Glenda the Wendle Gets Sapsuckers

[Palustris]

Glenda and the Sapsuckers.

Glenda the Wendle really liked making new things to eat. In the spring, she had gone searching for snurdles to cook for Walter, the oldest Wendle. They had to be cooked in oak-apple pastry and covered in Scatterseed bush flower sauce.

She found the snurdles and cooked them as Walter had said, but when she tasted the snurdles, they were very unpleasant. Only the mudwallower managed to eat them.

Snurdles.

Walter explained that the snurdles had always tasted bad, but that his mother cooked them to stop him from complaining about the taste of the leftover food at the end of winter. Snurdles made everything else taste good.
The oak apple pastry was good, and she really did like the Scatterseed bush flower sauce, so early one later autumn morning, Glenda decided that she would make the pastry and the sauce to see if they tasted good without the snurdles. She had plenty of oak apples, so she only needed the flowers.

Oak Apples.
The only place where Scatterseed bushes grew was Furze Wood. A trumpeter bird had told Glenda where to look. The nice thing about Scatterseed bushes is that they have a few flowers all year.

Glenda wended her way through Feggy Wood until she came to the northern edge. Between the end of Feggy Wood and Furze Wood was a large field. Fortunately, there was a hedge, so Glenda could follow that and not have to go out into the open.

Wendles do not like to go where there are no tree branches over their heads. Unlike other Wendles, Glenda could go into the open. She did not like doing it, though.

Sure enough, there were plenty of flowers on the Scatterseed bushes. The bushes are covered in sharp spines, but Wendles have very thick skin, so they can pick Scatterseed flowers without getting hurt.

Scatterseed bush.

Glenda made a pie with the oak apple flour and filled it with roasted acorns and mushrooms. She covered it with the Scatterseed flower sauce. It tasted really good.

"You can make that again whenever you like," said Glen after eating a second helping.

The next morning, though, Glenda woke up feeling very weak and ill. "I wonder if it was the sauce," she said.

"It cannot be anything we have eaten," said Glen. "I am not ill, and if it was the pie or the sauce, I would be the same as you. And I had two helpings, so I ought to be even more sick."

"I don’t know what it is," said Glenda, "but I do know that I feel very ill."

"You look very pale," said Glen. "Perhaps it is the collywobbles?"

Glenda shook her head. "I have not had wet feet, and Wilfred says that there is no such thing as collywobbles. He says that it was just something mothers used to say to make Wendle children more careful."

"I shall go and see if anyone can tell us what might be wrong with you," said Glen. "You snuggle down in the nest and see if you can sleep."

"Gladys is the best person to ask," said Glenda.

Glen wended his way through Feggy Wood until he came to the Dark Trees. There was a tell tale bird sat on a branch. "Good morning," said Glen. "Would you be so kind as to go and see if Gladys the Green Wendle can come and talk to me."

A tell-tale bird.

"Certainly," said the bird, and it flew away. Glen did not have to wait very long before Gladys appeared. She was the oldest of the Green Wendles. Glen explained about Glenda feeling pale and weak.

"I had better come and take a look at her," said Gladys. Glen and Gladys wended their way back to Glenda's home.

Gladys looked very carefully at Glenda and shook her head. "I think that you have a bad attack of sapsuckers," she said. "You really need to go and stand outside, or soon your nest will be full of them."

Gladys also examined Glen. "Good," she said. "You do not seem to have caught them."

"What are sapsuckers?" wailed Glenda.
"They are little creatures that bite and feed on Wendles." Gladys told her.

A sapsucker.

"But I am very, very careful about grooming myself," sniffed Glenda.

Wendles are very fussy about keeping themselves neat and clean.

"Well," said Gladys, "you must have been somewhere where the sapsuckers live. I don’t remember ever seeing them in Feggy Wood for more years than I care to think about."

"I went to pick Scatterseed flowers in Furze Wood yesterday," said Glenda. "I must have caught them there. How do I get rid of them?"

Gladys shook her head. "Sorry, I cannot help you there. It has been so long since I have seen them that I cannot think of anything that might help."

"Someone must know," said Glen. "I will go and ask."

"So will I," said Gladys.

Glen and Gladys.

Glenda sat down outside her nest and curled up into a sad ball. "Please don't tell everyone I have sapsuckers. They might think that I have not been keeping myself clean," she begged.

"We will just ask if anyone knows how to get rid of them," soothed Gladys.

Gladys and Glen wended their way through Feggy Wood. They asked everyone they met if they knew how to get rid of sapsuckers. Everyone they met shook their heads.

When they arrived at the Black Pool, they found the two oldest Wendles, Wilfred and Walter. They were sitting at one of Bob's tables drinking early grey leaf tea and arguing as usual.

"Hello," said Glen. "Do you know anything about sapsuckers?"

"Never heard of them," said Walter.

"I have," said Wilfred. "Nasty biting things that make you very, very ill and weak. "Who's got them then?"

"We promised not to say who has them," said Gladys. "But how do you know about them?"

"I got them when I was blown across the fields to the Big Wood on the other side of the straight river. But on this side, the only place where they are found is Furze Wood. That is why there are no Wendles living there. Too dangerous."

"She did go to Furze Wood yesterday," said Glen excitedly.

"Ah," said Wilfred. "Your friend Glenda is it?"

"Maybe," said Gladys. "But how did you get rid of them if you had them in the Big Woods?"

"Red, black-spotted crunchies," said Wilfred. "They eats the sapsuckers. But you need a lot of them. Your friend will need to be smothered in them. Then she will need to sit on an acid squirters' nest to make sure that they have all gone. After that, she will need to drink lots of willow bark and nettle leaf tea."

"Where do we find red, black, or potted crunchies?" asked Glen.

Red, black potted crunchy.

"All over Feggy Wood. You will need to get all your friends to collect them if it is going to work," Wilfred answered.

"You could make a competition of it," suggested Bob, "with a prize for the Wendle who collects the most. I know they can have a free plate of chips and early grey leaf tea followed by sweetsticks for pudding."

"Let's get started then," said Gladys. Soon all the Wendles and the Green Wendles were out in Feggy Wood collecting red, black spotted crunchies. They took them to where Glenda was still curled up in a miserable ball. The crunchies were carefully counted as they were put on her. Soon she was covered from head to foot in them.

"Ohhh," she said. "Tickly!"

It was Brenda the Green Wendle who collected the most.

After a while, the crunchies began to fly away. Wilfred nodded. "They go when there are no sapsuckers to eat. Now she must go and sit on the acid squirters' nest and let them crawl all over her."

An acid squirter.

Glenda sat on the acid squirters' nest and let them crawl all over her. Fortunately, Wendles has very tough skin, so the acid squirters could not hurt her. After a few minutes, Wilfred helped Glenda to her feet. She shook herself, and the last few acid squirters fell off.

"Now," said Wilfred, "lots of willow bark and nettle leaf tea, and rest."

"Thank you," said Glenda. "I won't ever go to Furze Wood again.

"Pity," said Glen. "The Scatterseed Bush flower sauce was very nice."