บทที่ บทที่ 5 · OLIVER MINGLES WITH NEW ASSOCIATES. GOING TO A FUNERAL FOR THE FIRST

. OLIVER MINGLES WITH NEW ASSOCIATES. GOING TO A FUNERAL FOR THE FIRST

TIME, HE FORMS AN UNFAVOURABLE NOTION OF HIS MASTER’S BUSINESS

Oliver, being left to himself in the undertaker’s shop, set the lamp

down on a workman’s bench, and gazed timidly about him with a feeling

of awe and dread, which many people a good deal older than he will be

at no loss to understand. An unfinished coffin on black tressels, which

stood in the middle of the shop, looked so gloomy and death-like that a

cold tremble came over him, every time his eyes wandered in the

direction of the dismal object: from which he almost expected to see

some frightful form slowly rear its head, to drive him mad with terror.

Against the wall were ranged, in regular array, a long row of elm

boards cut in the same shape: looking in the dim light, like

high-shouldered ghosts with their hands in their breeches pockets.

Coffin-plates, elm-chips, bright-headed nails, and shreds of black

cloth, lay scattered on the floor; and the wall behind the counter was

ornamented with a lively representation of two mutes in very stiff

neckcloths, on duty at a large private door, with a hearse drawn by

four black steeds, approaching in the distance. The shop was close and

hot. The atmosphere seemed tainted with the smell of coffins. The

recess beneath the counter in which his flock mattress was thrust,

looked like a grave.

Nor were these the only dismal feelings which depressed Oliver. He was

alone in a strange place; and we all know how chilled and desolate the

best of us will sometimes feel in such a situation. The boy had no

friends to care for, or to care for him. The regret of no recent

separation was fresh in his mind; the absence of no loved and

well-remembered face sank heavily into his heart.

But his heart was heavy, notwithstanding; and he wished, as he crept

into his narrow bed, that that were his coffin, and that he could be

lain in a calm and lasting sleep in the churchyard ground, with the

tall grass waving gently above his head, and the sound of the old deep

bell to soothe him in his sleep.

Oliver was awakened in the morning, by a loud kicking at the outside of

the shop-door: which, before he could huddle on his clothes, was

repeated, in an angry and impetuous manner, about twenty-five times.

When he began to undo the chain, the legs desisted, and a voice began.

“Open the door, will yer?” cried the voice which belonged to the legs

which had kicked at the door.

“I will, directly, sir,” replied Oliver: undoing the chain, and turning

the key.

“I suppose yer the new boy, ain’t yer?” said the voice through the

key-hole.

“Yes, sir,” replied Oliver.

“How old are yer?” inquired the voice.

“Ten, sir,” replied Oliver.

“Then I’ll whop yer when I get in,” said the voice; “you just see if I

don’t, that’s all, my work’us brat!” and having made this obliging

promise, the voice began to whistle.

Oliver had been too often subjected to the process to which the very

expressive monosyllable just recorded bears reference, to entertain the

smallest doubt that the owner of the voice, whoever he might be, would

redeem his pledge, most honourably. He drew back the bolts with a

trembling hand, and opened the door.

For a second or two, Oliver glanced up the street, and down the street,

and over the way: impressed with the belief that the unknown, who had

addressed him through the key-hole, had walked a few paces off, to warm

himself; for nobody did he see but a big charity-boy, sitting on a post

in front of the house, eating a slice of bread and butter: which he cut

into wedges, the size of his mouth, with a clasp-knife, and then

consumed with great dexterity.

“I beg your pardon, sir,” said Oliver at length: seeing that no other

visitor made his appearance; “did you knock?”

“I kicked,” replied the charity-boy.

“Did you want a coffin, sir?” inquired Oliver, innocently.

At this, the charity-boy looked monstrous fierce; and said that Oliver

would want one before long, if he cut jokes with his superiors in that

way.

“Yer don’t know who I am, I suppose, Work’us?” said the charity-boy, in

continuation: descending from the top of the post, meanwhile, with

edifying gravity.

“No, sir,” rejoined Oliver.

“I’m Mister Noah Claypole,” said the charity-boy, “and you’re under me.

Take down the shutters, yer idle young ruffian!” With this, Mr.

