Bumble ever find him there! He had often heard the old men in the workhouse, too, say that no lad of spirit need want in London and that there were ways of living in that vast city, which those who had been bred up in country parts had no idea of. London ! that great large place! - could nobody not even Mr. The name awakened a new train of ideas in the boy's mind. The stone by which he was seated, bore, in large characters, an intimation that it was just seventy miles from that spot to London. Then he sat down to rest by the side of a mile-stone, and began to think, for the first time, where he had better go and try to live. Though he was nearly five miles away from the town, he ran, and hid behind the hedges, by turns, till noon: fearing that he might be pursued and overtaken. OLIVER reached the stile at which the by-path termimated and once more gained the high-road. The blessing was from a young child's lips, but it was the first that Oliver had ever heard invoked upon his head and through the struggles and sufferings, and troubles and changes, of his after-life, he never once forgot it.

Kiss me,' said the child, climbing up the low gate, and flinging his little arms round Oliver's neck: Good-b'ye, dear! God bless you!' I know the doctor must be right, Oliver, because I dream so much of Heaven, and Angels, and kind faces that I never see when I am awake. I know I shall ! You will be well and happy!' 'Yes, yes, I will, to say good-b'ye to you,' replied Oliver. 'I am very glad to see you, dear but don't stop, don't stop!'

'I heard the doctor tell them I was dying,' replied the child with a faint smile. They beat and ill-use me, Dick and I am going to seek my fortune, some long way off.

'You mustn't say you saw me, Dick,' said Oliver.

Oliver twist page