By this time the Sheep had rejoined the group and was ready to play.
"I don't want to play any game of chance," said the ex-Pirate when the Gopher asked what it should be.
"No; we won't have any game of chance," agreed the Sheep.
"I don't see how you could," ventured Tommy, "if It is in the game. It strikes me that if It is always It, there is no chance for him."
"Of course not," answered the ex-Pirate; "there's no chance for him ever, but we don't consider him. We take all the chances."
Tommy did not understand, but this was nothing new to him, and he consented to play anything that would please the rest.
They decided to have a game of Bumpolump. It took the ex-Pirate fully fifteen minutes to explain to the little boy how Bumpolump was played, and even then Tommy never got a clear idea of it, and was unable to give his Uncle Dick the slightest explanation of how it was done, except that It had an inordinate amount of running about to do, while the others seemed to get all the fun. And at the end everybody got a prize except It.
"I should not think you would like this," said Tommy to It, sympathetically.
"I don't," answered It. "I've gotten quite beyond that. My life is one long pursuit of the unattainable. How does it feel to succeed?"
Tommy, not knowing just what to say under the circumstances, hesitated; but before he could reply It continued: