Small boys are, perhaps, competitive by nature, but when competition is carried to absurd lengths even boys are able to recognize that it is ridiculous. Such is the case with Stig and Albin, who spend most of their nine-year long lives trying to outdo each other. Only when they have both eaten live dew worms and broken their right and left leg respectively, in an attempt to prove which one of them could jump to the ground from the highest place, do they admit to each other from adjacent hospital beds that their competitiveness has become plain silly. Small boys are, perhaps, competitive by nature, but when competition is carried to absurd lengths even boys are able to recognize that it is ridiculous. Such is the case with Stig and Albin, who spend most of their nine-year long lives trying to outdo each other. Only when they have both eaten live dew worms and broken their right and left leg respectively, in an attempt to prove which one of them could jump to the ground from the highest place, do they admit to each other from adjacent hospital beds that their competitiveness has become plain silly.