"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." "What's going to happen?" asked Ned. "You talk as if Doomsday was coming." "Not at all," answered Mr. Gollop. "When Doomsday comes, if I'm still here, I shall know how to handle it; but 'tis the new vicar. A man is a man; and with a strange man 'tis only too terrible certain there will creep in strange opinions and a nasty hunger for novelty." "And what's worse," said Mr. Voysey, "a young man. An old man I could have faced from my sixty-five years without fear; but how can you expect a young youth--full of the fiery silliness of the twenties--to understand that as I've been gardener at the vicarage for forty year, so in right and decency and order I ought to go on being gardener there?" "Have no fear, Joe," said Mr. Baskerville. "If there's one thing among us that Mr. Masterman won't change, 'tis you, I'm sure; for who knows the outs and ins of the garden up the hill like you do?" "'Tis true," admitted Tommy Gollop. "That land is like a human, you might say--stiff and stubborn and got to be coaxed to do its best; and I'm sure he'll very soon see that only Voysey can fetch his beans and peas out of the soil, and that it's took him a lifetime to learn the trick of the place. And I feel the same to the church. If he's got any new-fangled fashion of worship, Shaugh will rise against him like one man. After fifty-two years of the Reverend Valletort, we can't be blown from our fixed ways at a young man's breath; and I'm sure I do hope that he won't want so much as a cobweb swept down, or else there'll be difficulties spring up around him like weeds after rain." "What a pack of mouldy old fossils you are in this place!" said Heathman Lintern. "I'm sure, for my part, I hope the man will fetch along a few new ideas to waken us up. If 'twasn't for Mr. Baskerville here, Shaugh would be forgot in the world altogether. You should hear Jack Head on the subject." But Tommy Gollop little liked such criticism. "You're young and terribly ignorant, and Jack Head's a red radical as ought to be locked up," he answered. "But you'll do well to keep your ignorance from leaking out and making you look a ninny-hammer afore sensible men. Shaugh Prior's a bit ahead of the times rather than behind 'em, and my fear always is, and always will be, that we shall take the bit in our teeth some day and bolt with it. 'Tis no good being too far ahead of the race; and that's why I'm afeared that this young Masterman, when he finds how forward we are, will try to go one better and stir up strife."