What Daddy Does for a Living

Yesterday Elijah was telling me about how we needed more money for something or other (probably a toy).  He said, "Go get more money."  I told him you can't just "get" more money, you have to go to work. 
He thought for a minute and said, "Oh!  I know who gets all the money in our family:  Daddy!" 
I told him he was right.
Then he said, "What does Daddy do at work?"
Before I could answer he said, "Oh!  I remember!  He kills rats."

A moment later he corrected himself to the more accurate "mice." 

Then he started talking about what he would do for a living when he got older.  He decided he would perform a valuable public service:  If someone has a rattlesnake in their backyard, he'll go and kill the rattlesnake by "tying it in a knot, like they do on TV."
I told him that you can't really tie a rattlesnake in a knot. 
He said, "A bear can."
"No, it can't."
"He can kill it with his claws, though.  Bears are strong."

I advised him to stay away from rattlesnakes.

But I didn't put it all together until this morning.  Why he wants to kill rattlesnakes when he gets older, and how that was connected to the rest of the conversation.  Rob kills rats, so Elijah will be just like his daddy and kill snakes! 

Suddenly I was thinking about a medieval Rob catching rats for a living.  Noble scientist turned rat-killer.  That's awesome.