Sextus is an annoying boy who always bothers Cornelia; as a result, Cornelia doesn't like him. Today Cornelia sleeps under the tree. Sextus catches sight of her, approaches stealthily, and quickly scales the tree. He ties his prized spider puppet to one of its branches and makes a web for it out of twine. After his previous summer camp class on puppetry and ventriloquism, Sextus knows what to do to pull this off. He "throws" his voice to the spider so that it can shout at Cornelia and yodel. Cornelia is awakened by the yodeling and shouting. Why is a SPIDER yelling at me?!, she wonders. Cornelia is worried.

Then Marcus runs toward the tree and sees Sextus. "GET DOWN! GET DOWN OR I'LL PULL YOU DOWN FROM THE BRANCHES MYSELF!!!"

Sextus screams at Marcus. "Why don't you climb trees? I am not afraid. Are you? ANYWAY, YOU"RE NOT STRONG ENOUGH TO PULL ME DOWN!"

"CAREFUL!! THE BRANCHES ARE WEAK!" Cornelia took Marcus seriously and ran because she knew a crash was imminent. Sure enough, Marcus grabbed a step stool from the house, ran back with it, set it up and climbed it, and in no time he pulled Sextus down. The drop wasn't long—only one foot—but Marcus couldn't support Sextus' weight. He let go as they collapsed into a heap at the bottom. Or more accurately, Sextus collapsed into a heap at the bottom; Marcus, upon letting go, had jumped out of the way just in time. He laughs along with Cornelia, but Sextus doesn't find it funny. "You fell, Sextus?" the two said in unison. "What are you, an acorn?"