Claypole administered a kick to Oliver, and entered the shop with a

dignified air, which did him great credit. It is difficult for a

large-headed, small-eyed youth, of lumbering make and heavy

countenance, to look dignified under any circumstances; but it is more

especially so, when superadded to these personal attractions are a red

nose and yellow smalls.

Oliver, having taken down the shutters, and broken a pane of glass in

his effort to stagger away beneath the weight of the first one to a

small court at the side of the house in which they were kept during the

day, was graciously assisted by Noah: who having consoled him with the

assurance that “he’d catch it,” condescended to help him. Mr.

Sowerberry came down soon after. Shortly afterwards, Mrs. Sowerberry

appeared. Oliver having “caught it,” in fulfilment of Noah’s

prediction, followed that young gentleman down the stairs to breakfast.

“Come near the fire, Noah,” said Charlotte. “I saved a nice little bit

of bacon for you from master’s breakfast. Oliver, shut that door at

Mister Noah’s back, and take them bits that I’ve put out on the cover

of the bread-pan. There’s your tea; take it away to that box, and drink

it there, and make haste, for they’ll want you to mind the shop. D’ye

hear?”

“D’ye hear, Work’us?” said Noah Claypole.

“Lor, Noah!” said Charlotte, “what a rum creature you are! Why don’t

you let the boy alone?”

“Let him alone!” said Noah. “Why everybody lets him alone enough, for

the matter of that. Neither his father nor his mother will ever

interfere with him. All his relations let him have his own way pretty

well. Eh, Charlotte? He! he! he!”

“Oh, you queer soul!” said Charlotte, bursting into a hearty laugh, in

which she was joined by Noah; after which they both looked scornfully

at poor Oliver Twist, as he sat shivering on the box in the coldest

corner of the room, and ate the stale pieces which had been specially

reserved for him.

Noah was a charity-boy, but not a workhouse orphan. No chance-child was

he, for he could trace his genealogy all the way back to his parents,

who lived hard by; his mother being a washerwoman, and his father a

drunken soldier, discharged with a wooden leg, and a diurnal pension of

twopence-halfpenny and an unstateable fraction. The shop-boys in the

neighbourhood had long been in the habit of branding Noah in the public

streets, with the ignominious epithets of “leathers,” “charity,” and

the like; and Noah had borne them without reply. But, now that fortune

had cast in his way a nameless orphan, at whom even the meanest could

point the finger of scorn, he retorted on him with interest. This

affords charming food for contemplation. It shows us what a beautiful

thing human nature may be made to be; and how impartially the same

amiable qualities are developed in the finest lord and the dirtiest

charity-boy.

Oliver had been sojourning at the undertaker’s some three weeks or a

month. Mr. and Mrs. Sowerberry—the shop being shut up—were taking their

supper in the little back-parlour, when Mr. Sowerberry, after several

deferential glances at his wife, said,

“My dear—” He was going to say more; but, Mrs. Sowerberry looking up,

with a peculiarly unpropitious aspect, he stopped short.

“Well,” said Mrs. Sowerberry, sharply.

“Nothing, my dear, nothing,” said Mr. Sowerberry.

“Ugh, you brute!” said Mrs. Sowerberry.

“Not at all, my dear,” said Mr. Sowerberry humbly. “I thought you

didn’t want to hear, my dear. I was only going to say—”

“Oh, don’t tell me what you were going to say,” interposed Mrs.

Sowerberry. “I am nobody; don’t consult me, pray. _I_ don’t want to

intrude upon your secrets.” As Mrs. Sowerberry said this, she gave an

hysterical laugh, which threatened violent consequences.

“But, my dear,” said Sowerberry, “I want to ask your advice.”

“No, no, don’t ask mine,” replied Mrs. Sowerberry, in an affecting

manner: “ask somebody else’s.” Here, there was another hysterical

laugh, which frightened Mr. Sowerberry very much. This is a very common

and much-approved matrimonial course of treatment, which is often very

effective. It at once reduced Mr. Sowerberry to begging, as a special

favour, to be allowed to say what Mrs. Sowerberry was most curious to

hear. After a short duration, the permission was most graciously

conceded.

“It’s only about young Twist, my dear,” said Mr. Sowerberry. “A very

good-looking boy, that, my dear.”

“He need be, for he eats enough,” observed the lady.

