[00:34.77]Oliver’s early life
[00:39.55]Oliver twist was born in a work house,
[00:43.22]and when he arrived in this hard world,
[00:45.75]it was very doubtful whether he would live beyond the first three minutes .
[00:50.13]He lay on a hard little bed and struggled to start breathing
[00:55.74]Oliver fought his first battle without much assistance from the two people present at his birth. One was an old woman, who was nearly always drunk,
[01:06.80]and the other was a busy local doctor,
[01:09.08]who was not paid enough to be very interested in Oliver’s survival.
[01:13.00]After all, death is a very common event in the workhouse,
[01:17.19]where only the poor and homeless lived.
[01:20.17]However, Oliver managed to draw his first breath,
[01:23.46]and then announced his arrival to the rest of the work house by crying loudly.
[01:28.12]His mother raised her pale young face form the pillow and whispered,
[01:33.00]‘Let me see the child, and die.’
[01:38.09]The doctor turned away from the fire,
[01:40.33]where he had warming his hands.
[01:42.45]‘You must not talk about dying yet,’ he said to her kindly.
[01:47.35]He gave her the child to hold.
[01:49.68]Lovingly, she kissed the baby on his forehead with her cold white lips,
[01:55.92]then stared wildly around the room, fell back - and die.
[02:01.80]
[02:03.18]‘Poor dear!’ said the nurse,
[02:06.71]hurriedly putting a green glass bottle back in the pocket of her long skirt.
[02:10.71]The doctor began to put on his coat.
[02:15.44]‘The baby is weak and probably have difficulties.’ he said
[02:19.87]‘If so, give it a little milk to keep it quiet.’
[02:24.27]Then he looked at the dead woman,
[02:26.41]‘The mother was a good-looking girl. Where did she come from?’
[02:32.91]‘She was brought here last night,’ replied the old woman.
[02:37.27]‘She was found lying in the street.
[02:39.74]She’d walked some distance, judging by her shoes, which were worn to pieces.
[02:44.79]Where she came from, where she was going to, or what her name was, nobody knows.’
[02:51.70]
[02:52.57]The doctor lifted the girl’s left hand. ‘The old story,’
[02:58.03]he said sadly, shaking his head. ‘No wedding ring, I see. Ah! Good night.’
[03:05.43]
[03:06.76]And so Oliver was left with only the drunken nurse.
[03:10.42]Without clothes, under his first blanket,
[03:13.11]he could have been the child of a king or a beggar.
[03:17.95]
[03:17.99]But when the woman dressed him later in rough cotton clothes, yellow with age,
[03:22.61]he looked exactly what he was—an orphan in the work house,
[03:27.00]ready for a life of misery, hunger and neglect.
[03:32.07]Oliver cried loudly.
[03:35.54]If he could have known that he was a workhouse orphan,
[03:39.26]perhaps he would have cried more loudly.
[03:41.35]
[03:43.83]There was no one to look after the baby in the workhouse,
[03:46.48]so Oliver was sent to a special ‘baby farm’ nearby.
[03:50.58]There, he and other thirty children rolled around the floor all day,
[03:55.76]without the inconvenience of too much food or too much clothing.
[04:00.05]Mrs Mann, the old woman who ‘looked after’ them, was very experienced.
[04:06.67]She knew what was good for children,
[04:08.47]and a full stomach was very dangerous to their health.
[04:12.07]She also knew what was good for herself,
[04:14.75]so she kept for her own use the money that she was given for the children’s food.
[04:19.95]The board responsible for the orphans sometimes checked on the health of the children,
[04:25.87]but they always sent the beadle, a kind of local police man,
[04:29.92]to announce their visit the day before.
[04:31.75]So, whenever the board arrived, of course,
[04:34.54]the children were always neat and clean.
[04:37.75]
[04:39.03]This was the way Oliver was brought up.
[04:40.96]Consequently, at the age of nine he was a pale, thin child and short for his age.
[04:47.72]But despite frequent beatings by Mrs Mann, his spirit was strong,
[04:53.16]which was probably the reason why he managed to reach the age of nine at all.
[04:56.76]
[04:58.68]On Oliver’s ninth birthday,
[05:00.84]Mr Bumble the beadle came to the house to see Mrs Mann.
[05:04.94]Through the front window Mrs Mann saw him at the gate,
[05:08.63]and turned quickly to the girl who worked with her.
[05:10.90]‘Quickly! Take Oliver and those others upstairs to be washed!’ she said.
[05:16.76]Then she ran out to unlock the gate.
[05:18.34](It was always kept locked to present official visitors walking in unexpected.)
[05:23.26]‘I have business to talk about,’
[05:27.25]Mr Bumble told Mrs Mann as he entered the house.
[05:30.41]He was a big fat man, often bad-tempered,
[05:33.64]and was full of self-importance.
[05:36.47]He did not like to be kept waiting at a locked gate.
[05:39.00]Mrs Mann took his hat and coat, placed a chair for him,
[05:44.68]and expressed great concern for his comfort.
[05:47.41]‘You’ve had a long walk, Mr Bumble,’ she said, ‘and you must be thirsty.’
[05:52.31]She took out a bottle form the cupboard.
[05:54.94]‘No, thank you, Mrs Mann.
[05:56.99]Not a drop.’ He waved the bottle away.
[06:00.49]‘Just a little drop, Mr Bumble, with cold water,’
[06:04.66]said Mrs Mann persuasively.
