"You were telling the other man how to cure a bad dream,—and that's what the book tells us. What's your next difficulty?"
"Well, the words don't always mean what you expect them to."
"But doesn't the dictionary support the use of them?"
"Yes," I admitted, for I had looked up words that didn't seem to 'belong,' and found there wasn't any mistake.
"Now see here," said Uncle Rob, "You've probably noticed that this book sets forth things that are 'different.' Our language has grown up to fit the uses of a very material life; it has grown out of a material sense of surroundings;—and so, when these very different ideas were to be expressed, it must have been almost impossible to find words to make them clear. What sort of a time would a native of the hottest part of Africa have, in trying to tell his tribe, in their own language, about a visit to the polar regions? Don't you think he'd have to do a lot of skirmishing to find means of description?—and don't you think it would make him'tired' if some of them said
