On the farm we had two books - the history of the
United States and an unabridged dictionary.
I read that dictionary from A to Z repeatedly.
And I had a tremendous vocabulary.
Much later, when I was lecturing in Montana, a
doctor invited me to spend an evening at his home.
During the course of the evening he brought out a
very peculiar spiral-shaped object and asked,
'Do you know what that is?'
I said, 'Yes, it's a narwhal tusk.'
He said, 'You're the first person who has ever
looked at that and recognized it.
My grandfather was a whaler and he got this tusk
from a narwhal. It has been in the family. And I have
always been very quiet about it. I let people examine it
and wonder and wonder and wonder.
Now, how did you know it was a narwhal tusk?'
I said, 'When I was five or six years old, I saw a
picture of it in an unabridged dictionary.'
[Milton Erickson]
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