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- Chapter I
- TREATS OF THE PLACE WHERE OLIVER TWIST WAS BORN AND OF THE
- CIRCUMSTANCES ATTENDING HIS BIRTH
- Among other public buildings in a certain town, which for many
- reasons it will be prudent to refrain from mentioning, and to
- which I will assign no fictitious name, there is one anciently
- common to most towns, great or small: to wit, a workhouse; and
- in this workhouse was born; on a day and date which I need not
- trouble myself to repeat, inasmuch as it can be of no possible
- consequence to the reader, in this stage of the business at all
- events; the item of mortality whose name is prefixed to the head
- of this chapter.
- For a long time after it was ushered into this world of sorrow
- and trouble, by the parish surgeon, it remained a matter of
- considerable doubt whether the child would survive to bear any
- name at all; in which case it is somewhat more than probable that
- these memoirs would never have appeared; or, if they had, that
- being comprised within a couple of pages, they would have
- possessed the inestimable merit of being the most concise and
- faithful specimen of biography, extant in the literature of any
- age or country.
- Although I am not disposed to maintain that the being born in a
- workhouse, is in itself the most fortunate and enviable
- circumstance that can possibly befall a human being, I do mean to
- say that in this particular instance, it was the best thing for
- Oliver Twist that could by possibility have occurred. The fact
- is, that there was considerable difficulty in inducing Oliver to
- take upon himself the office of respiration,--a troublesome
- practice, but one which custom has rendered necessary to our easy
- existence; and for some time he lay gasping on a little flock
- mattress, rather unequally poised between this world and the
- next: the balance being decidedly in favour of the latter. Now,
- if, during this brief period, Oliver had been surrounded by
- careful grandmothers, anxious aunts, experienced nurses, and
- doctors of profound wisdom, he would most inevitably and
- indubitably have been killed in no time. There being nobody by,
- however, but a pauper old woman, who was rendered rather misty by
- an unwonted allowance of beer; and a parish surgeon who did such
- matters by contract; Oliver and Nature fought out the point
- between them. The result was, that, after a few struggles,
- Oliver breathed, sneezed, and proceeded to advertise to the
- inmates of the workhouse the fact of a new burden having been
- imposed upon the parish, by setting up as loud a cry as could
- reasonably have been expected from a male infant who had not been
- possessed of that very useful appendage, a voice, for a much
- longer space of time than three minutes and a quarter.
- As Oliver gave this first proof of the free and proper action of
- his lungs, the patchwork coverlet which was carelessly flung over
- the iron bedstead, rustled; the pale face of a young woman was
- raised feebly from the pillow; and a faint voice imperfectly
- articulated the words, 'Let me see the child, and die.'
- The surgeon had been sitting with his face turned towards the
- fire: giving the palms of his hands a warm and a rub
- alternately. As the young woman spoke, he rose, and advancing to
- the bed's head, said, with more kindness than might have been
- expected of him:
- 'Oh, you must not talk about dying yet.'
- 'Lor bless her dear heart, no!' interposed the nurse, hastily
- depositing in her pocket a green glass bottle, the contents of
- which she had been tasting in a corner with evident satisfaction.
- 'Lor bless her dear heart, when she has lived as long as I have,
- sir, and had thirteen children of her own, and all on 'em dead
- except two, and them in the wurkus with me, she'll know better
- than to take on in that way, bless her dear heart! Think what it
- is to be a mother, there's a dear young lamb do.'
- Apparently this consolatory perspective of a mother's prospects
- failed in producing its due effect. The patient shook her head,
- and stretched out her hand towards the child.
- The surgeon deposited it in her arms. She imprinted her cold
- white lips passionately on its forehead; passed her hands over
- her face; gazed wildly round; shuddered; fell back--and died.
- They chafed her breast, hands, and temples; but the blood had
- stopped forever. They talked of hope and comfort. They had been
- strangers too long.
- 'It's all over, Mrs. Thingummy!' said the surgeon at last.
- 'Ah, poor dear, so it is!' said the nurse, picking up the cork of
- the green bottle, which had fallen out on the pillow, as she
- stooped to take up the child. 'Poor dear!'
- 'You needn't mind sending up to me, if the child cries, nurse,'
- said the surgeon, putting on his gloves with great deliberation.
- 'It's very likely it WILL be troublesome. Give it a little gruel
- if it is.' He put on his hat, and, pausing by the bed-side on
- his way to the door, added, 'She was a good-looking girl, too;
- where did she come from?'
- 'She was brought here last night,' replied the old woman, 'by the
- overseer's order. She was found lying in the street. She had
- walked some distance, for her shoes were worn to pieces; but
- where she came from, or where she was going to, nobody knows.'
- The surgeon leaned over the body, and raised the left hand. 'The
- old story,' he said, shaking his head: 'no wedding-ring, I see.
- Ah! Good-night!'
- The medical gentleman walked away to dinner; and the nurse,
- having once more applied herself to the green bottle, sat down on
- a low chair before the fire, and proceeded to dress the infant.
- What an excellent example of the power of dress, young Oliver
- Twist was! Wrapped in the blanket which had hitherto formed his
- only covering, he might have been the child of a nobleman or a
- beggar; it would have been hard for the haughtiest stranger to
- have assigned him his proper station in society. But now that he
- was enveloped in the old calico robes which had grown yellow in
- the same service, he was badged and ticketed, and fell into his
- place at once--a parish child--the orphan of a workhouse--the
- humble, half-starved drudge--to be cuffed and buffeted through
- the world--despised by all, and pitied by none.
- Oliver cried lustily. If he could have known that he was an
- orphan, left to the tender mercies of church-wardens and
- overseers, perhaps he would have cried the louder.
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