Buttercup Day 4307874 133946900 2007-05-27T22:34:41Z David Gerard 36389 Removing redundant per [[Wikipedia:Spoiler]] - using [[Wikipedia:AWB|AWB]] '''"Buttercup Day"''' is a [[short story]] by [[P. G. Wodehouse]], which first appeared in the [[United States]] in the [[November 21]] [[1925]] issue of ''[[The Saturday Evening Post]]'', and in the [[United Kingdom]] in the December [[1925]] ''[[Strand Magazine|Strand]]''. It was included in the collection ''[[Eggs, Beans, and Crumpets]]'', published in [[1940]]. It features the irrepressible [[Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge]]. == Main characters == * [[Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge]], the irrepressible entrepreneur ** [[Minor characters in the Ukridge stories#Julia Ukridge|Julia Ukridge]], his haughty writer aunt * [[Minor characters in the Ukridge stories#James "Corky" Corcoran|Jimmy Corcoran]], Ukridge's writer friend * ''"Stuttering Sam"'', a suspicious curate * ''"Mr Dawson"'', a suspicious Scotland Yard detective * ''A very pretty girl'', a friend of Ukridge, partner in his scheme == Plot == Ukridge, improverished as ever, complains to his friend [[Minor characters in the Ukridge stories#James "Corky" Corcoran|Jimmy Corcoran]] of his lack of funds, and also of the way charity collectors take a heavy toll on what money he does get hold of. His [[Minor characters in the Ukridge stories#Julia Ukridge|Aunt Julia]] is holding a [[fete]] in the grounds of her house while she is away, and he asks Corky to help him guard the place from the revellers. Arriving at the [[P. G. Wodehouse locations#Heath House|Heath House]], Corky is made to buy a paper flower from a pretty girl who informs him it is "Buttercup Day". Inside, Ukridge tells him it is all a plan of his - he has hired the girl, going in halves with her for the money she collects. Corky is shocked, but Ukridge explains that at no point is any real charity mentioned. With the money, suitably increased by some astute gambling, he plans to found a cat ranch in America. A stuttering [[curate]] enters, and complains about the Buttercup girl; Corky is heading off to warn her when he runs into Aunt Julia, returned early. He tries to shake her off, and returns to Ukridge, who he finds sleeping soundly; he meets Aunt Julia again, and a detective from [[Scotland Yard]] tells them that a dangerous crook is at the fete, a burglar known for his stuttering. He asks where Julia keeps her jewellery, and rushes off to check on it. Julia and Corky find they are locked in. Their shouts eventually bring Ukridge, who releases them, and it emerges that Ukridge had been drugged by the curate, while the butler had been locked in the cellar at gunpoint by the fake detective. Aunt Julia's jewels and collection of precious [[Tobacco#Snuff|snuff]] boxes are missing. Ukridge is once again thrown out of his aunt's house, and is distraught to learn that his friend the Buttercup girl, having met a stuttering curate at the fete, had let him talk her into donating all her ill-gotten money to his church fund. ==See also== * [[List of short stories by P. G. Wodehouse#Ukridge|List of Wodehouse's Ukridge stories]] [[Category:Short stories by P. G. Wodehouse]]