I nodded and waited till I got my mouth empty. I could see a lot of sense in that. Dad is honest and scrupulous and public-spirited; too much so, sometimes, for his own good. There wasn't any question of his ability, and while there had always been antagonism between the hunter-ship crews and waterfront people and the uptown business crowd, Dad was well liked and trusted by both parties. "Are you going to take it?" I asked. "I suppose I'll have to, if they really want me. Be a sort of obligation." That would throw a lot more work on me. Dad could give some attention to the paper as mayor, but not as much as now. "What do you want me to try to handle for you?" I asked. "Well, Walt, that's what I've been thinking about," he said. "I've been thinking about it for a long time, and particularly since things got changed around here. I think you ought to go to school some more." That made me laugh. "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.