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"He came to worship God!"

The generations long after his, spread themselves over the mighty West, and CHICAGO grew up a city of great renown, of wealth untold, of business unrivalled; with an immense population; of gigantic proportions; the thoroughfare of travel from the East to the West beyond!

Of course we do not know why it was that here, rather than in some less favored place to realize a great for- tune, Mr. Sherman chose to locate himself. But as his estate lay here, when the city rose and spread itself along the shores of Michigan, calling still -- "More room!" "Room for us!" "Room for CHICAGO, room!" -- it attained to an immense value.

The two Misses Sherman -- elegant, accomplished young ladies -- both married during the lifetime of their mother, and according to her wishes. The husband of the elder daughter, Elizabeth, was a young and intelligent merchant of New York city. Her sister, Mary, afterwards married a lawyer of Chicago. It was strange if both these gentlemen were ignorant of the value of money. We suppose they must have been fully aware at the time of so grave an act that they were "proposing" to heiresses.

Indeed, both of these gentlemen knew well the value of money, and how to take care of the immense estate now placed partially under their management, as the widow and the trustees wished them to assume some share of the responsibility attendant on its rapidly increasing importance.

We now leave this subject and return to our friends at Crampton.

It was James' frequent custom to visit Mr. "Warren, from whom he was ever seeking to gain some new information respecting the early history of his parents. He also was frequently led to inquire about his grandfather and grandmother. Every particular scrap of information thus acquired, he treasured up in his mind with the deepest interest and regard, valuing it as above all price.

"Your father, James, when he left here, went to the West Indies, and he died there. We suppose he died there."

"What is the strongest proof of it?" inquired James.

"We had letters from the American Consul at Barbadoes to that effect; his trunk of clothes and watch were sent home. Every thing had the look of truth about it, and we never afterwards heard it contradicted."

"Never?"

"No, never."

"How long was it after he left here?"

"Not a great while."

"Some months?"

"Yes; a few months."

"Was the yellow fever raging there at the time?"

"Very much so, if I remember aright."

"Undoubtedly he perished," said James.

"Hardly is there a doubt of it. He was a bright and amiable boy," said the old gentleman, "but the force of temptation overcame him, and he sinned grievously; I have often wished that I could have known what were the thoughts and the resolutions of his last hours."

"Probably he soon sunk under his disease, and became lost to all personal consciousness, and so died -- I fear it at least," said James.

"It may be so. But when I remember the prayers of his mother, I have hope in his repentance."

"What a singular and happy Providence it was," said James, "that my mother came here in her last hours. I am sure I owe you ten thousand thanks for your kindness to her, poor creature!"

"Oh, I owed her my love, James. I only did my duty. We were but too happy to comfort her."

"Your attention to her, nevertheless, involved you in a series of cares and anxieties -- "

"The result of which, James, you in your own person exemplify and cancel. My last years abound with fruit I am daily eating to my high and increasing enjoyment."

"And I am happy that it is so," said James. "I am often thinking now-a-days about my grandfather. You say he removed to the West after disinheriting my father, and settled in Illinois?"

"Yes, he did so. Your grandmother died there in a few years, and she obtained your father's forgiveness from her husband, on her dying bed."

"Yes! That is a matter which gives me the highest pleasure!"

"Of course it must. Your grandfather wrote a letter here, after the death of your mother, informing us that he had forgiven his son and removed the restriction of his claims to his property. But, as the answers he received must have been highly unsatisfactory to him, it is probable that his property, if he had any, fell into the hands of his new wife, and so passed from you forever."

"And this is all that you know of him?"

"All -- I have absolutely no knowledge of him further than this, for more than twenty years. I even do not know whether he is dead or alive, but my impression is -- my memory is almost certain on the point -- that he died a good many years ago."

"It is not possible, I presume, to find that letter which he wrote containing my father's forgiveness?"

"You may find it at the town clerk's."

Thus repeatedly they conversed together, James being conscious of an increasing conviction that the whole history of his grandfather was not yet unravelled. On inquiring there, he could find no letter at the office of the town clerk, nor any writing or record of any kind affording him any clue to the mystery, or any relief to his mind.