There being nothing eatable within his reach, Oliver
replied in the affirmative.
‘Then come with me,’ said Mrs. Sowerberry:
taking up a dim and dirty lamp, and leading the way
upstairs; ’your bed’s under the counter.
You don’t mind sleeping among the coffins, I
suppose? But it doesn’t much matter whether
you do or don’t, for you can’t sleep anywhere
else. Come; don’t keep me here all night!’
Oliver lingered no longer, but meekly followed his
new mistress.
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.
