MANNERS IN ARCADY. 305 



The labourer who has been accustomed to 

 treatmg the parson as one of "the gentry" 

 whose lack of patronage he fears, does not 

 understand the democratic ways of the new 

 young vicar, who is perhaps a member of the 

 Christian Social Union. The vicar wishes to 

 treat the labourer as his comrade and equal, 

 calls him by his Christian name, and extends 

 to him the hand of fellowship. Then the 

 poor labourer with a movement in which 

 suspicion, fear, and respect are mingled, 

 boggles at his hat-brim, takes his clay pipe out 

 of his mouth, and looks at his toil-smitten fist 

 with an air of stupefaction. 



It is the old-fashioned, sporting, human 

 parson who can unbend, but at the same time 

 maintain his position as patron, and never as 

 servant to the people, who is still the most 

 popular — popular in the sense that he is in- 

 variably understood. 



I remember one such a parson who accosted 

 a labourer on horseback with the greeting, 

 " Well, Hopkins, still working for old Billy 

 Goodman ? " 



" Beg pardon, sir, I am still working for 

 Mr. William Goodman," replied the labourer 



with ceremonious dignity. 



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