-towering.... No
confidence in _me_, of course.... Taught Winkles.... Scarcely allowed in
the nursery.... Something had to be done.... Slipped in while the nurse
was at breakfast ... got at the bottle."

"But he'll grow," said Mr. Bensington.

"He's growing. Twenty-seven ounces last week.... You should hear
Winkles. It's management, he said."

"Dear me! That's what Skinner says!"

Redwood looked at the chick again. "The bother is to keep it up," he
said. "They won't trust me in the nursery alone, because I tried to get
a growth curve out of Georgina Phyllis--you know--and how I'm to give
him a second dose--"

"Need you?"

"He's been crying two days--can't get on with his ordinary food again,
anyhow. He wants some more now."

"Tell Winkles."

"Hang Winkles!" said Redwood.

"You might get at Winkles and give him powders to give the child--"

"That's about what I shall have to do," said Redwood, resting his chin
on his fist and staring into the fire.

Bensington stood for a space smoothing the down on the breast of the
giant chick. "They will be monstrous fowls," he said.

"They will," said Redwood, still with his eyes on the glow.

"Big as horses," said Bensington.

"Bigger," said Redwood. "That's just it!"

Bensington turned away from the specimen. "Redwood," he said, "these
fowls are going to create a sensation."

Redwood nodded his head at the fire.

"And by Jove!" said Bensington, coming round suddenly with a flash in
his spectacles, "so will your little boy!"

"That's just what I'm thinking of," said Redwood.

He sat back, sighed, threw his unconsumed cigarette into the fire and
thrust his hands deep into his trousers pockets. "That's precisely what
I'm thinking of. This Herakleophorbia is going to be queer stuff to
handle. The pace that chick must have grown at--!"

"A little boy growing at that pace," said Mr. Bensington slowly, and
stared at the chick as he spoke.

"I _Say_!" said Bensington, "he'll be Big."

"I shall give him diminishing doses," said Redwood. "Or at any rate
Winkles will."

"It's rather too much of an experiment."

"Much."

"Yet still, you know, I must confess--... Some baby will sooner or later
have to try it."

"Oh, we'll try it on _some_ baby--certainly."

"Exactly so," said Bensington, and came and stood on the hearthrug and
took off his spectacles to wipe them.

"Until I saw these chicks, Redwood, I don't think I _began_ to
realise--anything--of the pos