“There’s an expression of melancholy in his face, my dear,” resumed Mr.

Sowerberry, “which is very interesting. He would make a delightful

mute, my love.”

Mrs. Sowerberry looked up with an expression of considerable

wonderment. Mr. Sowerberry remarked it and, without allowing time for

any observation on the good lady’s part, proceeded.

“I don’t mean a regular mute to attend grown-up people, my dear, but

only for children’s practice. It would be very new to have a mute in

proportion, my dear. You may depend upon it, it would have a superb

effect.”

Mrs. Sowerberry, who had a good deal of taste in the undertaking way,

was much struck by the novelty of this idea; but, as it would have been

compromising her dignity to have said so, under existing circumstances,

she merely inquired, with much sharpness, why such an obvious

suggestion had not presented itself to her husband’s mind before? Mr.

Sowerberry rightly construed this, as an acquiescence in his

proposition; it was speedily determined, therefore, that Oliver should

be at once initiated into the mysteries of the trade; and, with this

view, that he should accompany his master on the very next occasion of

his services being required.

The occasion was not long in coming. Half an hour after breakfast next

morning, Mr. Bumble entered the shop; and supporting his cane against

the counter, drew forth his large leathern pocket-book: from which he

selected a small scrap of paper, which he handed over to Sowerberry.

“Aha!” said the undertaker, glancing over it with a lively countenance;

“an order for a coffin, eh?”

“For a coffin first, and a porochial funeral afterwards,” replied Mr.

Bumble, fastening the strap of the leathern pocket-book: which, like

himself, was very corpulent.

“Bayton,” said the undertaker, looking from the scrap of paper to Mr.

Bumble. “I never heard the name before.”

Bumble shook his head, as he replied, “Obstinate people, Mr.

Sowerberry; very obstinate. Proud, too, I’m afraid, sir.”

“Proud, eh?” exclaimed Mr. Sowerberry with a sneer. “Come, that’s too

much.”

“Oh, it’s sickening,” replied the beadle. “Antimonial, Mr. Sowerberry!”

“So it is,” acquiesced the undertaker.

“We only heard of the family the night before last,” said the beadle;

“and we shouldn’t have known anything about them, then, only a woman

who lodges in the same house made an application to the porochial

committee for them to send the porochial surgeon to see a woman as was

very bad. He had gone out to dinner; but his ’prentice (which is a very

clever lad) sent ’em some medicine in a blacking-bottle, offhand.”

“Ah, there’s promptness,” said the undertaker.

“Promptness, indeed!” replied the beadle. “But what’s the consequence;

what’s the ungrateful behaviour of these rebels, sir? Why, the husband

sends back word that the medicine won’t suit his wife’s complaint, and

so she shan’t take it—says she shan’t take it, sir! Good, strong,

wholesome medicine, as was given with great success to two Irish

labourers and a coal-heaver, only a week before—sent ’em for nothing,

with a blackin’-bottle in,—and he sends back word that she shan’t take

it, sir!”

As the atrocity presented itself to Mr. Bumble’s mind in full force, he

struck the counter sharply with his cane, and became flushed with

indignation.

“Well,” said the undertaker, “I ne—ver—did—”

“Never did, sir!” ejaculated the beadle. “No, nor nobody never did; but

now she’s dead, we’ve got to bury her; and that’s the direction; and

the sooner it’s done, the better.”

Thus saying, Mr. Bumble put on his cocked hat wrong side first, in a

fever of parochial excitement; and flounced out of the shop.

“Why, he was so angry, Oliver, that he forgot even to ask after you!”

said Mr. Sowerberry, looking after the beadle as he strode down the

street.

“Yes, sir,” replied Oliver, who had carefully kept himself out of

sight, during the interview; and who was shaking from head to foot at

the mere recollection of the sound of Mr. Bumble’s voice. He needn’t

have taken the trouble to shrink from Mr. Bumble’s glance, however; for

that functionary, on whom the prediction of the gentleman in the white

waistcoat had made a very strong impression, thought that now the

undertaker had got Oliver upon trial the subject was better avoided,

until such time as he should be firmly bound for seven years, and all

danger of his being returned upon the hands of the parish should be

thus effectually and legally overcome.

