'Dum-diddy-madame,

Who is that handsome man,

Staring back from my mirror?

Dum-doddy-madame

'Tis I, that man

Staring back from my mirror

I am a handsome maaa—

—aaaaaa—

—aaan!'

So sung Sugarcube every morn as he polished his superbly sculpted chin 'till it shone.

But not that day. He was stopped by a shout at the hole of his cosy sock house.

'Mister Cube, might I trouble you at this terrible time?'

He stopped his buffing and hastened to fasten his cape so that he may answer with a burly bare chest, but not a bare back. He was no brute like that.

'Good-day, dear friends, to what do I owe the displeasure of your disturbance?' asked Sugarcube with a studly smile.

Flushed fuschia was fluffy Frou-Frou. So furious he was, that his spots were as one from his snoot to his socks.

'As you know it is Priscilla's Party, and Poodlepuff has no pastries to show for it. No choux for we Frous, no petit-fours for the pets, and not a single sponge to be seen.' he huffed and he puffed.

'By the hairs of my burly body! I would declare the day doomed if not for a man like me,' said Sugarcube with a swish of his cloak. 'For perfect Priscilla—and to spite that Parisian Poodle-man—I shall save your soiree.'

The buff baker hurried from home to his biscuit-barrel-bakery to bake batches of biscuits with no time to waste.

Up to the lump hut he went. Past Percy's bowl, Decadenza's salon and the Frou's own factory, across from Puffpot Parlor and into his Biscuit Barrel. With a flurry and without a fuss, he made up his dough. With the help of five Frous it was hardly a show.

'Three dozen boxes for the beauty's birthday. With chocolate chips, buttery short-bread, spicy ginger-snaps and fantastic Florentines, for you, my Frou friends,' he said, in one hand he could hold what took four Frous.

'Many thanks to you,' said Sha-Bou and Ba-lou with a twirl of their trunks.

Frou-Ca-Chou made no sound, but his great giddy grin gave away his gratitude.

Frou-Frou raised his nose from a whisking bowl and cleaned his face with a quick lick. 'Frou-Ca-Chou, you're not to have a crumb before the preparations are done!"

And that was that.