ordinary.

A gentleman seated near me next attracted my attention. They had helped
him to a piece of meat the size and shape of a Holborn-hill
paving-stone. How insulted he must be at having his plate filled in that
way. Look! look! how he seizes vegetable after vegetable, building his
plate all round, like a fortification, the junk of beef in the middle
forming the citadel. It would have taken Napoleon a whole day to have
captured such a fortress; but, remember, poor Napoleon did not belong to
the nation that can "whip creation." See how Jonathan batters down
bastion after bastion! Now he stops!--his piercing eye scrutinizes
around!--a pie is seen! With raised body and lengthened arm, he pounces
on it, and drags it under the guns of his fortress. Knives and forks are
scarce--his own will do very well. A breach is made--the pastry parapet
is thrown at the foot of the half-demolished citadel; spoons are not at
hand, the knife plunges into the abyss, the fork follows--'tis a chicken
pie--pillage ensues; all the white meat is captured, the dish is raised
on high, from the horizontal it is turned to the "slantindicular," and
the citadel is deluged in the shower. "Catch who can," is not confined
to school-boys, I see. I was curious to witness the end of this attack,
and, as he had enough to occupy his ivories for half an hour--if they
did not give in before--I turned quietly to my own affairs, and began
eating my dinner; but, curiosity is impatient. In a few minutes, I
turned back to gaze on the fortress. By Jupiter Tonans! the plate lay
before him, clean as if a cat had licked it; and, having succeeded in
capturing another plate, he was organizing on this new plateau various
battalions of sweets, for which he skirmished around with incomparable
skill.

The parade-ground being full, I expected to see an instant attack; but
he was too knowing to be caught napping in that way. He looked around,
and with a masterly eye scanned apples, oranges, and nuts. The two
former he selected with great judgment; the latter he brought home in
quantities sufficient to secure plenty of good ones. Then pouncing upon
a pair of nutcrackers, and extending them like a chevaux-de-frise round
his prizes, he began his onslaught upon the battalion of sweets before
him.

The great general now set seriously to work. Scarce had he commenced,
when an innocent young man, who had finished his sweets and was
meditating an attack on some nuts, espied the c