“Well,” said Mr. Sowerberry, taking up his hat, “the sooner this job is

done, the better. Noah, look after the shop. Oliver, put on your cap,

and come with me.” Oliver obeyed, and followed his master on his

professional mission.

They walked on, for some time, through the most crowded and densely

inhabited part of the town; and then, striking down a narrow street

more dirty and miserable than any they had yet passed through, paused

to look for the house which was the object of their search. The houses

on either side were high and large, but very old, and tenanted by

people of the poorest class: as their neglected appearance would have

sufficiently denoted, without the concurrent testimony afforded by the

squalid looks of the few men and women who, with folded arms and bodies

half doubled, occasionally skulked along. A great many of the tenements

had shop-fronts; but these were fast closed, and mouldering away; only

the upper rooms being inhabited. Some houses which had become insecure

from age and decay, were prevented from falling into the street, by

huge beams of wood reared against the walls, and firmly planted in the

road; but even these crazy dens seemed to have been selected as the

nightly haunts of some houseless wretches, for many of the rough boards

which supplied the place of door and window, were wrenched from their

positions, to afford an aperture wide enough for the passage of a human

body. The kennel was stagnant and filthy. The very rats, which here and

there lay putrefying in its rottenness, were hideous with famine.

There was neither knocker nor bell-handle at the open door where Oliver

and his master stopped; so, groping his way cautiously through the dark

passage, and bidding Oliver keep close to him and not be afraid, the

undertaker mounted to the top of the first flight of stairs. Stumbling

against a door on the landing, he rapped at it with his knuckles.

It was opened by a young girl of thirteen or fourteen. The undertaker

at once saw enough of what the room contained, to know it was the

apartment to which he had been directed. He stepped in; Oliver followed

him.

There was no fire in the room; but a man was crouching, mechanically,

over the empty stove. An old woman, too, had drawn a low stool to the

cold hearth, and was sitting beside him. There were some ragged

children in another corner; and in a small recess, opposite the door,

there lay upon the ground, something covered with an old blanket.

Oliver shuddered as he cast his eyes toward the place, and crept

involuntarily closer to his master; for though it was covered up, the

boy felt that it was a corpse.

The man’s face was thin and very pale; his hair and beard were grizzly;

his eyes were bloodshot. The old woman’s face was wrinkled; her two

remaining teeth protruded over her under lip; and her eyes were bright

and piercing. Oliver was afraid to look at either her or the man. They

seemed so like the rats he had seen outside.

“Nobody shall go near her,” said the man, starting fiercely up, as the

undertaker approached the recess. “Keep back! Damn you, keep back, if

you’ve a life to lose!”

“Nonsense, my good man,” said the undertaker, who was pretty well used

to misery in all its shapes. “Nonsense!”

“I tell you,” said the man: clenching his hands, and stamping furiously

on the floor,—“I tell you I won’t have her put into the ground. She

couldn’t rest there. The worms would worry her—not eat her—she is so

worn away.”

The undertaker offered no reply to this raving; but producing a tape

from his pocket, knelt down for a moment by the side of the body.

“Ah!” said the man: bursting into tears, and sinking on his knees at

the feet of the dead woman; “kneel down, kneel down—kneel round her,

every one of you, and mark my words! I say she was starved to death. I

never knew how bad she was, till the fever came upon her; and then her

bones were starting through the skin. There was neither fire nor

candle; she died in the dark—in the dark! She couldn’t even see her

children’s faces, though we heard her gasping out their names. I begged

for her in the streets: and they sent me to prison. When I came back,

she was dying; and all the blood in my heart has dried up, for they

starved her to death. I swear it before the God that saw it! They

starved her!” He twined his hands in his hair; and, with a loud scream,

rolled grovelling upon the floor: his eyes fixed, and the foam covering

his lips.

The terrified children cried bitterly; but the old woman, who had

hitherto remained as quiet as if she had been wholly deaf to all that

passed, menaced them into silence. Having unloosened the cravat of the

man who still remained extended on the ground, she tottered towards the

undertaker.

“She was my daughter,” said the old woman, nodding her head in the

direction of the corpse; and speaking with an idiotic leer, more

ghastly than even the presence of death in such a place. “Lord, Lord!

