‘Then you can go and study them in the Park!’ said Samantha hopefully to her Uncle Ernest.
‘What? With all those perishing amateurs and the Press breathing down my neck?’ scoffed Sir Ernest. ‘Not me! Not likely! No privacy in England, not even in my own Park. I’m going back to South America to study them in peace.’
‘And so am I!’ said Lady Clandorris. ‘And Samantha and the bogwoppit can come with us.’
‘No!’ said Samantha, and it began all over again. Mr Price slipped tactfully away to work out plans for the Great Wall inside the drain.
The argument went on and on, not very bitterly – in fact the longer it lasted the more Samantha felt that she was in the middle of a family row, and it was happening because nobody wanted to leave anybody behind. This was such a new sensation for Samantha that she hoped the argument would go on for ever. Even the bogwoppit seemed to be enjoying it.
Everyone paused for breath, but Lady Clandorris recovered first, and the solution that she offered was much the same as she had suggested to Samantha down in the great chamber of the drain.
‘Samantha shall have the Park!’ she announced. ‘She loves it, and we don’t. So she shall stay and look after it while we are in South America and she can be educated at the same time. We’ll ask her Mr and Mrs Price to come and be caretakers. The grounds can be a safari park for bogwoppits. It will have to be properly run and the public must be charged for entrance. Mrs Price can give them tea. Samantha can show them round the house. They’ll have to pay of course.’
Sir Ernest looked round the shabby walls with some disapproval.
‘What are they going to see?’ he asked discouragingly.
‘It shall be redecorated and done up!’ said Lady Clandorris grandly. ‘And there are all those fascinating antiques in the upstairs bedrooms. Samantha can choose the wallpapers. And we’ll come back at Christmas and at Easter and Samantha can come out to us in the summer holidays. Or else we’ll come back and shut up the safari park and just be ourselves!’
‘No we won’t!’ said Sir Ernest. ‘We’ll have everybody in and Samantha can have a birthday party whenever she likes, and we’ll show the public our slides of South America. There are lots of things in the jungle besides extinct bogwoppits. In my hut, for instance, I have a baby molypiddle.’
‘A what?’ exclaimed Samantha and Lady Clandorris together.
‘A molypiddle. Furry, soft, batlike. But they only have one ear. Much cleaner than bogwoppits but very affectionate once they are tamed.’
‘If you have a molypiddle you won’t need the bogwoppit,’ said Samantha.
‘Yes I shall,’ Lady Clandorris argued.
‘You had better let the bogwoppit decide for itself,’ said Sir Ernest Clandorris. He prodded the One-and-Only awake.
Samantha and Lady Clandorris stood with their arms opened wide, beseeching it. The bogwoppit shook the towel away, and stretched its wings, now fluffy and dry again. Then it stood on the tips of its toes, rose rapidly into the air with its familiar whirring flight, and dropped straight into Samantha’s triumphant arms.
‘Oh well!’ said Lady Clandorris, stamping her foot and turning her back. But at that moment Sir Ernest took out of his pocket book a picture to show her of the lonely hut in the far off Amazonian jungles of South America. There was a molypiddle sitting on the roof.
Sir Ernest and Lady Clandorris (she had changed her clothes and was dressed quite smartly) with Samantha and the bogwoppit, went to discuss their plans with the Prices.
At first Mr and Mrs Price were unwilling to commit themselves, but by the next morning Jeff Price met Samantha in some excitement, saying he thought his parents were about to give in.
‘Dad’s got all worked up about having those drains to do as he likes with!’ said Jeff. ‘And Mum, well she quite likes the idea of putting the house to rights.’
‘What about you and Deb and Timothy?’ Samantha asked. ‘Shall you mind leaving number fifty-four?’
‘You bet we don’t!’ said Jeff enthusiastically. ‘We haven’t got room for a pianola!’
Mr Beaumont was called in and papers were signed. Builders and decorators were summoned, and Mr Price found himself directing quite a battalion of plumbers.
