# Under the Greenwood Tree (Hardy)/Volume 1/Part 2/Chapter 5

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CHAPTER V.
Returning Homeward.
' 'A took it very well, then?' said Mail, as they all walked up the hill.
'He behaved like a man, 'a did so,' said the tranter. 'Supposing this tree here was Pa'son Mayble as might be, and here be I standing, and that large stone is father sitting in the easy-chair. "Dewy," says he, "I don't wish to change the church music in a forcible way."'
'Now, that was very nice o' the man.'
'Proper nice—out and out nice. The fact is,' said Reuben confidentially, ' 'tis ​how you take a man. Everybody must be managed. Queens must be managed: kings must be managed; for men want managing almost as much as women, and that's saying a good deal.'
''Tis truly!' murmured the husbands.
'Pa'son Mayble and I were as good friends all through it as if we'd been sworn brothers. Ay, the man's well enough; 'tis what's in his head that spoils him.'
'There's really no believing half you hear about people nowadays.'
'Bless ye, my sonnies! 'tisn't the pa'son's move at all. That gentleman over there' (the tranter nodded in the direction of Shinar's farm) 'is at the root of the mischief.'
'What! Shinar?'
'Ay; and I see what the pa'son don't see. Why, Shinar is for putting forward that young woman that only last night I ​was saying was our Dick's sweetheart, but I suppose can't be, and making much of her in the sight of the congregation, and thinking he'll win her by showing her off; well, perhaps 'a will.'
'Then the music is second to the woman, the other churchwarden is second to Shinar, the pa'son is second to the churchwardens, and God A'mighty is nowhere at all.'
'That's true; and you see,' continued Reuben, 'at the very beginning it put me in a stud as to how to quarrel wi' en. In short, to save my soul, I couldn't quarrel wi' such a civil man without belying my conscience. Says he to father there, in a voice as quiet as a lamb's, "William, you are a old aged man, William, as all shall be," says he, "and sit down in my easy-chair, and rest yourself." And down father set. I could fain ha' laughed at thee, father; for thou'st take it ​so unconcerned at first, and then looked so frightened when the chair-bottom sunk in.'
'Ye see,' said old William, hastening to explain, 'I was alarmed to find the bottom gie way—what should I know o' spring bottoms?—and thought I had broke it down: and of course as to breaking down a man's chair, I didn't wish any such thing.'
'And, naibours, when a feller, ever so much up for a miff, d'see his own father sitting in his enemy's easy-chair, and a pore chap like Leaf made the best of, as if he almost had brains—why, it knocks all the wind out of his sails at once: it did out of mine.'
'If that young figure of fun—Fance Day, I mean,' said Bowman, 'hadn't been so mighty forward wi' showing herself off to Shinar and Dick and the rest, 'tis my belief we should never ha' left the gallery.'
' 'Tis my belief that though Shinar fired ​the bullets, the parson made 'em,' said Mr. Penny. 'My wife sticks to it that he's in love wi' her.'
'That's a thing we shall never know. I can't translate her, nohow.'
'Thou'st ought to be able to translate such a little chiel as she,' the tranter observed.
'The littler the maid, the bigger the riddle, to my mind. And coming of such a stock, too, she may well be a twister.'
'Yes; Geoffrey Day is a clever man if ever there was once. Never says anything: not he.'
'Never.'
'You might live wi' that man, my sonnies, a hundred years, and never know there was anything in him.'
'Ay; one o' these up-country London ink-bottle fellers would call Geoffrey a fool.'
'Ye never find out what's in that ​man: never. Silent? ah, he is silent! He can keep silence well. That man's silence is wonderful to listen to.'
'There's so much sense in it. Every moment of it is brimming over with sound understanding.'
' 'A can keep a very clever silence—very clever truly,' echoed Leaf. ' 'A looks at me as if 'a could see my thoughts running around like the works of a clock.'
'Well, all will agree that the man can pause well in conversation, be it a long time or be it a short time. And though we can't expect his daughter to inherit his silence, she may have a few dribblets from his sense.'
'And his pocket, perhaps.'
'Yes; the nine hundred pound that everybody says he's worth; but I call it four hundred and fifty; for I never believe more than half I hear.'
​'Well, 'tis to be believed he've made a pound or two, and I suppose the maid will have it, since there's nobody else. But 'tis rather sharp upon her, if she's born to fortune, to make her become as if not born for it, by using her to work so hard.'
' 'Tis all upon his principle. A long-headed feller!'
'Ah,' murmured Spinks, ' 'twould be sharper upon her if she were born for fortune, and not to it! I suffer from that affliction.'