-looking something sped out from under the table
and slid along the floor as though it had been shot out of a catapult.

"That's It," said the Gopher, unconcernedly. And then they all got up
and walked over to where a new sort of a queer creature, such as Tommy
had never seen before, was getting itself together after its encounter
with the Sheep's head. Tommy took in the peculiar features of the
new-comer as carefully and completely as he had taken in the other
unusual events of the day.

It was an undersized being that walked on two legs, and corresponded
somewhat to the little boy's idea of what a dwarf ought to be, except
that Tommy had always thought of dwarfs as being round and fat, whereas
this creature was exceedingly thin, almost bony, "by reason of his
constantly playing games," explained the ex-Pirate. Its head went up
almost to a point, on top of which grew a little tuft of hair, which
Tommy at first took to be a small fur cap; and the utter lack of
expression in his pallid face betokened that It had no understanding
whatever beyond his own sphere of utility.

"Perhaps that's why he is willing to be it all the time," thought Tommy.
"I'm sure he does not look as if he knew enough to object."

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.

[Illustration: "MY LIFE IS ONE LONG PURSUIT OF THE UNATTAINABLE."]

"I don't," answered It.