A man (about 40 years old) and his son (about 30 years old) were writing a dictionary. The father was sitting at a table and the son standing. They were actually revising an earlier dictionary which the father had written.

They were going through the dictionary one word at a time and apparently were only up to the Bs. They wrote the meaning of each word as they came to it.

They were working on a particular word and the father gave the meaning of the word. He then used the word in a long, very pretty sentence while the son listened. One of the words in the sentence was an odd, seldom-used word which they had found in an old English magazine which dealt with eggs and rocks.

The father had originally started working on the dictionary by himself; but now it was a full time job and he and his son worked on it all day long. The father commented how he could remember those pleasant evenings when he would come home and by himself had drifted into a kind of fantasy land. But now it was hard work. He was complaining somewhat; but he still enjoyed having his son work with him. He just liked reminiscing on the times when he used to write the dictionary by himself.