Bumps tried to check her tears.
"I'll never do it again," she said. "They left me up a tree, and I oughtn't to have come back at all. Jill thaid we motht thtay out till tea-time. She'll be angry, and Jack too."
"Where are Jack and Jill?"
"I don't know. They ran away after a deer and never came back; and I waited till a man came by, and he broughted me home."
No more could be got out of Bumps, who began crying again. Miss Falkner saw she was tired and hungry, so she wisely said no more, but gave her some dinner, and then made her lie down on her bed, where she soon fell fast asleep.
Meanwhile Jack and Jill were hunting high and low for Bumps. They pursued the deer with such zeal that they missed their path in the wood, and could not find their tree again.
"Oh, let us leave off looking," said Jack, impatiently, "we shall lose all our day, Bumps is sure to find her way home."
"We can't leave her," said Jill. "She's always a bother when we bring her out. I wish we had left her behind."
But they continued their search. And at last they found the object of it, but no Bumps. Jack climbed up the tree and they shouted till they made the wood ring again, but no answer came.
"She's gone home," said Jack decisively. "We'll just enjoy ourselves without her."