Five
The next moment, James was running back towards the house as fast as he could go. He would do it allin the kitchen, he told himself – if only he could get in there without Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spikerseeing him. He was terribly excited. He flew through the long grass and the stinging-nettles, not caringwhether he got stung or not on his bare knees, and in the distance he could see Aunt Sponge and AuntSpiker sitting in their chairs with their backs towards him. He swerved¹ away from them so as to goround the other side of the house, but then suddenly, just as he was passing underneath² the old peachtree that stood in the middle of the garden, his foot slipped and he fell flat on his face in the grass. Thepaper bag burst open as it hit the ground and the thousands of tiny green things were scattered³ in alldirections.
James immediately picked himself up on to his hands and knees and started searching around for hisprecious treasures. But what was this? They were all sinking into the soil! He could actually see themwriggling and twisting as they burrowed⁴ their way downward into the hard earth, and at once hereached out a hand to pick some of them up before it was too late, but they disappeared right under hisfingers. He went after some others, and the same thing happened! He began scrabbling aroundfrantically in an effort to catch hold of those that were left, but they were too quick for him. Each timethe tips of his fingers were just about to touch them, they vanished into the earth! And soon, in thespace of only a few seconds, every single one of them had gone!
James felt like crying. He would never get them back now – they were lost, lost, lost for ever.
But where had they gone to? And why in the world had they been so eager to push down into theearth like that? What were they after? There was nothing down there. Nothing except the roots of theold peach tree… and a whole lot of earthworms and centipedes and insects living in the soil.
But what was it that the old man had said? Whoever they meet first, be it bug⁵, insect, animal, or tree,that will be the one who gets the full power of their magic!
Good heavens, thought James. What is going to happen in that case if they do meet an earthworm?

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