the crowning triumph was a misshapen and overgrown fungus brought back to the clearing by a group of five children with an air of triumph , its roots still covered with wet black dirt : mushroom-like , but with three brown-spotted caps instead of one , arranged one atop the other along the stem , the largest nearly two feet across , and so fetid they carried it with faces averted , passing it among one another with much shrieking laughter .