The Umbleglots
By Elaine Mills
Safe in the dark, under the ground, live the Umbleglots. They are very small, soft and round, with squashy faces and great big eyes.
When we are all asleep at night, the Umbleglots come out and eat up the things that we throw away in our dustbins.
One night, Uggie Umbleglot and the other Umbleglots went out to look for some good things to eat. They ran along the dark streets on their short, fat legs, until they came to a dustbin.
"Make the ladder!" said an old Umbleglot. So the others stood on top of each other and made an Umbleglot ladder up the side of the dustbin. Then Uggie, Upton and Unwin went up the ladder, under the lid and into the dustbin.
First, they had some fun. They made slides out of banana skins and silly hats out of crisps. Then they started to play ball with soggy peas and baked beans.
"Hurry up!" said the other Umbleglots, "Pass out the food!"
Unwin and Upton began to pass bits of food down to the others. Uggie wanted to find some really nice food, so he went all the way down to the bottom of the dustbin to have a good look.
"Oh!" he said, "Cake! I like cake!" and he sat down and began to eat. Soon he forgot all about the other Umbleglots.
Time went by, and Uggie began to feel full. He started to go back up to the top of the dustbin. All the cake had made him very fat, and it took him a long time. When he got there it was morning, and all the other Umbleglots had gone.
"Oh no!" said Uggie, "How can I get home? Hey! Come back!"
But the Umbleglots did not come.
Uggie could not get down from the dustbin on his own. He felt scared.
"What shall I do? Oh dear, what shall I do?" he said.
He sat down on an old eggshell to think.
"The others will come back when it gets dark," he said, "so I must wait for them, and try to be brave."
Uggie hid under a tea bag and, as he was tired and full of cake, he soon went to sleep.
It was a monster that woke Uggie up.
"MIAOW!" it said, right in his face.
"Help!" said Uggie, "Help! Go away!" and he hid under a paper bag.
But the monster did not go away. It hit the bag off Uggie, and looked at him with big, green eyes.
"Don't eat me!" said Uggie, "I don't taste nice at all!"
He put his little hands over his eyes and waited.
There was a shout and "MIAOW!" said the monster.
"Bad cat! Get out of the dustbin!" said a lady going past on her way to the shops.
Uggie looked out of the dustbin. The monster had run away.
Uggie went all the way back down to the bottom of the dustbin and sat there with his eyes shut until night came.
When it was dark, the other Umbleglots came back.
"Uggie," they said, "are you there?"
Uggie's face looked down at them from under the dustbin lid.
"We will get you down," they said, "don't worry."
When Uggie was back with the others, he told them about the monster.
"Poor Uggie," said Unwin and Upton, "but never mind. We got you this to cheer you up. Look, it's cake."
"Oh," said Uggie sadly, "thank you. But I don't think I shall ever eat cake again!"
Then he set off with Unwin and Upton, to his safe little bed down under the ground.
© 2003 Elaine Mills: used with permission. Copyright of this short story remains with the author: please do not download or republish without permission.
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