Chapters 1–2: Ralph Nickleby, a moneylender and Nicholas’s uncle, receives a letter saying that his brother has died and that the widow and children have been left penniless. Ralph visits them and treats them scornfully. He tells Nicholas of a job at Dotheboys Hall, a school for boys in Yorkshire, owned by Wackford Squeers, and promises to provide for the family if Nicholas is given the job. Squeers hires Nicholas as his assistant and they travel together to the school. After they arrive at Dotheboys, Nicholas soon realises how harsh Squeers’s rules are and how mistreated the boys are. Nicholas especially pities Smike, a boy who is made to do all the hard work and who is cruelly punished.