seven o'clock
Before he went to bed Jake Wheeler had written a letter which he sent off to the state capital by the stage the next morning . In it he indicted no less than twenty of his fellow-townsmen for treason ; and he also thought it wise to send over to Clovelly for Bijah Bixby , a lieutenant in that section , to come and look over the ground and ascertain by his well-known methods how far the treason had eaten into the body politic . Such was Jake 's ordinary procedure when the bombs were fired , for Mr. Wheeler was nothing if not cautious . Three mornings later , a little after seven o'clock , when the storekeeper and his small daughter were preparing to go to Brampton upon a very troublesome errand , Chester Perkins appeared again . It is always easy to stir up dissatisfaction among the ne'er - do-wells -LRB- Jethro had once done it himself -RRB- , and during the three days which had elapsed since Chester had flung down the gauntlet there had been more or less of downright treason heard in the store . William Wetherell , who had perplexities of his own , had done his best to keep out of the discussions that had raged on his cracker boxes and barrels , for his head was a jumble of figures which would not come right . And now as he stood there in the freshness of the early summer morning , waiting for Lem Hallowell 's stage , poor Wetherell 's heart was very heavy .