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170 CHAPTER THE SIXTH. Wherein is shown how the artful Dodger got into trouble. 4 AND so it was you that was your own friend, was it?" asked Mr. Claypole, otherwise Bolter, when, by virtue of the compact entered into between them, he had removed next day to the Jew’s house. cc Cod, I thought as much last night !” tt Every dear,” replied Fagin, with his most insinuating grin. “ He has’nt as gooda one as himself anywhere." “ Except sometimes,” replied Morris Bolter, assuming the air of a man of the world. ‘ Some people are nobody’s enemies but their own, you know.” 6 Dont believe that,” said the Jew. “ When a man’s his own enemy, it’s only because he’s too much his own friend, not because he’s eareful for everybody but himself. Pooh! pooh! there ain’t such a thing in nature.” “ There oughtn’t to be, if there is,” replied Mr. Bolter. “ That stands to reason,” said the Jew. c Some conjurers say that number three is the magie number, and some say number seven. It’s neither, my friend, neither. It’s number one.” s Ha! ha!” cried Mr. Bolter. ber one for ever!" “In a little community like ours, my dear,” said the Jew, who felt it necessary to qualify this position, “ we have a general number one; that is, you can’t consider yourself as number one without considering me too as the same, and all the other young people.” * Oh, the devil!" exclaimed Mr. Bolter. 4 You see,” pursued the Jew, affecting to disregard this interruption, “ we are so mixed up together and identified in our interests that it must be so. For instance, it’s your object to take care of number one—meaning yourself.” “ Certainly,” replied Mr. Bolter. “ Yer about right there.” “ Well, you can’t take care of yourself, number one, without taking care of me, number one.” 6 Number two, you mean,” said Mr. Bolter, who was largely endowed with the quality of selfishness. 6 No, I dont!" retorted the Jew. “I’m of the same importance to you as you are tv yourself.” “Tsay,” interrupted Mr. Bolter, “ yer 66 Num “ Only think,” said the Jew, shrugging his shoulders and stretching out his hands, “only consider, §You’ve done what’s a very pretty thing, and what I love you for doing; but what at the same time would put the cravat round your throat that’s so very easily tied, and so very difficult to unloose — in plain English, the halter.” Mr. Bolter put his hand to his neckerchief, as if he felt it inconveniently tight, and murmured an assent, qualified in tone but not in substance. s The gallows,” continued Fagin, " the gallows, my dear, is an ugly finger-post, which points out a very short and sharp turning that has stopped many a bold fellow’s career on the broad highway. To keep in the easy road, and to keep it at a distance, 1s object number one with you.” 6 Of course it is,” replied Mr. Bolter. : What do yer talk about such things or?” 6 Only to show you my meaning clear ly,” said the Jew, raising his eyebrows. * Fo be able to do that, you depend upon me ; to keep my little business all snug, I depend upon you. The first is your number one, the second my number one. The more you value your number one, the more careful you must be of mine; so we come at last to what I told you at first— that a regard for number one holds us all together, and must do so, unless we would all go to pieces in company.” “'That’s true,” rejomed Mr. Bolter thoughtfully. “Oh! yer a cunning old codger !" Mr. Fagin saw with delight that this tribute to his powers was not mere comphiment, but that he had really impressed his recruit with a sense of his wily genius, which it was most important that he should entertain in the outset of their acguaintance. "To strengthen an impression so desirable and useful, he followed up the blow by acquainting him in some de operations ; blending truth and fiction together as best served his purpose, and that Mr. Bolter’s respect visibly increased, and became tempered, at the same time, with a degree of wholesome fear, which it was highly desirable to awaken. “ It’s this mutual trust we have in each other that consoles me under heavy losses," said the Jew. ‘ My best hand was yer; but we ain’t quite so thiek together as all that comes to.” ‘“ Yer don’t mean to say he died?” cried Mr. Bolter.
