"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.