He does not squeeze his parishioners unduly, but he considers that the labourer is worthy of his hire, and insists on his flock providing for his wants according to their means.

At the same time he farms on his own account and attends personally to all the details of his farming operations.

With the condition and doings of every member of his flock he is intimately acquainted, and, on the whole, as he never idealised anything or anybody, he has not a very high opinion of them.
"The younger priest, Father Alexander, is of a different type, and the difference may be remarked even in his external appearance.

There is a look of delicacy and refinement about him, though his dress and domestic surroundings are of the plainest, and there is not a tinge of affectation in his manner.

His language is less archaic and picturesque.
He uses fewer Biblical and semi-Slavonic expressions--I mean expressions which belong to the antiquated language of the Church Service rather than to modern parlance--and his armoury of terse popular proverbs which constitute such a characteristic trait of the peasantry, is less frequently drawn on.