Chapter 22 Chapter 21

(expedition.) They come to the street.It was a disappointing morning, windy, rainy, and cloudy, looking like a storm was coming.It rained heavily at night, and countless large puddles formed on the road, and the ditches were all full.A faint gleam in the sky, heralding the dawn of a new day, instead of mitigating the gloominess of the scene, made the lights of the street lamps pale and unaffected by the wet roofs and the dreary landscape. A hint of warm, bright color sprinkles the streets.No one seemed to be up in the neighborhood, the windows of the houses were all shut tightly, and the streets they passed were silent and deserted.

It was not light at last until they turned into Bethler Meadow Drive.Most of the lights had been extinguished, and a few large country coaches were slowly driving towards London, and now and then a muddy stagecoach rattled past, and the handlebars always had to be punitive as they drove to the front. They took the wrong lane and probably caused him to arrive at the station more than ten seconds later than the stipulated time.The gas-lit tavern has opened, other businesses have opened one after another, and there are scattered pedestrians on the road.Then, groups of workers came in an endless stream, men and women with fish baskets on their heads, donkey carts loaded with various vegetables, two-wheeled carts full of live animals or slaughtered whole pigs and sheep, carrying The Woman with the Milk Bucket——A steady flow of people carrying all kinds of food is moving with difficulty to the eastern suburbs.Near the central business district, the noise and traffic of vehicles and pedestrians increased even more.When Sikes dragged Oliver through the street between Shoreditch and the London Meat Market, the scene of this traffic at last merged into noise and bustle.It was full daylight, as it always was, and would probably last until night fell again.Half the citizens of the City of London ushered in their busy morning.

Mr. Sykes led Oliver into Sun Street, Crown Street, across Finsbury Square, hurried along Chiswell Road to Watchtower Street, slipped into Long Lane, and came to the London Meat Market , Oliver Twister was greatly surprised by the tumult which emanated from the place. This morning was going to the market.The ground was covered with muddy water almost up to the ankles, and the thick steam was constantly rising from the freshly slaughtered livestock, mixed with the fog that seemed to reside on the top of the chimney, and hung heavily over the market.In the center of this large flat land, all the corrals, together with many temporary pens that can be squeezed into this open space, are full of sheep, and three or four rows of cattle are tied to the stakes by the ditches. and dried oxen.Country people, butchers, livestock brokers, street peddlers, urchins and thieves, onlookers, and hooligans from the bottom of society all huddled together densely.Livestock brokers whistling, dogs barking, bulls kicking and roaring, sheep bleating, pigs grunting; peddlers shouting, shouting, cursing, quarreling; In the tavern, the bells are ringing, the voices of people are noisy; the crowd is pushing, chasing, fighting, shouting, shouting; every corner of the market is full of this deafening noise.Some unkempt and ragged characters kept running in and out of the crowd, appearing and disappearing from time to time, all of which constituted a dizzying and bewildered scene of confusion.

Mr. Sikes dragged Oliver on, elbowing his way through the dense crowd, indifferent to the sights and sounds which so astonished Oliver.Two or three times he nodded to friends he met by chance, declined many invitations for an early morning drink, and walked on without looking back until they were out of the vortex and the two of them passed through the socks. Lane, towards Holborn Hill. "Well, little man," said Sikes, looking up at the clock at St. Andrew's, "it's almost seven o'clock. You must hurry. Come on, and don't be left behind, slob." As he spoke, Mr. Sykes twisted his little friend's wrist violently, and Oliver quickened his pace, turning into a trot between fast walk and gallop, trying to keep up with the striding robber.

They maintained this speed all the way, rounding the corner of Hyde Park, towards Kensington, when Sikes slackened his pace, and waited for an unloaded carriage to catch up not far behind.Seeing "Hunslow" written on it, Sikes, trying to be as polite as possible, asked the handlebars if he would be kind enough to pick them up to Isleworth. "Come on," said the handlebar, "is this your son?" "Yes, it's my son," said Sikes, his eyes fixed on Oliver, and his hand thrust unconsciously into the pocket where the pistol was. "Your father walks a little too fast, doesn't he, lad?" asked the handlebar, seeing that Oliver was out of breath with exhaustion.

"Never mind," put in Sikes, "he's used to it. Come on, Lud, take my hand and go up—" Saying so, Sikes helped Oliver into the carriage, pointed to a pile of sacks with the handlebar, and asked him to lie down there and rest for a while. As the carriage passed one sign after another, Oliver wondered more and more where his companion was leading him.Kensington, Helmsmith, Chiswick, Botanic Bridge, Brumford were all left behind, and the carriage carried them on as leisurely as if the journey had just begun.At last they came to a tavern called The Carriage, and a little further on they turned off into another main road.The carriage stopped.

Sikes jumped out of the carriage recklessly, still clung to Oliver's hand, then picked him up and put him on the ground, at the same time cast a ruthless look, and punched his fist in the side pocket meaningfully. It took two bang bang bangs. "Goodbye, boy," said the handlebar. "He's making a fuss," returned Sikes, shaking Oliver, "he's making a fuss. The son of a bitch. Don't take it for granted." "I don't," said the man, climbing into the carriage. "In a word, the weather is not bad." He drove the car away. Seeing the carriage go far away, Sikes told Oliver that he could look back and forth, and left and right, if he felt like it, and then led him on the road again.

