It was a lovely sunny day in the Hundred Acre Wood when Tigger received a telegram.  Or something which closely resembled a telegram, since it was written in felt pen on a piece of crumpled paper.

YOUR ATTENDANCE REQUIRED URGENTLY STOP PUZZLE TO BE SOLVED STOP SEPTIMUS FULL STOP

Instantly Tigger grabbed his sou’wester in one paw and Pooh with the other paw.  “Come along, Watson,” Tigger said, “The game is afoot.”

“But Pooh,” spluttered Piglet, “We had plans.”

“We won’t be long, Piglet,” Tigger said.

“Don’t start without me,” Pooh said.

Tigger snorted.  “Somehow I don’t think he’ll do that.  Put your bowler hat on.  I can see our carriage.”

The carriage conveyed them straight to the front of King Septimus’ palace where they were met by a liveried footman who escorted them to a walled garden situated at the back of the palace.  There seemed to be a number of horses congregating by the entrance to the garden and the footman shouted at them to get out of his way.  Meanwhile the gardeners were shouting at any of the horses which tried to eat the roses.

By the time they made it into the walled garden Pooh was rather puffed and had to have a sit down.  Tigger bounced over to the king, who was standing next to a sundial in the middle of the garden.

“Tigger Holmes,” said King Septimus, “Thank you for coming so promptly.  This is a huge jigsaw puzzle and we need you to help us put it together.”

Tigger could see a number of soldiers holding up bits of what appeared to be egg shell and peering at them before putting them back down again and repeating the process with another piece.

“Generally,” Tigger began, “I begin with the corners of a jigsaw and then fit the outside pieces together.  Do you have any corners?”

“No,” replied the king, “there are no corners.  For months and months there has been a large egg, which was resting on the wall.”  The king pointed to the wall to their right.  “But this morning the egg had gone, and all the pieces were scattered over the garden.  We need to put them together.  I called together my soldiers to help, but so far they haven’t been at all successful.”

Pooh had recovered his breath and came over to join them.  “What about the horses?” he asked.

“The soldiers insisted on bringing them,” the king explained.  “But I wouldn’t let them into this garden; they’d only have trodden on the egg shell and broken it into more pieces.”

Tigger examined some of the bits of egg shell and had a good look round the garden.  “Did you know there was a dragon sitting on the wall over there?” he asked, pointing to the wall on the left hand side.

“Yes,” the king replied, “it arrived this morning.  I don’t know where it’s come from.  We occasionally see dragons, but not at this time of year.”

“Hmm,” said Tigger.  “I believe it hatched out of the egg.”

“Good heavens,” said the king, “I do believe you’re right.”  He raised his voice to order his soldiers to leave.  “And take your horses away before they eat all my roses.  Leave the egg shell; the gardeners can use it to stop the slugs eating my tomato plants.”

Once the soldiers had all left, the dragon flew down into the garden and approached the king.  “Your majesty,” she said.

The king bowed.  “Do you have a name?” he asked her.

“It is up to you to give me a name,” the dragon replied.

“Well,” the king said thoughtfully, “we used to call the egg Humpty Dumpty, but that seems entirely inappropriate for such a lovely creature as yourself.  I think I shall call you Daisy.  Do you like the name?”

The dragon preened herself and said, “Yes, I shall enjoy being called Daisy.”

“Excellent.  You must come and be introduced to the family.”  Then, turning to Tigger, the king added, “Thank you so much for your assistance once again, Mr Holmes, Dr Watson.  Until next time.”

Tigger and Pooh bowed to the king and the footman escorted them back to the carriage.

When they were on their way home Pooh said to Tigger, “Daisy seems a strange name for a dragon.”

“True,” Tigger agreed.  “I believe the king was still thinking of the egg; a yellow yolk in the middle with white around the yolk, just like a daisy.  Anyway, the dragon seemed happy with the name.”

In wasn’t long before they were back in the Hundred Acre Wood.  Immediately Pooh hurried off to find Piglet, calling out over his shoulder as he did so, “And Do Not interrupt us again for the rest of the day.”

“Certainly not,” replied Tigger.  He was meeting Rabbit, who had mentioned something about some very supple leather he had hanging in his wardrobe.