f his leg."

"He was a great fool, beyond doubt," interposed some one, "but not to be
compared with a certain individual whom we all know, with the exception
of this strange gentleman. I mean the man who took himself for a
bottle of champagne, and always went off with a pop and a fizz, in this
fashion."

Here the speaker, very rudely, as I thought, put his right thumb in his
left cheek, withdrew it with a sound resembling the popping of a cork,
and then, by a dexterous movement of the tongue upon the teeth, created
a sharp hissing and fizzing, which lasted for several minutes, in
imitation of the frothing of champagne. This behavior, I saw plainly,
was not very pleasing to Monsieur Maillard; but that gentleman said
nothing, and the conversation was resumed by a very lean little man in a
big wig.

"And then there was an ignoramus," said he, "who mistook himself for a
frog, which, by the way, he resembled in no little degree. I wish you
could have seen him, sir,"--here the speaker addressed myself--"it would
have done your heart good to see the natural airs that he put on. Sir,
if that man was not a frog, I can only observe that it is a pity he was
not. His croak thus--o-o-o-o-gh--o-o-o-o-gh! was the finest note in the
world--B flat; and when he put his elbows upon the table thus--after
taking a glass or two of wine--and distended his mouth, thus, and rolled
up his eyes, thus, and winked them with excessive rapidity, thus, why
then, sir, I take it upon myself to say, positively, that you would have
been lost in admiration of the genius of the man."

"I have no doubt of it," I said.

"And then," said somebody else, "then there was Petit Gaillard, who
thought himself a pinch of snuff, and was truly distressed because he
could not take himself between his own finger and thumb."

"And then there was Jules Desoulieres, who was a very singular genius,
indeed, and went mad with the idea that he was a pumpkin. He persecuted
the cook to make him up into pies--a thing which the cook indignantly
refused to do. For my part, I am by no means sure that a pumpkin pie a
la Desoulieres would not have been very capital eating indeed!"

"You astonish me!" said I; and I looked inquisitively at Monsieur
Maillard.

"Ha! ha! ha!" said that gentleman--"he! he! he!--hi! hi! hi!--ho! ho!
ho!--hu! hu! hu! hu!--very good indeed! You must not be astonished, mon
ami; our friend here is a wit--a drole--you must not understand him to
the lette