Edi sat over his history book and Ritz had a book of his own before him, but looked over it at Sally and listened to her explanation. Now Edi lifted his head—he must have come upon something very particular.
"Papa," he said, "now I know for certain what I want to be: a sea-captain. Then I can sail around the world, for sometime I must see all the lands where all these things have happened."
"So, I thought you wanted to be a professor of history," remarked the father, not much disturbed by this piece of news.
"I want to be that, too," said Ritz, "I, too, want to sail in ships."
"No, you see, Ritz, two brothers must not be the same thing, else they get in each other's way," instructed Edi.
"Then I will be a sea-robber, they too sail in ships," Ritz comforted himself.
"We will not hope anything of the kind," said the father behind his church paper.
"And do you remember, Ritz, what I once told you about Julius Caesar?" Edi reminded him. "If I were to catch you like that, then I should be obliged to have you killed."
"No, I do not want that! But what can one be with ships?" Ritz asked plaintively, for if Edi expressed a thought, then it usually remained firmly in Ritz's head.
"One can be also something very good without ships, my dear Ritz," the mother said comfortingly, "and that is much safer; then one stays on firm land, and I should advise you to stay. And what does our Erick want to be? Has he too thought of that?"