A postcard arrived from Aunt Lily and Duggie hoping that Samantha was getting on fine, because they were. If she ever wanted to join them she could. They wouldn’t mind.
Samantha wrote back: ‘My Aunt Daisy and my Uncle Ernest Clandorris say that I can live at the Park for the rest of my life.’
‘It’s no good expecting me to send you a postcard from South America!’ Aunt Daisy said. ‘And you needn’t bother to send me one either. There are no post offices in the jungle, and as you know, I never look inside a mail box.’
At the thought that they would not be able to send each other postcards the most extraordinary thing happened. Lady Clandorris and Samantha both burst into tears and flew into each other’s arms.
‘We’ve made over the Park to you, Samantha!’ hiccuped Lady Clandorris, extricating herself from Samantha and the bogwoppit, who wanted to be wept over too. ‘Just in case something happens to your uncle or me while we are in South America. Mr Beaumont has it in writing. You are our heiress. It is all, every bit of it, yours!’
‘Mine?’ said Samantha. ‘The house and the Park and the cellars and the woods? All of it?’
‘All of it!’ nodded Lady Clandorris.
‘Even the bogwoppits?’ said Samantha.
‘And the bogwoppits!’ agreed Lady Clandorris. ‘Except the …’
‘All the bogwoppits!’ cried Samantha with her eyes shining. ‘Especially the One-and-Only! He’s the only one that really counts! Oh how good you are to me, Aunt Daisy!’
Sir Ernest and Lady Clandorris drove away on a day in early September, amid tears from Samantha and the One-and-Only.
The tears soon dried, for life turned out as Samantha had always dreamed and plotted that it would and ought to do.
The Park really belonged to her. She had birthday parties there, for herself, and for the Prices, and even for the bogwoppit. The house became beautiful under the decorators and clean and shining under Mrs Price. The drains were completely reorganized giving no more trouble.
The One-and-Only forgot how much it had liked dirt, and became quite fond of soap and water. It never showed the slightest interest in the bogwoppits in the marsh pools, but followed Samantha when she was at home, and Mrs Price when Samantha was at school.
The other bogwoppits remained the centre of scientific research for some time, and then Miss Mellor’s Project was finished, while the Preservation Society and the Press and the television company faded away.
By this time the marsh pools had been turned into a safari park so the bogwoppits still had plenty of people to show off to. Mrs Price made and served most delicious teas to the visitors in the stables, helped by Samantha and Deborah. Samantha showed parties of twenty round the house.
Every holiday Sir Ernest and Lady Clandorris came back to stay with Samantha at the Park, and her uncle insisted that the local Flower Show and Garden Fête should be held there. It was opened by Lady Clandorris, and everybody clapped her which to her surprise she enjoyed very much indeed. The One-and-Only presented her with a bouquet and everybody clapped it.
One summer Samantha went to stay in the Amazonian jungle with her aunt and uncle, leaving the bogwoppit behind for fear of reprisal. She found the South American bogwoppits fascinating (their eyes were green, not blue), though quite a bit different, and also the molypiddles, the clunkers, the dibs and debs, and all the other creatures that her Uncle Ernest was studying.
