes to shut
out the darkness, and crouching in the corner, tried to sleep: ever and anon waking with
a start and tremble, and drawing himself closer and closer to the wall, as if to feel even
its cold hard surface were a protection in the gloom and loneliness which surrounded him.
Let it not be supposed by the enemies of 'the system,' that, during the period of his
solitaryincarceration, Oliver was denied the benefit of exercise, the pleasure of society,
or the advantages of religious consolation. As for exercise, it was nice cold weather,
and he was allowed to perform his ablutions every morning under the pump, in a stone
yard, in the presence of Mr. Bumble, who prevented his catching cold, and caused a
tingling sensation to pervade his frame, by repeated applications ofthe cane. As for
society, he was carried every other day into the hall where the boys dined, and there
sociably flogged as a public warning and example. And so for from being denied the
advantages of religious consolation, he was kicked into the same apartment every
evening at prayer-time, and there permitted to listen to, and console his mind with, a
general supplication of the boys,containing a special clause, therein inserted by
authority of the board, in which they entreated to be made good, virtuous, contented,
and obedient, and to be guarded from the sins and vices of Oliver Twist: whom the
supplication distinctly set forth to be under the exclusive patronage and protection of the
powers of wickedness, and an article direct from the manufactory of the very Devil himself.
Itchanced one morning, while Oliver's affairs were in this auspicious and confortable
state, that Mr. Gamfield, chimney-sweep, went his way down the High Street, deeply
cogitating in his mind his ways and means of paying certain arrears of rent, for which
his landlord had become rather pressing. Mr. Gamfield's most sanguine estimate of his
finances could not raise them within full five poundsof the desired amount; and, in a
species of arthimetical desperation, he was alternately 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 haddisposed of the two
sacks of soot with which the little cart was laden; so, without noticing the word of command, he jogged onward.
Mr. Gamfield growled a fierce imprecation on the donkey generally, but more
particularly 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 of the
bridle, he gave his...