Teacher. No; Tula is a government capital, but a government is another thing.[1] Now what land is it?
Pupil (who had been in the geography class). The land[2] is round like a ball.
By means of such questions as "What is the land where a German, whom they knew, lived," and "Where would you come to if you should keep going in one direction," the pupils were at last brought to answer that they lived in Russia. Some, however, answered the question, "Where would you come out if you kept traveling straight ahead?"—by saying, "We should not come out anywhere." Others said that "you would come to the end of the world."
Teacher (repeating one pupil's reply). You said that you would reach other countries. Where does Russia end, and where do the other countries begin?
Pupil. Where you find the Germans.
Teacher. Now, then, if you should find Gustaf Ivanovitch and Karl Feodorovitch in Tula, would you say that this was the land of the Germans, and therefore it must be another country?
Pupil. No; it's where you find a whole lot of Germans.
Teacher. Not necessarily; for in Russia there is a land where there are a whole lot of Germans. Johann Fomitch here comes from there, and yet this land is Russia. How is that?
Silence.
Teacher. It is because they obey the same laws as the Russians.
Pupil. How do they have the same law? The Germans do not attend our church, and they eat meat in Lent!
Teacher. Not the same law, perhaps, but they obey the same Tsar.
