Desmond Digby - The Adventures of Bottersnikes and Gumbles

‘Running Down to the Beach’, ‘Willigumble — Late as Usual’,

‘The Adventures of Chank’, ‘Spring in the Air’ and ‘The King’s Party’

first published in Bottersnikes and Gumbles by William Collins (Australia) Pty Ltd in 1967 ‘Supergumble’, ‘The Palace-mobile’, ‘The Art of Catching Gumbles’,

‘The Artist and the Dreamer’ and ‘Dump Development Scheme’

first published in Gumbles on Guard by William Collins (Australia) Pty Ltd in 1975

‘Hot and Strong’, ‘Tinkingumble and the Dry Water’ and ‘Casting the Votes’

first published in Gumbles in Summer by William Collins (Australia) Pty Ltd in 1979

‘The Dark Forest’, ‘Gumbleducks’ and ‘The Qwertyuiop’

first published in Gumbles in Trouble by William Collins (Australia) Pty Ltd in 1990

Text copyright individual editions © S. A. Wakefield 1967, 1975, 1979, 1989

Text copyright The Adventures of Bottersnikes and Gumbles © Betty Wakefield 2016

Illustrations copyright individual editions © Desmond Digby 1967, 1975, 1979, 1989

Illustrations copyright The Adventures of Bottersnikes and Gumbles © Brendan Gillis 2016

Cover illustrations by Desmond Digby

Cover design © HarperCollins Publishers 2016

This edition published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children’s Books 2016

HarperCollins Children’s Books is a division of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd,

HarperCollins Publishers,

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

The HarperCollins Children’s Books website address is

www.harpercollins.co.uk

S. A. Wakefield asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

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Source ISBN: 9780008205799

Ebook Edition © 2016 ISBN: 9780008205805

Version: 2016-06-29

CONTENTS

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Running Down to the Beach

Willigumble — Late as Usual

The Adventures of Chank

Spring in the Air

The King’s Party

Supergumble

The Palace-mobile

The Art of Catching Gumbles

The Artist and the Dreamer

Dump Development Scheme

Hot and Strong

Tinkingumble and the Dry Water

Casting the Votes

The Dark Forest

Gumbleducks

The Qwertyuiop

About the Author

About the Publisher

Bottersnikes are the laziest creatures, probably, in the whole world.

They are too lazy to dig burrows, like rabbits, or to find hollow trees to live in as the small animals do, and would be horrified at the work of building nests, like birds. Bottersnikes find their homes readymade, in rubbish heaps. When they find a pile of tins, pots, pans and junk, they think it is lovely, and crawl in. And live there, sleeping mostly. Best of all they like the rubbish heaps along dusty roadsides in the lonely Australian bush, where they can sleep for weeks, undisturbed.

Once, in a rubbish heap like this, two long black ears poked out of a watering can. The ears came first because they were twice as long as the head they belonged to. Between the ears appeared an ugly green face with slanted eyes, a nose like a cheese grater and a mean mouth with pointed teeth sticking out. The skin was wrinkly all over and little toadstools grew where the eyebrows should have been.

This was the King of the Bottersnikes. He squeezed out of the watering can.

The King’s ears turned bright red because he was angry — this always happens with Bottersnikes when they get angry — and the cause of his temper was a thistle growing through the bottom of his bed. But he was too lazy to pull it out and just stood there looking, with his ears growing redder. Near him he saw an old rusting car, propped against a gum tree. What a palace that would make for a Bottersnike King! ‘If someone would open the door,’ he thought, ‘I would get in.’

So the King yelled at the top of his voice for help — and very loud that is; but the other Bottersnikes, all twenty or so of the King’s band, snored loudly from their beds in the rubbish to show they had not heard.

This meant that the King would have to pull someone out of bed, kick him and twist his tail till he woke up, and make him open the car door, so that the King could get in. Bottersnikes go to no end of trouble to do things the easiest way. ‘There is no one, no one at all,’ the King growled, ‘who will help.’ His ears glowed in a royal rage that was quite terrible to see.

As the King was yelling for help the Gumbles happened to be passing, which was just their bad luck. They were on their way down the hill to a little stream they knew of, called Earlyfruit Creek, where the water flowed into quiet pools and banks of sand made tiny beaches just right for Gumble paddling.

‘Hey, you!’ bawled the King to the Gumbles. ‘Come and open this door and help me in.’

The Gumbles were a bit astonished, as all their friends in the bush were much politer than this, but being cheerful little creatures and always ready to lend a hand, like good Brownies, they said: ‘Well, all right, if it won’t take too long, because we’re in a hurry to get to the creek, you see.’

‘Don’t argue,’ the King said. ‘Just do as you’re told.’

By climbing up each other’s backs the Gumbles managed to open the car door, and with a one-two-three all together shove they heaved the King into his new palace. Hearing the strange voices, the other Bottersnikes decided to wake up. They peered at these funny little creatures they’d not seen before and asked: ‘What are these?’