Oliver Twist-CHAPTER XXIII Đây là một tác phẩm anh ngữ dành cho trẻ em nổi tiếng của nhà văn Charles Dicken với những từ vựng quen thuộc. Nhằm giúp các em và các bạn yêu thich tiếng anh luyện tập và củng cố thêm kỹ năng đọc tiếng anh . | Oliver Twist Charles Dickens CHAPTER XXIII WHICH CONTAINS THE SUBSTANCE OF A PLEASANT CONVERSATION BETWEEN MR. BUMBLE AND A LADY AND SHOWS THAT EVEN A BEADLE MAY BE SUSCEPTIBLE ON SOME POINTS The night was bitter cold. The snow lay on the ground frozen into a hard thick crust so that only the heaps that had drifted into byways and corners were affected by the sharp wind that howled abroad which as if expending increased fury on such prey as it found caught it savagely up in clouds and whirling it into a thousand misty eddies scattered it in air. Bleak dark and piercing cold it was a night for the well-housed and fed to draw round the bright fire and thank God they were at home and for the homeless starving wretch to lay him down and die. Many hunger-worn outcasts close their eyes in our bare streets at such times who let their crimes have been what they may can hardly open them in a more bitter world. Such was the aspect of out-of-doors affairs when Mr. Corney the matron of the workhouse to which our readers have been already introduced as the birthplace of Oliver Twist sat herself down before a cheerful fire in her own little room and glanced with no small degree of complacency at a small round table on which stood a tray of corresponding size furnished with all necessary materials for the most grateful meal that matrons enjoy. In fact Mrs. Corney was about to solace herself with a cup of tea. As she glanced from the table to the fireplace where the smallest of all possible kettles was singing a small song in a small voice her inward satisfaction evidently increased so much so indeed that Mrs. Corney smiled. Well said the matron leaning her elbow on the table and looking reflectively at the fire I m sure we have all on us a great deal to be grateful for A great deal if we did but know it. Ah Mrs. Corney shook her head mournfully as if deploring the mental blindness of those paupers who did not know it and thrusting a silver spoon private property into the inmost .
