MADEMOISELLE TROP TARD AND TROP TOT

New Zealand Tablet, 9 January 1913, Page 61

MADEMOISELLE TROP TARD AND TROP TOT

Elsa was cutting out some new paper dolls. She heard her mother calling her, but she waited to finish Marie Antoinette’s blue coat before she ran out to the kitchen, where her mother was making bread. ‘ Isn’t this the day you were going to town with Aunt Alice, Elsa ‘ Yes, mother.’ ■ ‘ Well, isn’t it time for you to be getting ready, dear?’ ‘ I guess I’d better, said Elsa. She ran back to her dolls, intending to put them away, but she saw two pretty dresses waiting to cut out. ‘ I’ll just do them, and then I’ll get ready,’ she thought. When she went to her room to get ready to go with her aunt, there was' a button off on the white dress she wanted to wear. She had to wait for her mother to sew it on. ‘ I am afraid you are going to be late,’ said her mother. ‘ Oh, I guess not. I’ll run all the way.’ She did run all the way, but when she reached her aunt’s house, she found that her aunt had gone. ‘ She could not wait for you any longer,’ said her Uncle Will, who was pruning some bushes in the garden. ‘ She told you to be here at 10 o’clock. It is half-past now.’ 1 Oh, dear, I am so sorry. I wanted to go with her so much.’ -Elsa could scarcely help crying when she thought of the nice time she had missed. Her aunt always bought her candy, ice cream, and other things, when they went to town. ‘ Yes, it is too bad,’ said her uncle ; ‘ but you ought not to be a Mademoiselle Trop Tard.’ ‘ A what, uncle ?’ 1 A Mademoiselle Trop Tard,’ returned her uncle repeating the words slowly and distinctly. Elsa looked puzzled. She said the words after him. ‘What is a Mademoiselle Trop Tard?’ she asked. Her uncle laughed. ‘ You must find that out.’ ‘ Please tell me what it is.’ Her uncle shook his head, and laughed again. ‘ I think you might tell me what it is,’ pouted Elsa. - 1 A few mornings later Elsa was on her way to school, when she met her uncle. He stopped her, and then took out his watch. 1 Why, you are a Mademoiselle Trop Tard again,’ he said. ‘ Oh, uncle, please tell me what it is!’ Her uncle shook his head, and walked on. When Elsa got to school the opening exercises were over, and lesson had begun. Her teacher spoke sharply to her for being late, and told her that* she must bring an excuse from her mother. When Elsa told her mother that her teacher wanted an excuse, her mother said: It was your fault, Elsa. I told you to put away your dolls, and hurry to school. Then, the other day when you were late you stopped

to look at those pictures. - You must tell teacher just why you were late; I can’t write you an excuse.’ Elsa sat silent a while. Presently she said: ‘ What does Mademoiselle Trop Tard mean?. Uncle Will calls me that.’ ■■. ; . Her mother laughed. ‘ That is the French for Miss Too Late,’ she said. ‘By the way, your uncle was here this morning to leave word that he will be here, in the morning at 10 o’clock to take you with .him, to grandmother’s in the auto. It is Saturday, you know.’ Elsa danced up and down.’ ‘ Oh, goody! Then I can get some of grandma’s white roses for Miss Collins. I told her I would get her some the next time I went.’ The next morning when Uncle Will came in the auto, Elsa was sitting on the steps waiting'for him. ‘lt’s just 10 o’clock,’ said her uncle. ‘You are a Mademoiselle Trop Tot now.’ • • ‘ ‘ I guess I know what that means,’ laughed Elsa. ‘ I want to get some of grandma’s roses for Miss Collins. She is sick, you know. So I was sure to be early. And I am going to be the Mademoiselle Trop Tot all the time now.’ Her uncle kissed her as he swung her into the auto. ‘ That is fine,’ he said.