That very moment, the small embers, the ones which had started all the trouble, watching us come to the aid of our brother, shouted to their comrades in the oven:
“Quickly now! Raise the temperature high! He’s getting away!”
“One, two...” started the count.
When he got to three, we pulled with all our strength! You can imagine what followed next”, the Fleas told the little Worm. We all fell one on top of the other in front of the oven. We managed to unstuck our brother’s wounded hands but, disturbed by our dealing with it so late in the night, the upset lid came off as well, falling on the stove with a mighty noise. That was a scary sight! We thought it was coming after us! But then we relaxed, seeing it upside down, rocking on the hot stove. It soon stopped.
Our eyes were now on the h
