The King of Custard Castle

  * * *

  The sun rose over Custard Castle.

  Princess Fifi stretched and woke.

  “Strawberry juice!” she trilled. She reached out for her golden bell, and found–

  –a sock.

  Fifi sat up in bed. Bella was lighting the fire with the dragon.

  “Where’s my bell?” demanded Fifi.

  “On the window-sill, of course!” said Bella.

  Fifi jumped out of bed, and landed on her hair-brush.

  “Ouch! What’s that doing on my rug?” she cried. “Where are my fluffy slippers?”

  “In the wash-basin, where they belong,” said Bella.

  “What?” Fifi limped over to the basin. “My lovely slippers are all soggy!” she wailed. “And where’s my toothbrush?”

  “In the wardrobe, of course,” said Bella. “Where else?”

  Fifi threw open the wardrobe. An enormous pile of bread rolls tumbled out.

  “Where are all my clothes?” she gasped.

  “I threw them out of the window,” answered Bella. “That’s right, isn’t it?”

  “No, it isn’t right!” cried Fifi. “It’s as wrong as can be! What’s the matter with you?”

  Bella rubbed her head.

  “Oh dear!” she said. “I fell over your roller boot yesterday, and banged my head. I must have lost my memory. Doesn’t the toothbrush belong in the wardrobe?”

  “No, it does not!” said Fifi. “Watch me!”

  She carried the toothbrush over to the basin.

  “The toothbrush goes here!” said Fifi. She picked up the wet slippers. “Slippers go under the bed! Jewellery goes in the box – not hanging from the lampshade! And my Bumper Book of Princes should not be in the flowerpot!”

  Fifi ran around the room, putting everything back in its right place. It took her ages.

  “That’s better!” she said at last. Then she looked at the clock.

  “I’m late for breakfast!” she wailed. Snatching an armful of dressing-gowns from the cupboard, she put on one and dropped the others on the floor.

  Bella picked them up. “I’ll just go and bury these in the garden,” she said.

  “No!” screamed Fifi. She grabbed the dressing-gowns from Bella and hung them up again. Then she fled from the room.