The old man appears mysteriously in Aunt Spiker and Aunt Sponge’s garden one day with a bag of tiny green crystals. He wears an emerald green suit and has an odd, scratchy beard. Somehow, the old man knows that James is unhappy and gives James the crystals, which he claims will magically improve James’s life if ingested. He disappears just as mysteriously as he arrived after announcing that the crystals are made from crocodile’s tongues. James finds him frightening, though he takes the old man at his word and plans on eating the crystals.