egan, Oliver's father had been obliged
to go on a trip to a foreign country, where he died very suddenly. But
before he died he made a will, in which he left all his fortune to be
divided between the baby Oliver and his mother. He left only a small sum
to his older son, because he knew that he was wicked, and did not
deserve any. The will declared Oliver should have the money only on
condition that he never stain his name with any act of meanness,
dishonor, cowardice or wrong. If he did do this, then half the money was
to go to the older son. The dying man also wrote a letter to Oliver's
mother, telling her that he had made the will and that he was dying; but
the older son, who was with him when he died, found the letter and
destroyed it.

So Oliver's poor mother, knowing nothing of all this, when his father
did not come back, thought at last that he had deserted her, and in her
shame stole away from her home, poor and ill-clad, to die finally in the
poorhouse.

The older brother, who had taken the name of Monks, hunted and hunted
for them, because he hated Oliver on account of their father's will, and
wanted to do him all the harm he could. He discovered that they had been
taken into the poorhouse, and went there, but this was after Oliver had
run away. He found, however, to his satisfaction, that the boy knew
nothing about his parentage or his real name, and Monks made up his mind
to prevent his ever learning.

There was only one person who could have told Oliver, and that one was
Mrs. Bumble. She knew through the locket she had kept, which had
belonged to Oliver's mother and which contained the dead woman's
wedding-ring with her name engraved inside it. When Mrs. Bumble heard
that a man named Monks was searching for news of Oliver, she thought it
a capital chance to make some money. She went, therefore, to Monks's
house and sold the locket and ring to him. These, Monks thought, were
the only proofs in the world that could ever show Oliver who he was, and
to make it impossible for him ever to see them, he dropped them through
a trap-door in his house down into the river, where they could never be
found.

But Monks did not give up searching for Oliver, and at last, on the very
day that Oliver was arrested, he saw him coming from Fagin's house with
the Artful Dodger.

From his wonderful resemblance to their dead father, he guessed at once
that Oliver was the half-brother whose very name he hated. Knowing the
othe