[06:07.23]Mr Bumble coughed. ‘What is this?’ he asked,
[06:11.92]looking at bottle with interest.
[06:14.26]‘Gin, I keep it for the children’s medicine drink.’
[06:18.76]‘You gave the children gin, Mrs Mann?’ asked Mr Bumble,
[06:24.04]watching as she mixed his drink.
[06:26.15]‘Only with medicine, sir. I don’t like to see them suffer.’
[06:31.21]‘You are a good woman, Mrs Mann.’
[06:33.84]Mr Bumble drank half his glass immediately.
[06:37.44]‘I’ll tell the board about you. Now, the reason why I’m here.
[06:43.39]Oliver Twist is nine years old today.
[06:46.91]We’ve never been able to discover anything about his parents.’
[06:51.91]‘Then how did he get his name?’
[06:55.94]‘I gave it to him,’ said Mr Bumble proudly.
[06:59.53]‘We follow the alphabet.
[07:01.14]The last one was an S-Swubble.
[07:04.82]Then it was T, so this one is Twist.
[07:08.26]The next one will be Unwin.
[07:10.67]Anyway, Oliver Twist is now old enough to return to the workhouse.
[07:15.61]Bringing him here, please.’
[07:17.62]While Mrs Mann went to get him, Mr Bumble finished the rest of his gin.
[07:22.78]Oliver, his face and hands now almost clean, was led into the room.
[07:29.44]‘Will you come with me, Oliver?’
[07:33.00]asked Mr Bumble in a loud voice.
[07:35.54]Oliver was very glad to be free of Mrs Mann’s violence,
[07:40.01]but he said nothing because she was angrily shaking her finger at him.
[07:43.46]However, as the gate closed behind Oliver, he burst into tears.
[07:49.19]He was leaving behind the other children,
[07:51.03]the only friends he had,
[07:52.84]and he realized at that moment how lonely he was in the world.
[07:57.73]
[07:58.86]Mr Bumble walked on with long steps,
[08:01.46]with Oliver on his short little legs running beside him.
[08:05.01]The feeling of contentment produced by gin –and-water had now disappeared,
[08:09.55]and the beadle was in a bad mood once more.
[08:12.61]
[08:13.62]Back at the housework, Oliver was taken to see the board. He stood in front of ten fat men who were sitting around a table.
[08:21.20]‘What’s your name, boy?’
[08:23.33]asked a particularly fat man with a very round, red face.
[08:27.68]Oliver was frightened at the sight of so many people,
[08:30.65]and started to cry.
[08:33.08]‘Why are you crying?’
[08:34.84]The beadle hit him on the back,
[08:36.52]and so naturally Oliver cried even more.
[08:40.08]‘The boy is a fool,’ one member of the board announced.
[08:43.98]‘You know you have no father or mother,’
[08:47.27]said the first man,
[08:48.32]‘and that you have been brought up with other orphans?’
[08:51.14]‘Yes, sir,’ replied Oliver, crying bitterly.
[08:55.38]‘Why is the boy crying?’ repeated the other man, puzzled.
[08:58.99]‘You have come here to educated,’ continued the fat man,
[09:03.73]‘so you will start working here tomorrow at six o’clock.
[09:06.85]Oliver was led away to a large room,
[09:09.26]on a rough hard bed, he cried himself to sleep.
[09:13.62]
[09:15.42]The room in the workhouse where the boy were fed was a large stone hall,
[09:20.27]and at one end the master and two women served the food,
[09:24.17]this consisted of a bowl of thin soup three times a day,
[09:28.09]with a piece of bread on Sundays.
[09:29.90]
[09:31.10]The boys ate everything and were always hungry.
[09:33.83]The bowls never needed washing.
[09:35.82]The boy polished them with their snoops until they shone.
[09:39.91]After mouths of this stow starvation,
[09:43.87]one of the boys told the others he was so hungry that one night he might eat the boy who sleep next to him.
[09:50.25]He had a wild hungry eye, and the other boys believed him.
[09:56.35]After a long discussion, they decided that one of them should ask for more food after supper that evening, and Oliver was chosen.
[10:04.22]
[10:05.87]The evening arrived;
[10:07.33]the soup was served, and the bowls were empty again in a few seconds.
[10:11.77]Oliver went up to the master, with his bowl in his hand.
[10:15.50]He felt very frightened, but also desperate with hunger.
[10:19.22]‘Please, sir, I want some more.’
[10:22.94]
[10:24.66]The master was a fat, healthy man, but he turned very pale.
[10:28.46]He looked at the little boy in front of him with amazement.
[10:32.37]Nobody else spoke.
[10:33.44]
[10:35.01]‘What?’ he asked at last, in a faint voice.
[10:39.41]‘Please, sir, replied Oliver, ‘I want some more.’
[10:44.91]The master hit him with the serving spoon,
[10:47.04]then seized Oliver’s arms and shouted for the beadle.
[10:50.59]The beadle came quickly, heard the dreadful news,
[10:53.92]and immediately ran to tell the board.
[10:56.36]
[10:57.83]‘He asked for more?’ Mr Limbkins, the fattest board member, asked in horror.
[11:04.03]‘Bumble, is this really true?’
[11:07.35]‘That boy will be hanged!’ said the man who earlier had called Oliver a fool.
[11:13.62]‘you see if I’m not right.’
[11:15.20]
[11:16.72]Oliver was led away to be locked up,
[11:18.89]and a reward was offered to anybody who would take him away and use him to work.
[11:24.10]