Nina the Newt sat on the dining-room table and looked at the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle that lay before her. Her furry white cat, called Dusty, was purring on a chair nearby while a big yellow canary sang in its cage.
Nina had asked her friends Foxy the Fox and Gobby the Goldfish to come to a party that evening and she wanted to have the puzzle finished before they arrived. Morning had gone by, a very busy morning, but it was now afternoon, and all Nina had done was to turn all the pieces with the flat sides uppermost.
“I’ve a good mind to give up the idea of finishing this puzzle,” she said. “It would take a big elephant all day, so how can I be expected to do it?”
“I wonder if Foxy would come and help me,” she said. “Foxy is clever, and I know she would help if I asked her.”
Just then who should appear at the door but Foxy herself, bounding in with a “How do you do?” She seemed to know at once that something was wrong, for the minute she came in she asked:
“What is the matter, dear Nina? Is there anything I can do for you?”
Nina pointed to the jigsaw puzzle and Foxy went over to the table and inspected it carefully.
“Is that piece on the floor yours too?” she asked, pointing to a piece which had fallen down. “If it is, it is very lucky that I came.”
Nina picked up the piece of cardboard and saw that it was so, for there was the same picture on it as on the other pieces. Foxy went back to the table and began to fit the pieces together. The two young friends worked together for some time, Foxy giving orders and Nina obeying.
“Put that piece over there,” she would say, or “Try this piece at the foot of that tree.” At last Nina became a bit tired.
“I can’t reach as far as the foot of that tree in the puzzle,” she said, “for it is two corners away from here. Do you mind coming round to this side where I can see it better? I am afraid I shall rub the paint off my nose if I don’t.”
“No, I don’t mind,” said Foxy. So she jumped off the table and walked all round, and tried to follow Nina’s directions.
At last they put in the last piece, just as the clock struck five.
“There! It’s all done,” said Nina, giving a little jump in the air with delight. Then she looked rather frightened.
“Do you think we shall get this puzzle put away before Gobby arrives?” she asked.
The words were hardly out of her mouth when a tap-tap-tap was heard at the door. It was Gobby! So without another word Nina picked up all the pieces of the puzzle and packed them away in a box.
“That is all right,” said Nina. “Now I can open the door.”
A moment later Foxy the Fox and Nina the Newt laid aside their jigsaw puzzle and welcomed their friend Gobby the Goldfish to the party.