ard than anything else. The men laughed,
and the man in the white waistcoat said: "The boy is a fool. I thought
he was." After other ugly remarks, they told Oliver he was an orphan
and they had supported him all his life. He ought to be very thankful.
(And he was, when he remembered how many had been starved to death.)
"Now," they said, "you are nine years old, and we must put you out to
learn a trade." They told him he should begin the next morning at six
o'clock to pick oakum, and work at that until they could get him a
place.

Oliver was faithful at his work, in which several other boys assisted,
but oh! so hungry they got, for they were given but one little bowl of
gruel at a meal--hardly enough for a kitten. So one day the boys said
they must ask for more; and they "drew straws" to see who should venture
to do so. It fell to Oliver's lot to do it, and the next meal, when they
had emptied their bowls, Oliver walked up to the man who helped them and
said very politely, "Please, sir, may I not have some more? I am very
hungry." This made the man so angry that he hit Oliver over the head
with his ladle and called for Mr. Bumble. He came, and when told that
Oliver had "asked for more," he grabbed him by the collar and took him
before the Board and made the complaint that he had been very naughty
and rebellious, telling the circumstance in an unfair and untruthful
way. The Board was angry at Oliver, and the man in the white waistcoat
told them again as he had said before. "This boy will be hung sometime.
We must get rid of him at once." So they offered five pounds, or
twenty-five dollars to anyone who would take him.

The first man who came was a very mean chimney-sweeper, who had almost
killed other boys with his vile treatment. The Board agreed to let him
have Oliver; but, when they took him before the magistrates, Oliver fell
on his knees and begged them not to let that man have him, and they
would not. So Oliver was taken back to the workhouse.

The next man who came was Mr. Sowerberry, an undertaker. He was a very
good man, and the magistrates let him take Oliver along. But he had a
very cross, stingy wife, and a mean servant-girl by the name of
Charlotte, and a big overbearing boy by the name of Noah Claypole, whom
he had taken to raise. Oliver thought he would like Mr. Sowerberry well
enough, but his heart fell when "the Mrs." met him and called him "boy"
and a "measly-looking little pauper," and gave him for su