“That’s what I’ll do,” said the Monkey.

Just as the Jack had said it would, it soon became dark, and it kept on raining.  But the Monkey curled up under the big fern leaf, where it was nice and dry.  Soon the Monkey began to feel warm and sleepy, and, before he knew it, he was fast asleep.

In the morning the rain had stopped.  The sun came out bright and warm and dried up the damp grass.  Jack in the Pulpit awoke, and, looking over toward the Monkey, fast asleep under the broad leaf, called: 

“Hi, there, Mr. Monkey!  It’s morning!  Now maybe you can find Herbert, or he can find you!”

“Dear me!  Morning so soon?” exclaimed the Monkey, stretching out his legs.  “I must have slept very soundly.”

“Did you dream any?” asked the Jack.

“Not that I remember,” was the answer.  “But I am glad the rain has stopped.  Now I’ll hop over the meadow, back to the place where I fell off Carlo’s back, and I’ll wait there until Herbert comes for me, as I am sure he will.”

“I shall be sorry to see you go,” said Jack, “but I suppose it has to be.  If you ever get back this way again, stop and see me.”

The Monkey said he would and then, smoothing down his plush, he sat out in the sun awhile to get a little dryer and warmer.  He looked at the end of his tail.

“The ink is almost washed off,” he said.  “I am glad of that.”

Then he began to hop across the field, making his way through the tall grass.  He thought he would know it when he came to the place where the string had come loose, and where he had fallen from Carlo’s back, but the grass looked so much alike all over that the Monkey was beginning to think he might be lost in it.

All at once, however, he heard a voice saying: 

“Well, you’ve come back, have you?”

The Monkey looked around, and there sat his friend Mr. Grasshopper, and near him was Miss Cricket.

“Oh, I’m so glad to see you!” cried the Monkey.  “I was looking for the place I first met you—­the place where I fell off the dog’s back.”

“It is right here,” said the Grasshopper.  “This is where I first noticed you.  And there is the hummock of grass you sat on.”

Then the Monkey knew he was back at the place he wished to reach.  He sat down and talked with the Grasshopper and the Cricket, telling them of his visit to Jack Hare’s cave, and also how he had slept all night under a leaf near Jack in the Pulpit.

“Hark!” suddenly called the Grasshopper.

“What’s the matter?” asked the Monkey.

“I think you are going to get your wish,” was the Grasshopper’s answer.  “I hear boys talking and a dog barking.  We had better be going, Miss Cricket.  Good-bye, Mr. Monkey on a Stick!”

“Good-bye,” called the Cricket.

With that they hopped away.  The Monkey listened, and, surely enough, he heard the barking of a dog and the talking of two boys.