Which story takes the longest to tell? [originaltext] The humorous story may

The humorous story may be spun out to great length, and may wander around as much as it pleases, and arrive nowhere in particular; but the comic story and the witty story must be brief and end with a point. The humorous story bubbles gently along, the other two burst. The art of telling a humorous story--I mean by word of mouth, not print--was created in American, and has remained at home. The humorous story is told gravely; the teller does his best to conceal the fact that he even dimly suspects that there is anything funny about it; but the teller of the comic story tells you beforehand that it is one of the funnies things he has ever heard, then tells it with eager delight, and is the fist person to laugh when he gets through. And sometimes, ff he has had good success, he is so glad and happy that he will repeat the "nub’ of it and glance around from face to face, collecting applause, and then repeat it again. It is a pathetic thing to do.