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Mr. Ketchum informed the party on their arrival at the city that he was apprehensive of a law suit to recover; that the parties made no progress in the settlement of the case, and the Shermans threatened to resist the new claim. There was but one more step he could think of to prevent a trial, and that was to present James to the widow.

We have said that Mrs. Sherman was a cousin to her husband's first wife. She removed to the West in her childhood with her father and mother, but she had often seen and played with James Sherman, then a boy, five or six years younger than herself. She saw him once afterwards when he was about twelve or fifteen years of age, and retained a distinct recollection of his features. And accordingly when by appointment and consent of all parties -- the trustees, attorneys, and friends being present, James was led into the presence of Mrs. Sherman. She recognized the family likeness in an instant. At first she gasped for breath, and clung to the arms of her children; but as James approached her with a smile, and extended his hands, she sprung upon his neck, and bursting into tears, exclaimed --

"IT IS HE! IT IS JAMES SHERMAN HIMSELF, THE SON OF MY HUSBAND, OR HIS CHILD!"

The scene that followed maybe better imagined than described. Of course the claim of another party to a third of their estate could not in itself be a pleasure to the daughters or their husbands. But the evidence of the justice of the claim was so overwhelming, they had no further desire to resist it, even though, according as it would seem to our natural instincts, where there is immense wealth, and enough, of course, for all, it is as tenaciously grasped as where there is a much smaller estate.

Mrs. Sherman advised her trustees and attorneys that she fully recognized the claim of James Sherman to an equal share in the estate of her husband, and directed them to act in the premises strictly according to the legal rights of all parties.

In consequence of this admission, James was awarded, as justly due him, out of the past income of the estate, over one hundred thousand dollars; his future revenue time only could develope its great amount!

The news of these proceedings filled the city with astonishment, and James became of course one of the lions of the day. Before the party returned to Crampton, the papers there and in the vicinity were filled with the romantic story. The whole history of James was published in the papers far and near, and was regarded, as in truth it was, one of the most remarkable that had ever occurred. Next to his ruling passion, one that had grown with him into life, that of relieving human suffering, so far as he had the power to do it, James desired to throw himself and all that he had acquired at the feet of Alice, although he well knew that the gold of the richest mine, were it his to bestow on her, would be deemed as worthless, unaccompanied by a heart she valued for its faithful love.

CHAPTER XLIII.
JAMES in the Town-meeting. Very humorsome times they frequently have in Town-meetings, there being generally present all the great men and all the small men of the place, not a few of whom offer their sentiments oratorically to their fellow-citizens, and the great men bow very low to the small men, and the small men shake their heads, look wise, and can't say precisely who they shall vote for.

The annual meeting of the town of Crampton occurring at the usual time, the voters were highly excited by the pauper question, especially as both Lawyers Tools and Ketchum threw themselves warmly into the canvass in favor of reform, and others manifested much less opposition than formerly to the measure. Even Mr. Siddleton went with the new party, affirming that the death of Joshua Hicks, a man of such character as he had formerly enjoyed, and a man of learning and of great usefulness to the town -- that his death in the poor-house, under the conditions of great personal distress and mortification, had opened his eyes on the mean and despicable character of the present poor-house regulations. -- "And further," said he, "it is but a week since we received into our premises a poor, miserable, squalid, drunken man, on the eve of starving, who now lies at the point of death, formerly a lawyer of keen wit and of great social reputation; the son of a distinguished lawyer, a candidate for the gubernatorial office of his native state; whose brothers were men of celebrity at the bar, or in trades and merchandise, -- we received him on the state account, and now wait for his decease. Here is one born and bred in luxury, reduced by the exigencies of fortune, (bad fortune attendant on his own follies to be sure,) to a condition or state of relief that might save a man from starving, it is true, but to one of humiliation and suffering far too great for the least remains of his sensitive nature to endure. Shall we not do something better than this for our miserable and destitute paupers?"

But it was uncertain how the thing would go. Speeches were made on both sides, and the house was very nearly equally divided in opinion. Mr. Savage went among all his party friends, and pushed them forward, inflaming their minds by false statements of the plans and movements of the reformers, and by promising that there should be a tax voted of one per cent, less this year than usual if they carried the town. "But," said he, "we must work like the ------, or suffer defeat. Don't you see how they are plotting against us?"