Chapters 5 - 8 Summary and Analysis

Anxious to try the old man's recipe for magic, James sprints back to the house, hoping to hide in the kitchen before his aunts notice he's back. In his haste, however, James trips over the root of the old peach tree in the back garden, and spills the beans everywhere in the dirt. James scrabbles to collect them, and is horrified when he sees that each of the thousands of little beans are burrowing their way into the soil, just slipping out from between his fingers. James is thoroughly depressed as he remembers the old man's words, "Whoever they first meet, be it bug, insect, animal, or tree, that will be the one who gets the full power of their magic!" James wonders what would happen if an earthworm or a centipede were to receive the magic. Would they...