Buttercup Day
"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. 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
- Julia Ukridge, his haughty writer aunt
- 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, impoverished as ever, complains to his friend 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 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 revelers.
Arriving at the 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 jewelry, 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 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.