others 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?"

"I must become an honorable man," answered Erick at once.

"That is no calling," instructed Edi.

But the father put down his book and said, nodding at the boy: "That is
right, Erick, go toward that goal: first, and above all, an honorable
man; after that, every calling is all right."

Now the mother rose, for it was time to go to bed. Edi and Ritz took
Erick between them and thus marched ahead of the mother to conduct him
to his little room which was beside their bedroom, so that the door
between could be left open, with the advantage that Erick also could be
drawn into the nightly conversation. Both Edi and Ritz were delighted
with that.

So the Organ-Sunday, which had begun so hostilely, ended quite
peacefully.

CHAPTER IX

A Secret that is Kept

When on the next morning the pastor's family was at breakfast, the
pastor arranged that Erick should not go with the other three to school,
since he belonged to the school in Lower Wood and it was now too far to
go there. When the other three had gone, then Erick should come to him
in his study. So it was decided, and when Erick came into the study the
pastor pointed to a seat and said: "Now sit down in front of me"--for he
himself sat on the large sofa--"look into my eyes, and tell me
everything from the beginning and exactly what happened yesterday before
you came into church, also what you intended to do, for I have heard all
kinds of things."

Erick looked with his large, bright blue eyes straight into the
pastor's, and told everything from the beginning: how he was going to be
auctioned and did not want to be, what Churi had