.
    »Well!« said Mr. Bumble, raising his hands and eyes with most impressive
solemnity, »Well! of all the artful and designing orphans that ever I see,
Oliver, you are one of the most bare-facedest.«
    »Hold your tongue, Beadle,« said the second old gentleman, when Mr. Bumble
had given vent to this compound adjective.
    »I beg your worship's pardon,« said Mr. Bumble, incredulous of his having
heard aright. »Did your worship speak to me?«
    »Yes. Hold your tongue.«
    Mr. Bumble was stupefied with astonishment. A beadle ordered to hold his
tongue! A moral revolution!
    The old gentleman in the tortoise-shell spectacles looked at his companion,
he nodded significantly.
    »We refuse to sanction these indentures,« said the old gentleman: tossing
aside the piece of parchment as he spoke.
    »I hope,« stammered Mr. Limbkins: »I hope the magistrates will not form the
opinion that the authorities have been guilty of any improper conduct, on the
unsupported testimony of a mere child.«
    »The magistrates are not called upon to pronounce any opinion on the
matter,« said the second old gentleman sharply. »Take the boy back to the
workhouse, and treat him kindly. He seems to want it.«
    That same evening, the gentleman in the white waistcoat most positively and
decidedly affirmed, not only that Oliver would be hung, but that he would be
drawn and quartered into the bargain. Mr. Bumble shook his head with gloomy
mystery, and said he wished he might come to good; whereunto Mr. Gamfield
replied, that he wished he might come to him; which, although he agreed with the
beadle in most matters, would seem to be a wish of a totally opposite
description.
    The next morning, the public were once more informed that Oliver Twist was
again To Let, and that five pounds would be paid to anybody who would take
possession of him.
 

                                   Chapter IV

  Oliver, Being Offered Another Place, Makes His First Entry into Public Life

In great families, when an advantageous place cannot be obtained, either in
possession, reversion, remainder, or expectancy, for the young man who is
growing up, it is a very general custom to send him to sea. The board, in
imitation of so wise and salutary an example, took counsel together on the
expediency of shipping off Oliver Twist, in some small trading vessel bound to a
good unhealthy port. This suggested itself as the very best thing that could
possibly be done with