Have You No Selpurcs?

Nobody at Whit's End knows what a Selpurc is - and that's exactly how Mr. Whittaker wants it. He sends Curt and Lucy on a scavenger hunt through Odyssey, following hidden envelopes toward a fabulous surprise, and every stop turns into a sticky choice: an expired coupon at the market, a borrowed newspaper from a neighbor's porch, a ticket to a kids' movie that Curt trades for a sneak into another theater. Curt cuts every corner and pays for it every time. Meanwhile Connie keeps a scarf and a refund check she knows aren't both hers... until the catalog company comes asking for its money back. When the last envelope leads home, Whit reveals the secret: Selpurcs is just "scruples" spelled backward, and the whole day was the game. Curt owns up to his shortcuts, Lucy admits she cared more about being right than being kind, and the fabulous surprise turns out to be a conscience that works.

Found on Just In Time Album 09 · 14 episodes

The run See every episode

0121 Missing Person When the town bully vanishes on the morning of the state fair, the search for him uncovers more than one secret - and puts his least likely rescuer on the trail.

1 of 2 0122 Castles and Cauldrons A summer visit from Jimmy's cousin Len turns unsettling when the "game" packed in his suitcase demands secrecy, incantations, and total trust.

2 of 2 0123 Castles and Cauldrons When Jimmy's out-of-town cousin introduces him to a fantasy role-playing game that demands ever-deeper commitment, the line between make-believe and something far darker begins to blur.

0124 The Winning Edge When a win-at-all-costs new coach takes over a girls' softball team, his hunger for a championship pushes two young friends on rival teams toward a collision neither of them wants.

0125 All's Well with Boswell Robyn's first babysitting job takes an unexpected turn when her charge turns out to be a giant, spoiled cat with a talent for chaos.

0126 Wishful Thinking When her little brother's constant pestering pushes her past her limit, a teenage girl makes a careless wish that shows her exactly what life would be like without him.

0127 Have You No Selpurcs? When a quiz at Whit's End exposes very different ideas about honesty, Mr. Whittaker invents a mysterious game called Selpurcs to teach two kids a lesson neither of them sees coming.

0128 One Bad Apple When several Odyssey children fall ill after eating at Whit's End, Whit and Tom Riley trace the trouble upstream to a source no one in town would ever have suspected.

0129 Not One of Us A young reporter's assignment on bigotry takes an unexpected turn when her search for people who've experienced discrimination leads her to a strange little town off the interstate.

1 of 2 0130 Bernard and Joseph While washing windows at Whit's End, Bernard Walton helps a boy fed up with his six siblings by recounting the story of Joseph, whose troubles with his own brothers make any family squabble look small.

2 of 2 0131 Bernard and Joseph While washing windows, Bernard is roped into finishing the story of Joseph for young Artie Powell - picking up in an Egyptian prison, where a pair of troubling dreams sets Joseph's fate, and his family's, on an extraordinary new course.

0132 Thanksgiving at Home When the flu strikes on Thanksgiving morning, two kids decide they can cook the family feast themselves - how hard can one turkey be?

0133 Cousin Albert A middle-school reporter's puff piece on her basketball-star cousin unravels when she stumbles onto the secret he's built his whole future around hiding.

Featured characters

Minor characters & crew 4 more roles

4 supporting roles

Cashier Phil Lollar Peter Holt Katie Leigh Mr. Johnson Jeff Parker Ticket Salesman Phil Lollar

Made by

Chris Anthony Host Phil Lollar Writer · Director Bob Luttrell Sound Designer · Producer Chuck Bolte Executive Producer

The story

Read the full synopsis 3 min

At the counter at Whit's End, Connie Kendall reads a magazine quiz out loud to Curt Stevens and Lucy Cunningham-Schultz. It is called Test Your HQ, short for Honesty Quotient, and every question puts the reader in a sticky spot. Would you tell a friend you hate the sweater he loves? If the principal left you alone in his office with a file that had your best friend's name on it, would you sit still or take a peek? Curt has an answer ready for everything, usually the one that gets him what he wants. Lucy has an answer ready too, and hers all happen to be the honest ones. When the scoring says the honest choice was the right choice all ten times, Lucy is delighted and Curt suddenly remembers that Lucy's mom is waiting outside. After they go, Connie complains that neither of them learned a thing. Mr. Whittaker asks to borrow the magazine. He has an idea, and Connie begs to help.

Soon Curt and Lucy are back in Mr. Whittaker's office, being invited to try out a brand-new game called Selpurcs. Nobody knows what the word means. That, Mr. Whittaker explains, is the whole point. Figure out what Selpurcs are and a fabulous surprise is waiting. The game is played with envelopes hidden all over Odyssey. Open one, do what it says, and another will turn up. The only way to lose is to quit.

The first envelope sends them downstairs, where Connie has a problem. A scarf she ordered from a catalog arrived days late, too late for the pep rally she wanted it for, and then the company mailed her a refund by mistake, claiming the item was out of stock. Now she has the scarf and the money. Curt argues that the company messed up, that returning the scarf would only cost her postage and get some poor worker in trouble, and that nobody will ever miss it. Lucy feels uneasy but says nothing very loudly, and Connie decides to keep it.

The next envelope holds twenty dollars and a coupon for half off a quart of orange juice. At the market, Lucy notices the coupon expired last week. Curt insists nobody ever checks, and the cashier checks. The juice leads to a glass at Lucy's house, and the next envelope sends them to a G-rated movie, which means finding showtimes in a newspaper. Lucy's family does not get one, so Curt helps himself to the paper on the porch next door, right as Mr. Johnson comes home early from vacation. He lets them look, but asks them to please ask first next time.

At the theater they buy tickets for Betsy the Bumblebee, and Curt, spotting his friend Pete headed into a science fiction movie, sneaks off to that one instead. Lucy watches Betsy alone. Afterward she has a free pass that the ushers handed out to everyone in her theater, and Curt has nothing but a lesson he keeps refusing to learn.

The last envelope calls them back to Whit's End, where Connie is frantic. The catalog company has found its mistake and wants the money she has already spent. She is furious with Curt and tells him so, and she tells Lucy to congratulate herself for not being like him. Curt, miserable, offers to call the company himself and take the blame. That is when Mr. Whittaker steps in and calls off the game. Every bit of the day, the juice and the newspaper and the movie and Connie's trouble, was Selpurcs, which is simply scruples spelled backward. Curt admits that most of his trouble came from not doing what he was supposed to do. Lucy admits something harder, that all she really cared about was being right. The fabulous surprise, Mr. Whittaker says, is knowing what good scruples are and how to use them. Then he asks Curt for his change from the twenty, and Curt allows that maybe he has a selpurc or two left.