【资料下载】雾都孤儿 （英语原版）

胡MM

'That boy will be hung,' said the gentleman in the white

waistcoat.  'I know that boy will be hung.'

胡MM

Nobody controverted the prophetic gentleman's opinion.  An

animated discussion took place.  Oliver was ordered into instant

confinement; and a bill was next morning pasted on the outside of

the gate, offering a reward of five pounds to anybody who would

take Oliver Twist off the hands of the parish.  In other words,

five pounds and Oliver Twist were offered to any man or woman who

wanted an apprentice to any trade, business, or calling.

胡MM

'I never was more convinced of anything in my life,' said the

gentleman in the white waistcoat, as he knocked at the gate and

read the bill next morning:  'I never was more convinced of

anything in my life, than I am that that boy will come to be

hung.'

胡MM

As I purpose to show in the sequel whether the white waistcoated

gentleman was right or not, I should perhaps mar the interest of

this narrative (supposing it to possess any at all), if I

ventured to hint just yet, whether the life of Oliver Twist had

this violent termination or no.

胡MM

chapter2 is over

没鬼楚香鱼

CHAPTER III



RELATES HOW OLIVER TWIST WAS VERY NEAR GETTING A PLACE WHICH

WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN A SINECURE

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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 he had 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-handkerchiefs being

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 before his 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.

没鬼楚香鱼

Let it not be supposed by the enemies of 'the system,' that,

during the period of his solitary incarceration, 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

of the 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.

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It chanced 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 pounds of 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.

没鬼楚香鱼

'Wo--o!' said Mr. Gamfield to the donkey.