"Have one with me, Heathman," he said. "I was going down to your mother with a message, but now you can take it and save me the trouble."
His uncle shook his head.
"Ah, boy—always the same with you. Anybody as will save you trouble be your friend. 'Tis a very poor look-out, Ned; for let a certain party only get wind of it that you're such a chap for running from work, and he'll mighty soon come along and save you all trouble for evermore."
"And who might he be, Uncle Nat?"
"Old Nick, my fine fellow! You may laugh, but Tommy Gollop here will bear me out, and Joe Voysey too, won't you, Joe? They be both born and bred in the shadow of the church, and as well up in morals as grave-digging and cabbage-growing. And they'll tell you that the devil's always ready to work for an idle man."
"True," said Mr. Gollop. "True as truth itself. But the dowl won't work for nought, any more than the best of us. Long hours, I grant you—never tired him, and never takes a rest—but he'll have his wages; and Ned here knows what they be, no doubt."
Ned laughed.
"I'm all right," he said. "I shall work hard enough come presently, when it gets to be worth while."
Mr. Gollop spoke again. He was a stout man with a little grey beard, a flat forehead, barely indicated under his low-growing, coarse hair, and large brown, solemn eyes. He and his sister were leading figures at Shaugh Prior, and took themselves and their manifold labours in a serious spirit. Some self-complacency marked their outlook; and their perspective was faulty. They held Shaugh Prior as the centre of civilisation, and considered that their united labours had served to place and helped to maintain it in that position. Thomas Gollop was parish clerk and sexton; his sister united many avocations. She acted as pew-opener at the church; she was a sick-nurse and midwife; she took temporary appointments as plain cook; she posed as intelligencer of Shaugh Prior; and what she did not know of every man, woman, and child in the village, together with their ambitions, financial position, private relations, religious opinions, and physical constitutions, was not worth knowing.
"At times of large change like this, when we are threatened with all manner of doubts and dangers, 'tis well for every man among us to hold stoutly to religion and defy any one who would shake us," said Mr. Gollop. "For my part I shall strike the first blow, and let it be seen that I'm a man very jealous for the Lord, and the village and the old paths."