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I . Born in the Workhouse In a certain town in England , which does not need a name in this story , there was a workhouse . It was a large , cold building where the parish kept people who had no money , no home and no family to help them . One night a baby boy was born there , and for a long time nobody was sure that he would live . He lay on a thin mattress and fought for every breath . An old woman who had drunk too much beer sat by the fire , and the parish doctor waited without much interest . At last the baby took a deep breath , sneezed and began to cry loudly . When the young mother heard him , she lifted her pale face from the pillow . “ Let me see the child , and die , ” she said in a weak voice . The doctor gave her the baby , and she pressed her cold lips to his forehead . Then she passed her hands over her face , looked wildly round the room , shivered and fell back on the pillow . The doctor rubbed her hands , but it was too late . She was dead . “ It’s all over , ” he said , and he put on his hat . “ She was a good - looking girl , too . Where did she come from ? ” “ She was brought here last night , ” the old woman answered . “ She was found lying in the street . She had walked a long way , because her shoes were worn to pieces , but where she came from , or where she was going to , nobody knows . ” The doctor lifted the dead girl’s left hand and shook his head . “ The old story , ” he said . “ There’s no wedding ring , I see . Good night . ” So the baby was an orphan from the first hour of his life . He was wrapped in old cotton clothes which many poor children had worn before him , and from that moment he belonged to the parish . Nobody would ever be kind to him , and everybody would expect him to be grateful . When he was still a baby , the parish sent him to a smaller house a few miles away , where twenty or thirty other poor children lived under the care of an old woman called Mrs Mann . The parish paid Mrs Mann sevenpence halfpenny a week for each child . That was enough money to feed a small child well , but Mrs Mann kept most of it for herself , and the children grew thin and pale . Some of them fell into the fire or became ill and died , but nobody asked many questions . On his ninth birthday Oliver was a pale , thin boy , rather small for his age . He was spending the day in the coal cellar with two other little boys , because all three had dared to say that they were hungry . Suddenly Mrs Mann saw a very important person at the garden gate . It was Mr Bumble , the beadle of the parish , a fat man in a large three - cornered hat and a long coat with gold buttons , who loved his own importance . Mrs Mann quickly had the three boys taken out of the cellar and washed , and then she invited the beadle into her little room and gave him a glass of gin and water .
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