Stranica 114 [114]
OCR
76 fortnight,” said the Dodger. “That he wouldn’t; 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 when he’s in company!” pursued the Dodger. " Wont he grow] at all, when he hears a fiddle playing, and don’t he hate other dogs as ain’t of his breed! Winkin! Oh, no!" 6 He’s an out-and-out Christian,” said Charley. This was merely intended as a tribute to the animal’s abilities, but it was an appropriate remark in another sense, if Master Bates had only known it; for there are a great many ladies and gentlemen claiming to be out-and-out Christians, between whom and Mr. Sikes’s dog there exist very strong and singular points of resemblance. “ Well, well!” said the Dodger, recurring to the point from which they had strayed, with that mindfulness of his profession which influenced all his proceedings. “This hasn’t got anything to do with young Green here.” “ 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. 6 And so be able to retire on your property, and do the genteel, as I mean to in the very next leap-year but four that ever comes, and the forty-second Tuesday in Trinity-week,” said Charley Bates. * [ don’t like it,” rejoined Oliver timidly; “I wish they would let me go. I— Facweela rather go.” “And Fagin would rather not!” rejoined Charley. | Oliver knew this too well; but, thinking it might be dangerous to express his feelings 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, eh ?" 6 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!” “JI 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 them be punished for what you did.” consideration for Fagin, "cause the traps know that we work together, and he might have got into trouble if we hadn’t made our lucky ; that was the move, wasn’t it, Charley ?” Master Bates nodded assent, and would have spoken, but that the recollection of Oliver’s flight came so suddenly upon him, that the smoke he was inhaling got entangled with a laugh, and went up into his head, and down into his throat, and brought on a fit of coughing and stamping about five minutes long. 6 Look here!" said the Dodger, drawing forth a handful of shillings and halfpence. “Here’sa jolly life! what’s the odds where it comes from? Here, catch hold; there’s plenty more where they were took from. You won’t, won’t you? oh, you precious flat!" “It’s naughty, ain’t it, Oliver?” inquired Charley Bates. "Hell come to be scragged, won’t he?” c! don’t know what that means,” replied Oliver, looking round. “Something in this way, old" feller,” said Charley. As he said it, Master Bates caught up an end of his neckerchief, and, holding it erect in the air, dropped his head on his shoulders, and jerked a curious sound through his teeth, thereby indicating, by a lively pantomimic representation, that scragging and hanging were one and the same thing. “That ’s what it means,” said Charley. “ Look how he stares, Jack; I never did see such prime company as that ’ere boy ; he’ ll be the death of me, I know he will? And Master Charles 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 satisfaction when Oliver had polished them. “Fagin will make something of you, though ; or you'll be the first he ever had that turned out unprofitable. You’d better begin at once, for you’ll come to the trade long before you think of it, and you "re only losing time, Oliver.” Master Bates backed this advice with sundry moral adinonitions of his own, Mr. Dawkins launched into a glowing description of the numerous pleasures incidental to the life they led, interspersed with a variety of hints to Oliver that the best thing he could do, would be to secure Fagin’s favour without more delay by the same means which they had employed to gain it. “And always put this in your pipe,
