Chapter 4 — CHAPTER IV.<br/>

In great families, when an advantageous place cannot be obtained, either in
possession, reversion, remainder, or expectancy, for the young man who is
growing up, it is a very general custom to send him to sea. The board, in
imitation of so wise and salutary an example, took counsel together on the
expediency of shipping off Oliver Twist, in some small trading vessel bound to
a good unhealthy port. This suggested itself as the very best thing that could
possibly be done with him: the probability being, that the skipper would flog
him to death, in a playful mood, some day after dinner, or would knock his
brains out with an iron bar; both pastimes being, as is pretty generally known,
very favourite and common recreations among gentleman of that class. The more
the case presented itself to the board, in this point of view, the more
manifold the advantages of the step appeared; so, they came to the conclusion
that the only way of providing for Oliver effectually, was to send him to sea
without delay.