"The Boggart" in THE WITNESS AND OTHER SHORT STORIES:
Dinty, Kevin's great-grandmother, lives alone and everyone marvels at how clean and neat she keeps her house and garden. When she begins to become senile, Kevin's family moves Dinty into a seniors' home. One day Dinty asks Kevin to do her a favour - to go to her house and invite her resident boggart to slip into an empty box so she can mail him back to Yorkshire where he came from. Kevin wonders what a boggart is. Dinty explains that he is an invisible creature who does all the housework as long as you feed him his daily ration of cream. Kevin sets out to do what Dinty asks, even though he is sure that he doesn't believe in boggarts.About This Story:
I have always been fascinated by the creatures in English folklore, such as fairies, goblins, and boggarts. One famous folktale is about a boggart whose family moves to get rid of him, only to find that he has hitched a ride. After I read this I wondered what would happen if a boggart accompanied a couple all the way to Canada.I always meant to turn this story into a novel but another children's author, Susan Cooper, beat me to it! In her excellent novel, THE BOGGART, she also features a boggart who comes to Canada. She must have read the same folktales I did!