I really think you’ll have to wait.”
Then he went to the store at the last minute to buy a new neck tie, and as it was time to close, the clerk said,
“Alas, young man, I’m a little late;
I really think you’ll have to wait.”
Tardy Ted went home looking very serious for next day he had a special piece to speak in Sunday School, and he could hardly bear the thought of wearing an old suit, and old shoes, and old neck tie.
Father said, “Too bad, too bad.” He did not add that he had spoken to the Whistling Wind about Tardy Ted’s habit of being late. He did not say he had asked the Whistling Wind to drop a word to the Tailor, and Shoemaker, and Clerk, to teach Tardy Ted a lesson.
Tardy Ted went out all by himself into the woods and began to think how upsetting it would be if everybody was late everywhere with work.
It was at this very minute that he heard the Fairy Shoemaker singing,
“A rat-a-tat, tat, a rat-a-tat, too,