poison of age; a poison he called a radioactive
isotope of Potassium. The other reporters, not having the soft hearts
Jake and I toted around, wrote him up as a joke; said right out they
thought the old boy was blowing his top. Immortality! Hah! They
presented the whole thing as a farce.

No reporters were ever more wrong than those smart buckos.

* * * * *

Some months after the Prof's little news conference was over and
forgotten, an item of vast importance turned up. It seemed that around
Stegner's secluded retreat there was a line where things started. What
kind of things? Well, up to that line, things were normal; but beyond
it, grass got enormous, the ground was higher and softer. Trees forgot
to shed their leaves. Animals flocked there to eat the lush grass, so
the Prof erected a ten-foot electrified fence around his land to keep
out the hordes of rabbits, deer, mice and what have you that came to
feast off the new supply of better forage.

That was only the beginning. Some months later there came items about
houseflies the size of walnuts hatching out around the Prof's retreat.
Now a swarm of houseflies the size of walnuts is news, and Jake and I
got up there on the jump.

It was terrific! The flies were there all right, but so were a good many
other oversized creatures. Roosting in the trees were robins, bluebirds,
and doves as large as turkeys. King-sized ducks waddled about
importantly, displaying pouter-pigeon crops from overeating. It was as
if some god had drawn a line and said: "This is the new Eden, where all
living things will prosper terrifically."

You never saw a sight like it! Or did you? Were you one of the horde who
started camping around the Prof's magic circle trying to get permission
to enter?

It was then we got proof that it pays to be kind. Of all the
news-grabbers who surrounded the Prof's big wire gate, Jake and I were
the only ones who got in. The old man had not forgotten who had taken
him seriously and who had made fun of him.

Jake snapped a series of startling pics of the oversized animals and
birds. I interviewed the Prof again, even got his maid, Tilda's
opinions, and wrote it up as unsensationally as possible, playing down
the tremendous potential for trouble, playing up the really effective
method the old scientist had discovered for "eliminating the
deterioration factor" in life. I could see where the world was in for
some changes, and th