Oldal 44 [44]
20
kicked into the same apartment every
evening at prayer-time, and there permit¬
ted to listen to, and console his mind with,
a general supplication of the boys, con¬
taining a special clause therein inserted
by the 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 devil himself. a
It chanced one morning, while Oliver s
affairs were in this auspicious and com¬
ney-sweeper, was wending his way adown
the High-street, deeply cogitating in his
mind, his ways and means of paying cer¬
tain arrears of rent, for which his land¬
lord had become rather pressing. Mr.
Gamfield’s most ulne alan tite of
funds could not raise them within full five
pounds of the desired amount; and, in a
species of arithmetical desperation, he
was alternately cudgelling his brains and
his donkey, when, passing the workhouse,
his eyes encountered the bill on the gate.
c Woo!” said Mr. Gamfield to the don¬
key.
The donkey was in a state of profound
abstraction,—wondering, probably, whe¬
ther he was destined to be regaled with a
cabbage-stalk or two, when he had dis¬
of the two sacks of soot with which
the little cart was laden; so, without no¬
ticing the word of command, he jogged
onwards.
Mr. Gamfield growled a fierce impreca¬
tion 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
wrench, by way of gentle reminder that
he was not his own master; and, havi
by these means turned him round, he gave
him another blow on the head, just to stun
him until he came back again; and, hav¬
ing done so, walked to the gate to read
the bill.
exactly the sort of master Oliver Twist
wanted. Mr. Gamfield smiled, too, as he
perused the document, for five pounds was
just the sum he had been wishing for;
and, as to the boy with which it was en¬
cumbered, Mr. Gamfield, knowing what
the dietary of the workhouse was, well
knew he would be a nice small pattern,
just the very thing for register stoves.
So he spelt the bill through again, from
beginning to end; and then, touching his
fur cap in token of humility, accosted the
gentleman in the white waistcoat.
c This here boy, sir, wot the parish
wants to ’prentis,” said Mr. Gamfield.
“Yes, my man,” said the gentleman in
the white waistcoat, with a condescend¬
ing smile, “ what of him ?”
If the parish vould like him to learn.
a light, pleasant trade, in a good ’specta¬
ble chimbley-sweepin bisness,” said Mr.
Gamfield, “I wants a ’prentis, and Im.
ready to take him.”
“Walk in,” said the gentleman with:
the white waistcoat. And Mr. Gamfield
having lingered behind, to give the don
key another blow on the head, and another
wrench of the jaw as a caution not to ruw¬
away in his absence, followed the gentle.
man in the white waistcoat, into the room
where Oliver had first seen him.
“Tt’s a nasty trade,” said Mr. Limb¬
aie when Gamfield had again stated his
wish.
“Young boys have been smothered in
chimneys, before now,” said another gen¬
tleman.
‘ 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
smoke ain’t o’ no use at all in makin’ a boy
come down; it only sinds him to sleep,
and that’s wot he likes. Boys is wery
obstinit, and wery lazy, gen’lm’n, and
there’s nothink like a good hot blaze to
make "Jem come down vith a run; it’s
humane too, gen’lm’n, acause, even if
they ’ve stuck in the chimbley, roastin’
their feet makes ’em struggle to hextri¬
cate theirselves.”
The gentleman in the white waistcoat.
appeared very much amused with this ex¬
hands behind him, after having delivered
himself of some profound sentiments in
the board-room. Havin
little dispute between Mr. Gamfield and
The board then proceeded to converse
among themselves for a few minutes; but
in so low a tone that the words “ saving
of expenditure,” ‘look well in the ac¬