The Mt. Sterling advocate. (Mt. Sterling, Ky.) 1890-current, 1906-08-15
GRAYSON'S FOR
GOTTEN PROMISE.
BY HAL HuMrsroN.

NCOpyilbHt, AJVv, W Odily otOiS Il w. W.
GraysOn sat at the car window
drinking in the landscape with an
eagerness he had not known for
many years. The delights of the
theater and the opera, the sensa-
ton of travel, even the fierce con-
test of the stock exchange, had all
palled upon him. Jaded and tired
from contact with the world, he
was on his way back to the old
home in the quiet hills to see if
they were really as refreshing as
they seemed to him as he looked
back to them during brief pauses
in his feverish life.
1t really seemed to him as
though they were, as he sat look
ing out of the window and recOg-
nized the familiar landmarks. He
was getting closer and closer
every moment-now was scarcely
twenty miles from the old home
station and the landscape grew
more familiar each moment. He
could scarcely believe there could
have been so little change in so
long a time. After all how long
was it? Only ten years. But
what an age seemed to have been
included in that decade.
Since he had gone forth to WOO
fame and fortune it seemed as
though cons of time had passed.
Well he had not been so unsuc-
cessful. He certainly had won
the money he had set out to get.
Yes, he was a rich man, and they
listened on change when he spoke.
AS to fame-well, what is fame
anyway? He was known wher-
ever great affairs of finance were
conducted, and was that not as
much fame as to drOne about in
legislative halls?
The fact remained, however,
that he was desperately tired OF
it all-tired and worn out and it
seemed to him if only he could
get into his old jeans and hike
across the hills to StillsOn's pond
with hook and line in his pocket,
cut pole from one of Kyle's
trees without getting caught by
the dog, and spend the day stand
ing knee deep in the water and
land a good mess Of fish and then
carry them back to Aunt Hannah
and coax her to cook them the
way she used tO-that he would
be supremacy happy.
While he was thinking these
things the train stopped at a
junction and young woman got
on. He noticed her casually and
returned to his thoughts and then
tried to count the telegraph poles
as he used to do in the old days
and laughed when he failed even
as he used to fail. His eyes wan
dered back to the young woman
who had entered at the last sta
ton. There was something
strangely familiar about the side
face which puzzled him. Present
ly he looked at her again and noted
that she was regarding him out
of the corner of her eye.
After time their eyes met and
both flashed recognition. She half
rose and exclaimed:
"Paul-surely it is Paul Gray
SON."
He was at her side before she
had completed the sentence.
"Nina," he cried. GAS l live,
Nina Horton"
He sat down beside her and
noted with exquisite pleasure the
soft flush which grew in her cheek.
He had nearly forgotten Nina;
how careless of him. His old
sweetheart with whom he had
roamed the countryside and taken
to the spelling bees, and fought
the other boys about and pledged
eternal fidelity to and kissed in
the moonlight and to whom, when
he went away he had pledged his
heart. There was a distinct thrill
in meeting her again. 1t made
him feel quite young again-and
so handsome and rudy and well
poised, too. He scarcely could
believe it was the callow maiden
in short dresses he had left. And
she evidently was as greatly
moved as he at the meeting. His