Meantime, other callers had come and gone at that cell door. This time it was Miss Squire and her father. She had gone home from Sunday-school scarcely knowing how she could persuade her father to accompany her to the jail; for he was at times crusty and irascible, and her mother's sudden illness had put him out of sorts with himself and everybody else. He cared, moreover, little or nothing for religious matters, and no appeal to him from the Christian side would have the slightest weight with him. But she remembered that a striking characteristic of his was to radically oppose whatever others approved. Because others maintained the earth was round, he stoutly persisted it was flat; because others said the national colors were red, white, and blue, he declared all were color blind but himself, for they were red, white, and green. She hoped, therefore, by showing him that the majority of the First Church people believed Ray was guilty, he would strenuously maintain he was innocent; and if he only once assumed this position, no stone would be left unturned by him to secure the boy's acquittal if it could honorably be done. As though it was a mere matter of news she alluded to Ray's arrest, and the sudden change in the attitude of many who had called themselves his friends. Before she was half done her father brought his fist down upon a small stand near him with a force that overturned it, demolishing a rare vase that stood upon it. "Look here, Ettie," he cried, "that boy is innocent; any fool can see that. Ring the bell for dinner, and tell James to have the carriage at the door the moment we are done, or I'll discharge him. I am going right down to the station house to let the lad know he has one friend in Burton Squire, even if all others forsake him. Did you say that Carleton believed in his innocence, and Bacon, too; well, they are the only sensible men in the whole town. I'll go to hear Carleton preach next Sunday if I have to be carried into the church. And, see here, Ettie; you get ready to go with me; it's a pity if that boy's teacher cannot show him what she thinks of him. You'll find an old heathen like myself knows enough to visit a man when he's in prison, and feed him, and clothe him, too, if it's necessary." So, soon after Mr. Carleton had left the office of the chief of police, that worthy official saw to his dismay the carriage of the rich and influential Burton Squire roll up to the station-house door. "Can it be possible he has come to see that boy?" he asked of one of his men who stood near him.