The professors knew their business. There could be no doubt of that. Not with any sunburst, so to speak, but steadily and day by day, the Ossified Man increased in flexibility and tissue and the Fat Woman decreased in fat. There came a day when the Museum manager observed the change and sent for the Ossified Man. "What's the matter, Jim?" asked the potentate. "Nothing that I know of," was the answer. "Do you weigh any more than you did, Jim?" "About twenty-five pounds, I believe," was the hesitating answer. "I'll see you in my Office at two o'clock this afternoon." Then the Fat Woman was sent for and questioned. "How much do you weigh, Sarah?" was the first query. "Six hundred and twenty-three pounds, sir," was the truthful answer. "Huh!" said the manager. "Sixty pounds gone Sarah! I'll see you in my Office at two o'clock this afternoon." An hour later the Ossified Man and the Fat Woman were engaged in earnest conversation. After a pause the Fat Woman remarked thoughtfully: "Jim, we're going to get the g. b." "Looks that way," said the Ossified Man. "Do you care much?" "Nope," said the Ossified Man, "only I wish we each could have gathered in our fifty per for another six months or so." "Well, I don't care!" said the Fat Woman, lovingly and desperately. "I've saved up about six thousand and you've got about five, and the three or so can go." "Suits me," said the Ossified Man. The meeting in the manager's office that afternoon was spirited but good-natured. "Heard you'd got stuck on each other and were trying to size up together," said the manager. "About the size of it," said the Ossified Man. "Well, it strikes me that there are two sizes yet," said the manager, "but that doesn't matter. You are knocking out two of my attractions. I'll have to let you both go at the end of the week." "All right," said the Ossified Man, good-naturedly. "But," he added, as a second thought struck him, "say, Sarah is going one way and I'm going the other and there is no telling how far we may happen to pass. It might happen that we might want a job again. Now when I come back as the Fat Man, and she as the Ossified Woman, will you take us on?" The manager roared: "Yes, when you come back weighing six hundred and eighty-three, and Sarah eighty-three, I'll engage you, you bet!" The Fat Woman listened approvingly. And now the two are on a fine farm in Indiana and are happy. She still takes Professor Slocum's Condensed Food Tablets and Spirituelle Waters, and he still takes Professor McFlush's Sulphuretted Tablets and porter, and they are growing more and more alike in appearance, as they are in thoughts and aims, and have the best and most comfortable understanding. But they'll never get back to the Museum. They wouldn't if they could. Isn't it wonderful what love can do! CHAPTER XXI A LITERARY LOVE AFFAIR