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.