Well, it _is_ strange that I who gave birth to her, and was a woman

then, should be alive and merry now, and she lying there: so cold and

stiff! Lord, Lord!—to think of it; it’s as good as a play—as good as a

play!”

As the wretched creature mumbled and chuckled in her hideous merriment,

the undertaker turned to go away.

“Stop, stop!” said the old woman in a loud whisper. “Will she be buried

tomorrow, or next day, or tonight? I laid her out; and I must walk,

you know. Send me a large cloak: a good warm one: for it is bitter

cold. We should have cake and wine, too, before we go! Never mind; send

some bread—only a loaf of bread and a cup of water. Shall we have some

bread, dear?” she said eagerly: catching at the undertaker’s coat, as

he once more moved towards the door.

“Yes, yes,” said the undertaker, “of course. Anything you like!” He

disengaged himself from the old woman’s grasp; and, drawing Oliver

after him, hurried away.

The next day, (the family having been meanwhile relieved with a

half-quartern loaf and a piece of cheese, left with them by Mr. Bumble

himself,) Oliver and his master returned to the miserable abode; where

Mr. Bumble had already arrived, accompanied by four men from the

workhouse, who were to act as bearers. An old black cloak had been

thrown over the rags of the old woman and the man; and the bare coffin

having been screwed down, was hoisted on the shoulders of the bearers,

and carried into the street.

“Now, you must put your best leg foremost, old lady!” whispered

Sowerberry in the old woman’s ear; “we are rather late; and it won’t

do, to keep the clergyman waiting. Move on, my men,—as quick as you

like!”

Thus directed, the bearers trotted on under their light burden; and the

two mourners kept as near them, as they could. Mr. Bumble and

Sowerberry walked at a good smart pace in front; and Oliver, whose legs

were not so long as his master’s, ran by the side.

There was not so great a necessity for hurrying as Mr. Sowerberry had

anticipated, however; for when they reached the obscure corner of the

churchyard in which the nettles grew, and where the parish graves were

made, the clergyman had not arrived; and the clerk, who was sitting by

the vestry-room fire, seemed to think it by no means improbable that it

might be an hour or so, before he came. So, they put the bier on the

brink of the grave; and the two mourners waited patiently in the damp

clay, with a cold rain drizzling down, while the ragged boys whom the

spectacle had attracted into the churchyard played a noisy game at

hide-and-seek among the tombstones, or varied their amusements by

jumping backwards and forwards over the coffin. Mr. Sowerberry and

Bumble, being personal friends of the clerk, sat by the fire with him,

and read the paper.

At length, after a lapse of something more than an hour, Mr. Bumble,

and Sowerberry, and the clerk, were seen running towards the grave.

Immediately afterwards, the clergyman appeared: putting on his surplice

as he came along. Mr. Bumble then thrashed a boy or two, to keep up

appearances; and the reverend gentleman, having read as much of the

burial service as could be compressed into four minutes, gave his

surplice to the clerk, and walked away again.

“Now, Bill!” said Sowerberry to the grave-digger. “Fill up!”

It was no very difficult task, for the grave was so full, that the

uppermost coffin was within a few feet of the surface. The grave-digger

shovelled in the earth; stamped it loosely down with his feet:

shouldered his spade; and walked off, followed by the boys, who

murmured very loud complaints at the fun being over so soon.

“Come, my good fellow!” said Bumble, tapping the man on the back. “They

want to shut up the yard.”

The man who had never once moved, since he had taken his station by the

grave side, started, raised his head, stared at the person who had

addressed him, walked forward for a few paces; and fell down in a

swoon. The crazy old woman was too much occupied in bewailing the loss

of her cloak (which the undertaker had taken off), to pay him any

attention; so they threw a can of cold water over him; and when he came

to, saw him safely out of the churchyard, locked the gate, and departed

on their different ways.

“Well, Oliver,” said Sowerberry, as they walked home, “how do you like

it?”

“Pretty well, thank you, sir” replied Oliver, with considerable

hesitation. “Not very much, sir.”

“Ah, you’ll get used to it in time, Oliver,” said Sowerberry. “Nothing

when you _are_ used to it, my boy.”

Oliver wondered, in his own mind, whether it had taken a very long time

to get Mr. Sowerberry used to it. But he thought it better not to ask

the question; and walked back to the shop: thinking over all he had

seen and heard.