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      ‘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

      HarperCollins Children’s Books is a division of HarperCollinsPublishers 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.

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

      Source ISBN: 9780008205799

      Ebook Edition © 2016 ISBN: 9780008205805

      Version: 2016-06-29

      CONTENTS

       Cover

       Title Page

       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

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       RUNNING DOWN TO THE BEACH

      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.

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      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.

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      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

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