BABY TOWS THAT WERE FAITHFULLY FULFILLED.

Otago Witness, Issue 2299, 24 March 1898, Page 55

BABY TOWS THAT WERE FAITHFULLY FULFILLED.

I We all make strange and wonderful vows . when we are toddling about in our infantile .petticoats, bat if we .remember them in ' after years we certainly don't consider onr-

j selves bound to keep them. The bump ot adhesiveness is so abnormally developed in soms people, though, that they will conscien* tionily carry out promises or vows made in their babyhood, no matter what sacrifice their consrancy may cause. In the days when children began early t<r think of love and matrimony, two little play« mates were obliged to part from each other, with little prospect of meeting again for a long time. He was a very ugly little boy o£ four, and she was a bewitching dameel of tbe sam^ age, but they loved each other with all ths fervour of babyhood, and the thought of parting was too terrible. " I'll love oo tor ever an' ever an' ever," she lisped as she fondled his ruddy hair, " an' when I grows up, I'll marry oo." "Will 00, dear?" he asked, calling to mind a story which his father had told him onlyfee day before. "Den hold oor hand up like dis, an' swear it on oor oaf 1 " So with comical dignity she bound herself to keep her promise, and they separated with tears. Thirty years later the boy, then a JaroLzed and bearded giant, came back to -his native "shores, and inquired anxiously -about the comrade of his early life. He fully expected that she would have changed her name, and^ became strangely agitated when he learntihat she was still a spinster. Couid she be awaiting his return, he thought ? But", no ; he was far too uglyfor I that, and their early attachment must bave i passed from her mind long ago. J He had misjudged her, though, for she had steadfastly clung to her oatb, and refused offer after offer in order to be able to give her hand to the lover of her childhood. People marvelled that she should throw away so many splendid opportunities of matrimony, and when they saw the great, ugly traveller in her company they marvelled still more, but the couple went to the altar in supreme happiness, and the lovely woman never had I canse to regret her baby vow.

Pity for the hardships of others is a characteristic trait of babyhood, and' when a now famous speculator was four years old he used to cry himself to sleep every nigbtover the poverty in which his friend the bootblack lived. He appealed to his father in vain for aid, and was obliged to confess his failure to the bootblack, who indulged in a bitter tirade againso wealthy people in general, and his young friend's father ia particular.

"Oh, don't be angry with papa," sobbed the four-year-old. " Only wait till I'm bigger, i n' I'll give you every penny I have."

"Honour bright?" said the bootblack qu : zzically.

"Honour bright! " repeated the little one solemnly.

Twen<y- fire years later the wealthy man's sor came iDto % vast fortune, and, remembering his baby vow, sought tbe bootblack, who was still in indigent circumstances.

" You recollect what I said in the street one day when I was a tiny tot of four ? " he queried. " Wei!, I'm a man of my word, and you shall never want for anything again. Although I can's give you every penny I possess, I bave settled £2000 a year on you, and I hope you'll live locg to enjoy it."

And- the bootblack is living yet to sound tbe praises of the man who was so faithful to his baby promise.