Relates how Oliver Twist was Very Near Getting a Place, Which Would Not Have Been a Sinecure
I headed off to Wiktionary to discover what a sinecure was, and learnt that it means 'a position that requires no work but still gives a payment'. This is a fair description of the chimney sweeping work he is offered by Mr Gamfield.
Not very much happens in this chapter, to be honest. A lot of adults are very horrible to Oliver, except the magistrates, who notice that he is unhappy and forbid him to go with Mr Gamfield. Oliver is returned to solitary confinement and the poster advertising him is put back up again.
I suspect, however, that we have not seen the last of Mr Gamfield, as I find it unlikely that he would be introduced so pointlessly. This chapter ends exactly how it begins (everyone hates Oliver a bit more, but that's the only difference), and I don't think Dickens would have put such a random chapter in here for no reason. But we'll see.
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