Page 70 [70]
42
iteher. When he turned his head, the
boz was gone.
He had scarcely washed himself, and
made pony ue tidy by emptying the
basin out of the window, agreeably to the
Jew’s directions, than the Dodger returned,
accompanied by a very sprightly young
friend, whom Oliver had seen smoking on
the previous night, and who was now for¬
mally introduced to him as Charley Bates.
The four then sat down to breakfast off
the coffee and some hot rolls and ham
which the Dodger had brought home in
the crown of his hat.
“ Well,” said the Jew, glancing slyly
at Oliver, and addressing himself to the
Dodger, “I hope you’ve been at work this
morning, my dears,”
“ Hard,” replied the Dodger.
sc As nails,” added Charley Bates.
“Good boys, good boys!" said the Jew.
s What have you got, Dodger?”
c A couple of pocket-books,” replied that
young gentleman.
“ Lined ?” inquired the Jew with trem¬
bling eagerness.
“ Pretty well,” replied the Dodger, pro¬
ducing two pocket-books, one green and
the other red. b
6 Not so heavy as they might be,"
said the Jew, after looking at the insides
carefully; "but very neat, and nicely
made. Ingenious at szoke ain’t he, Oli¬
ver?"
Very, indeed, sir," said Oliver. At
which Mr. Charles Bates laughed uproar¬
iously, very much to the amazement of
Oliver, who saw nothing to laugh at in
as égy pit! that had passed.
66 what have you got, my dear?"
said Fagin to Charley Bates,
“Wipes,” replied Master Bates; at the
same time producing four pocket-handker¬
chiefs.
c Well,” said the Jew, inspecting them
closely; "they "re very ones,—very.
You haven’t marked them well, though,
Charley ; so the marks shall be picked out
with a needle, and we’ll teach Oliver
how to doit. 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,
wouldn’t you, my dear?” said the Jew.
“Very much indeed, if you’ll teach
me, sir," replied Oliver.
Master Bates saw something so ex¬
yuisitely ludicrous in this reply, that he
burst into another laugh; which laugh
meeting the coffee he was drinking, and
carrying it down some wrong channel,
very nearly terminated in his premature
suffocation.
“ He is so jolly green,” said Charley
when he recovered, as an apology to the
company for his unpolite behaviour.
The Dodger said nothing, but he
smoothed Oliver’s hair down over his
eyes, and said he ’d know better by-and¬
by; upon which the old gentleman, ob¬
serving Oliver’s colour mounting, changed
the subject by asking whether there had
been much of a crowd at the execution
that morning. This made him wonder
more and more, for it was plain from the
replies of the two boys that they had both
been there; and Oliver naturally won¬
dered how they could possibly have found
time to be so very industrious.
When the breakfast was cleared away,
the merry old gentleman and the two boys
played at a very curious and uncommon
game, which was performed in this way :
—The merry old gentleman, placing a
snufi-box in one pocket of his trousers, a
note-case in the other, and a watch in his
waistcoat-pocket, with a guard-chain round
his neck, and sticking a mock diamond
pin in his shirt, buttoned his coat tight
round him, and, putting his spectacle-case
and handkerchief in the pockets, trotted
up and down the room with a stick, in
imitation of the manner in which old gen¬
tlemen walk about the streets every hour
in the day. Sometimes he stopped at the
fire-place, and sometimes at the door,
making belief 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 keep slapping all
his pockets in turn, to see that he hadn’t
lost anything, in such a very funny and
natural manner, that Oliver laughed 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 round, that it was Impossi¬
ble to follow their motions. At last the
Dodger trod upon his toes, or ran upon his
boot accidentally, while Charley Bates
stumbled up against him behind; and in
that one moment they took from him with
the most extraordinary rapidity, snufi-box,
note-case, watch-guard, chain, shirt-pin,
pocket-handkerchief;,—even the spectacle¬
case. If the old gentleman felt a hand
in any one of his pockets, he cried out
where it was, and then the game began
all over again.
When this game had been played a
eat many times, a couple of young la¬
ies came to see the young gentlemen,
one of whom was called Bet and the other