 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.
    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 far 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.
    It chanced one morning, while Oliver's affairs were in this auspicious and
comfortable 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
