h. "What, back to Hartzenbosch?" I asked. "I could
teach him more than he could teach me, now."

"I doubt that, Walt. Professor Hartzenbosch may be an old maid in
trousers, but he's really a very sound scholar. But I wasn't thinking
about that. I was thinking about your going to Terra to school."

"Huh?" I forgot to eat, for a moment. "Let's stop kidding."

"I didn't start kidding; I meant it."

"Well, think again, Dad. It costs money to go to school on Terra. It
even costs money to go to Terra."

"We have a little money, Walt. Maybe more than you think we do. And
with things getting better, we'll lease more teleprinters and get more
advertising. You're likely to get better than the price of your
passage out of that story we're sending off on the _Bolivar_, and that
won't be the end of it, either. Fenris is going to be in the news for
a while. You may make some more money writing. That's why I was
careful to give you the by-line on that Gerrit story." His pipe had
gone out again; he took time out to relight it, and then added:
"Anything I spend on this is an investment. The _Times_ will get it
back."

"Yes, that's another thing; the paper," I said. "If you're going to be
mayor, you won't be able to do everything you're doing on the paper
now, and then do all my work too."

"Well, shocking as the idea may be, I think we can find somebody to
replace you."

"Name one," I challenged.

"Well, Lillian Arnaz, at the Library, has always been interested in
newspaper work," he began.

"A girl!" I hooted. "You have any idea of some of the places I have to
go to get stories?"

"Yes. I have always deplored the necessity. But a great many of them
have been closed lately, and the rest are being run in a much more
seemly manner. And she wouldn't be the only reporter. I hesitate to
give you any better opinion of yourself than you have already, but it
would take at least three people to do the work you've been doing.
When you get back from Terra, you'll find the _Times_ will have a very
respectable reportorial staff."

"What'll I be, then?" I wondered.

"Editor," Dad told me. "I'll retire and go into politics full time.
And if Fenris is going to develop the way I believe it will, the
editor of the _Times_ will need a much better education than I have."

I kept on eating, to give myself an excuse for silence. He was right,
I knew that. But college on Terra; why, that would be at least four
years, maybe five, and then a