And she knew that, for all her aunt’s odd manners and her tartness, she was Lady Clandorris’s favourite niece (or why would she have left her the Park?) and her uncle’s sweet Samantha, and they were her nearest and dearest and her own real and proper blood relations. But for true companionship and devotion and sympathy and affection she had (besides Mr and Mrs P
rice and Deborah, Jeff and Timothy), the everlasting loyalty and affection of the One-and-Only-Bogwoppit-in-the-World.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
URSULA MORAY WILLIAMS
1911 Born 19 April in Petersfield, Hampshire
1927 Attends school in Annecy, in France, for a year
1928 Enrols at the Royal College of Art in Winchester, but drops out to pursue her writing career
1931 Jean Pierre, Ursula’s first book about a small boy and his pet goat, is published
1932 Ursula becomes a Brown Owl in the Brownies, inspiring her next two books
1938 Adventures of the Little Wooden Horse is published
1942 Gobbolino the Witch’s Cat is published
1943 The Good Little Christmas Tree is published
1945 Moves to Beckford, near Evesham in South Worcestershire, where she serves as a magistrate for more than twenty years
1970 Ursula attends the first ‘Puffin Winter Whoopee’ in a castle and becomes a key member of the Puffin Club
1978 Bogwoppit is published and illustrated by renowned illustrator, Shirley Hughes
1978 A copy of Gobbolino is buried in the Puffin Time Capsule and will not be dug up until 2078! Ursula wrote a message in this book and no one knows what it says…
1984 Contributes to the children’s TV show Jackanory
2006 Dies on 17 October in Tewkesbury, Worcestershire
ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR
SHIRLEY HUGHES
Shirley Hughes is one of the best-loved illustrators in the UK. She has written and illustrated many books for children and has won the Kate Greenaway Medal and the prestigious Eleanor Farjeon Award. In 1998 she was awarded the OBE for Services to Children’s Literature. Shirley says: ‘The project of illustrating Ursula Moray Williams’s Bogwoppit was irresistible … Every child is fascinated (as I was) by what might be living down there in the slime. This story gives full rein to hair-raising underground adventures … I was spoilt for choice as to which exciting incident to illustrate!’
INTERESTING FACTS
Ursula Moray Williams was the author and illustrator of more than seventy books for children.
She continued to be published throughout the Second World War, making her one of the few children’s authors who did so despite the paper shortages at that time.
Ursula was an identical twin!
Where Did the Story Come From?
Ursula loved writing about mischievous but good-hearted children based on those she saw during her work as a juvenile magistrate and a school governor. Many of her stories involved brave children or creatures who triumph over hardships and cruelty before finding a loving home. Park House is based on North Stoneham House, a large, dilapidated mansion where Ursula grew up.
Guess Who?
A . . . something hopped and shuffled into the room, something round and black and furry, with large, round, blue appealing eyes and a long furry tail…
B And here she lay on her back in her bedroom, making a noise like a combine harvester…
C . . . first a large pair of safari boots, then the rising curves of a fairly big stomach, covered in a tweed suit, and finally a round face, pinkish red, even in the shadows, topped by a deerstalker’s hat…
D ‘Furry, soft, batlike. But they only have one ear. Much cleaner than bogwoppits but very affectionate once they are tamed.’
ANSWERS:
A) Bogwoppit
B) Lady Clandorris/Aunt Daisy
C) Uncle Ernest/Sir Clandorris
D) A molypiddle
Words Glorious Words!
Lots of words have several different meanings – here are a few you’ll find in this Puffin book. Use a dictionary or look them up online to find other definitions.
ancestral something belonging to older generations of somebody’s family
wainscot the bottom part of the walls in a room
pianola a piano that plays music by itself
fragment a piece of something
deserted a place that has been left with no one staying behind
marsh an area of land that is wet all the time
monotonous boring due to repetition
Did You Know?
Four of Ursula Moray Williams’s stories were featured on the programme Jackanory, where celebrities read stories.
Bogwoppits don’t really exist!
The Wildlife and Countryside Act of 1981 protects rare animal and plant species in Great Britain, including red squirrels and water voles.
Quiz
Thinking caps on – let’s see how much you can remember! Answers are on the next page. (No peeking!)
