‘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 © HarperCollinsPublishers 2016
This edition published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children’s Books 2016
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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
Tinkingumble and the Dry Water
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