Daily puzzle

Put The Veldt back in order

Seven beats from our edition of The Veldt by Ray Bradbury, shuffled. Drag them, or use the arrows, until the story runs straight. No account, no streak to lose.

  1. The thinking house George and Lydia live in an automated home that performs every domestic task, with a thought-responsive nursery at its heart.
  2. The veldt appears Lydia grows uneasy because the nursery keeps generating an African plain with circling lions and a smell of death.
  3. Parental doubt The parents notice the lions seem too real and find personal belongings that suggest the room has staged violence.
  4. The children resist Peter and Wendy deny the veldt and react with cold defiance when their parents threaten to shut the nursery down.
  5. The psychologist's warning David McClean examines the room and tells George the children have been spoiled by the house into hostility.
  6. The locked door When the parents commit to switching everything off, the children trick them into the nursery and seal them inside.
  7. The lions feed The veldt becomes lethal as the lions advance, and McClean later arrives to find the children calmly at lunch on the plain.