1 Why does Samantha go to live at Park House?
a) Her parents died
b) She ran away from home
c) Her parents are on holiday
d) Her Aunt Lily left her and went to America
2 Who are Samantha’s best friends?
a) The Princes
b) The Prices
c) The Pringles
d) The Mellors
3 What did Lady Clandorris use to get rid of the bogwoppits?
a) A broom
b) Disinfectant
c) Bleach
d) Music
4 What does the S.P.R.R.S. stand for?
a) The Society for the Protection of Rare and Rural Species
b) The Super Physical Racing Response Station
c) The Station of Plenty of Rat and Rabbit Species
d) The Society for the Protection of Ringo the Rattle Snake
5 Where did Uncle Ernest find more bogwoppits?
a) Sri Lanka
b) South Africa
c) South America
d) New Zealand
ANSWERS:
1) d
2) b
3) b
4) a
5) c
Make and Do
Make up your own extinct creature!
Draw a picture and create a fact file describing your creature’s features, where it lives and what it likes to eat. Perhaps it has the ability to communicate with you in a special way too?
NASA selects its first women astronauts!
The Incredible Hulk is shown for the first time.
May Day is a public holiday for the first time.
Puffin Writing Tip
Write a description of your hometown – as if you were talking to an alien.
If you have enjoyed reading
Bogwoppit
you may like to read
Gobbolino the Witch’s Cat
in which Gobbolino searches for the home of his dreams …
Ursula Moray Williams
GOBBOLINO THE WITCH’S CAT
1. Gobbolino in Disgrace
One fine moonlight night little Gobbolino, the witch’s kitten, and his sister Sootica tumbled out of the cavern where they had been born, to play at catch-a-mouse among the creeping shadows.
It was the first time they had left the cavern, and their round eyes were full of wonder and excitement at everything they saw.
Every leaf that blew, every dewdrop that glittered, every rustle in the forest around them set their furry black ears a-prick.
‘Did you hear that, brother?’
‘Did you see that, sister?’
‘I saw it! And that! and that! and that!’
When they were tired of playing they sat side by side in the moonlight talking and quarrelling a little, as a witch’s kittens will.
‘What will you be when you grow up?’ Gobbolino asked, as the moon began to sink behind the mountains and cocks crowed down the valley.
‘Oh, I’ll be a witch’s cat like my ma,’ said Sootica. ‘I’ll know all the Book of Magic off by heart and learn to ride a broomstick and turn mice into frogs and frogs into guinea-pigs. I’ll fly down the clouds on the night-wind with the bats and the barn owls, saying “Meee-ee-ee-oww!” so when people hear me coming they’ll say: “Hush! There goes Sootica, the witch’s cat!” ’
Gobbolino w
as very silent when he heard his sister’s fiery words.
‘And what will you be, brother?’ asked Sootica agreeably.
‘I’ll be a kitchen cat,’ said Gobbolino. ‘I’ll sit by the fire with my paws tucked under my chest and sing like the kettle on the hob. When the children come in from school they’ll pull my ears and tickle me under the chin and coax me round the kitchen with a cotton reel. I’ll mind the house and keep down the mice and watch the baby, and when all the children are in bed I’ll creep on my missus’s lap while she darns the stockings and master nods in his chair. I’ll stay with them for ever and ever, and they’ll call me Gobbolino the kitchen cat.’
‘Don’t you want to be bad?’ Sootica asked him in great surprise.
‘No,’ said Gobbolino, ‘I want to be good and have people love me. People don’t love witches’ cats. They are too disagreeable.’
He licked his paw and began to wash his face, while his little sister scowled at him and was just about to trot in and find their mother, when a ray of moonlight falling across both the kittens set her fur standing on end with rage and fear.
‘Brother! Brother! one of your paws is white!’
In the deeps of the witch’s cavern no one had noticed that little Gobbolino had been born with a white front paw. Everyone knows this is quite wrong for witches’ kittens, which are black all over from head to foot, but now the moonbeam lit up a pure white sock with five pink pads beneath it, while the kitten’s coat, instead of being jet black like his sister’s, had a faint sheen of tabby, and his lovely round eyes were blue! All witches’ kittens are born with green eyes.
No wonder that little Sootica flew into the cavern with cries of distress to tell her mother all about it.
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