When Zach's preoccupation with earning money spirals out of control, it prompts him to throw a furious tantrum at home. Plato and Aurora help Zach draw parallels between his own behavior and that of King Midas in "The Golden Touch," whose desire for gold becomes an obsession; and Ghengis Khan in "The King and His Hawk," who suffers terrible consequences after losing his temper. The penalties of impatience depicted in "The Magic Thread" leave Zach with an appreciation of the Ecclesiastes poem, "For Everything There is a Season."