"Uncle Fred Flits By" is a short story by British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse, which was published in the United States in the July 1935 edition of Redbook, and in the United Kingdom in the December 1935 issue of the Strand. It was included in the collection Young Men in Spats (1936). The story is part of the main Drones Club canon. It features club member Pongo Twistleton and his mischievous Uncle Fred. Pongo and Uncle Fred would go on to appear in four novels, including making two visits to Blandings Castle. In the story, Uncle Fred manages to gain access to a house to use as shelter after he and Pongo get caught in the rain. When relatives of the house's owner come to speak with him about a family drama concerning a young couple, Uncle Fred naturally involves himself in their affairs, leaving Pongo no choice but to play along. Plot At the Drones Club, a Crumpet and his guest see Pongo Twistleton looking distraught. The Crumpet explains that Pongo has learned his mischievous Uncle Fred, Lord Ickenham, is coming to London, and tells the following story about what happened the last time Uncle Fred came. Uncle Fred suggests to his nephew that they visit a suburb, Mitching Hill, formerly an estate owned by an uncle when he was younger. They go there, but get caught in a shower of rain and take shelter in a doorway. The door is opened by a maid, and Uncle Fred, finding the owners are away, gains access to the house by posing as someone come to clip the parrot's claws, with Pongo introduced as his assistant Mr Walkinshaw. The maid leaves on an errand, and Uncle Fred makes himself comfortable. A pink-faced man visits the house looking for Mr Roddis. Uncle Fred claims to be Mr Roddis and introduces Pongo as his son Douglas. The visitor is Wilberforce Robinson, an eel-jellier, who is in love with Roddis's wife's estranged sister Connie Parker's daughter Julia, but is disapproved of by the family as being beneath them socially. He has come to Mr Roddis for help. When Julia arrives with her parents, Uncle Fred suggests Robinson hide behind the sofa to avoid trouble. The Parkers enter, and Uncle Fred introduces Pongo as a deaf veterinarian attending to the parrot. Julia's parents tell the story of the eel-jellier wooing their daughter, and Julia