Those divine words were the only legacy she had left her boy. CHAPTER II. MISS SQUIRE'S NEW SCHOLAR. About ten o'clock the next evening the door bell of the First Church parsonage rang with a sharp and prolonged peal, as though pulled by a vigorous hand. The servant had gone to her room long before; so Mr. Carleton, who sat in the cozy parlor, reading to his wife, arose and went to the door. Mrs. Carleton heard him, with surprise manifest in his tones, say "Good-evening!" The caller, whoever he was, replied at some length, but in a voice too low for her to understand his words; then he and Mr. Carleton went up to the study. It was nearly an hour later when they came down, the visitor going directly out, while Mr. Carleton, closing and locking the door, came to the parlor. He seemed surprised to find his wife still waiting for him, and said: "Had I known you were sitting up for me, Mary, I would have dismissed my caller sooner." "Oh, it was my own choice," she replied, as they entered their room together. "But who was your visitor?" "Ray Branford, the boy who stoned me yesterday down at Black Forge Mills," he answered, with a thoughtful expression still on his face. "Why, what did he want at this time of night?" "His mother is dead, and he came for me to attend the funeral service to-morrow morning." "To-morrow, Saturday morning! How can you afford the time?" "I must, even if other things are neglected. You could hardly expect that people to understand that a minister should always be consulted before the hour for a funeral service is decided; and just at this time I am anxious to secure every hold upon them that is possible. It may be that this funeral will prove to be the entering wedge for giving the gospel to them. They certainly stand in sad need of it." "I knew this Mrs. Branford was dead," he went on, "Mr. Bacon having told me of it last evening; but as they frequently bury their friends down there without any religious service, he did not know whether I would be called upon or not. Nor would I have been but for this boy. His father already lies in a state of beastly intoxication, though the dead body of the wife and mother still lies in the house; his brothers are utterly indifferent whether there is a funeral service or not, but the sisters, through Ray's earnest solicitation, have finally consented that I should come, though they stipulate that there shall be no preaching." "This boy, then, seems to be the most Christianized of the whole lot," Mrs. Carleton remarked.