Oliver Twist

Give it a little gruel if it is.'

He gazed in stupefied astonishment on the small rebel for some seconds, and then clung for support to the copper.

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 hungry and destitute situation of the infant orphan was duly reported by the workhouse authorities to the parish authorities.

The room in which the boys were fed, was a large stone hall, with a copper at one end: out of which the master, dressed in an apron for the purpose, and assisted by one or two women, ladled the gruel at mealtimes.