SOMETHING OUT OF THE COMMON.
Having picked a stick or stone off a common, you tell a person that you are about to show him something which will surprise him,—something, in fact, quite out of the common. Having thus excited his curiosity, you produce the stick or stone, or whatever else you may have picked up, which of course he will examine very intently, and at length observe, that he sees nothing extraordinary in it. “That may be,” you reply, “and yet, I assure you, that it is really something out of the common.” This will, no doubt, set him upon a fresh examination, which will naturally end in his asking for an explanation. This you give, by telling him that “though not uncommon, it is out of the common, for it is out of —— Common;” and no doubt, the company present will indulge in a hearty laugh at the querist’s expense.