Not far from the hotel, they turned left and turned to the right road. They walked for a long time, leaving behind many large gardens and luxurious houses on both sides of the road, and only stopped occasionally to drink a little beer. All the way to a small town.Oliver saw "Hampton" written on the wall of a house in rather conspicuous characters.They wandered in the field for a few hours, and finally returned to the town. They entered an old inn and catering shop. The sign hanging on the door of the shop was unrecognizable. They asked the kitchen to fry some dishes and ate them by the stove. .

The kitchen was an old low-ceilinged room, with a huge beam running across the middle of the ceiling, and there were some tall blue benches by the stove, where some rough men in smocks were sitting drinking and smoking.They glanced at Sikes a little, and almost ignored Oliver, who, seeing Sikes ignored them, sat down in a corner with his companion, and was not inconvenienced by their presence. They had some cold supper, and sat a long time afterward, Mr Sikes enjoying himself, and smoking four pipes, while Oliver decided that they would never travel again.After getting up early in the morning and walking so far, he was so exhausted that he just dozed at first, and then he was overwhelmed by fatigue and the smell of tobacco, and fell asleep unconsciously.

It was almost dark when Sikes pushed him awake.Chasing drowsiness away, he sat up, looked around, and saw the well-known person and a peasant-looking man drinking a pint of beer and conversing speculatively. "You're going down to Halliford, then, aren't you?" asked Sikes. "Yeah, let's go," the man seemed to be a little drunk, but it might also be more motivated because of it. "It's not much slower anyway. My horse came home empty and didn't pull as hard as he came out in the morning, and it won't do it all the time. Good luck to him. Oh kah. What a beast."

"Can you drop me and the boy down there?" asked Sikes, pushing the beer over to his new friend. "I'll take care of you if you leave immediately," the man replied, watching him from behind the beer tank. "You're going to Halliford?" "To Shipton," replied Sikes. "I'll go as far as you bid," answered the other. "Betsy, settle?" "The account has been settled, and it is the money that the gentleman will pay." The maid responded. "I said," the man said with drunken solemnity, "this is not allowed." "Why not?" returned Sikes. "You've done us a favor, and I'll buy you a pint of ale or something, as a token of my gratitude?" The stranger considered the remark with an air of maturity, and then, taking Sikes by the hand, said he was quite a friend.Mr. Sykes replied that he was joking, because, unless he was drunk, he had plenty of reasons to prove he was joking. The two said a few more polite words, said good night to the other guests, and walked out.The maid took advantage of this time to gather the cups, plates and bowls, filled her hands, walked to the door, and watched them go. The horse whose health the owner had secretly toasted was just outside the door, harnessed.Oliver and Sikes lost their civility, and got into the carriage.The owner of the horse wandered around for a minute or two, saying "to cheer him up", and at the same time protesting to the mule groom at the inn and the whole world that they couldn't find the same horse, so he got into the cart.Then, the mule and groom were ordered to relax the horse border.The dead reins let go, but the horse put the reins to a very nasty use: flinging them carelessly into the air and flying straight into the drawing-room window across the road.When the package of stunts was finished, the horse flew into the air again, stood upright for a moment, and then ran like flying, the carriage rattled, and left the city in a high-spirited way. It was a strangely dark night, with a wet mist rising from the river and the surrounding swamps and spreading across the silent fields.It was chilly, and everything looked gloomy and gloomy.No one said a word on the way, and Sikes was in no mood to make him talk.Oliver huddled in the corner of the cart, full of fear and doubt in his heart, guessing that there must be some monsters in the dry bushes. happy. The clock struck seven as they passed Sunbury Church.A lamp was burning in the ferry window opposite, and its light crossed the road, throwing a dark fir tree with the graves beneath it into even darker shadows.Not far away came the rigid sound of running water, and the leaves of the old trees trembled slightly in the evening wind. This scene was really like the silent movement when ending the world. Sunbury passed, and they drove again on the deserted high road.After another two or three miles, the carriage stopped.The two jumped out of the car.Sikes took Oliver's hand, and walked on again. They did not linger at Shipton, as the weary Oliver suspected, but waded through the mud in the dark, and went on, cutting into dark lanes, across the cold and wide moor, and went on. Until you can see the lights of a town not far ahead.Oliver looked carefully, and saw that the river was below, and they were walking towards the pier. Sikes walked on without looking back, and when he was about to reach the bridge, he turned suddenly to the left and went down to the river bank. "That's the river." A thought flashed through Oliver's mind, and his head was dizzy with fright. "He took me to this deserted place to kill me." He was about to lie down and struggle for his life when he found a lonely house before them.The house was crumbling and dilapidated.The gate was crumbling, and there was a window on either side, and a storey above, but no light could be seen.The inside of the house was pitch black and empty, no trace of people living there could be found no matter how you looked. Still clutching Oliver's hand, Sikes approached softly to the low porch, and lifted the latch.The door opened and they walked in together.