I'll tell you what I do, and I'm often called up, you know; at our agriculturals I always propose the farmers' daughters: well, what I do is this--I keep my eye steadfastly fixed on one of the bottles, and never move it." "On one of the bottles!" said Frank; "wouldn't it be better if I made a mark of some old covey's head?
I don't like looking at the table." "The old covey'd move, and then you'd be done; besides there isn't the least use in the world in looking up.

I've heard people say, who go to those sort of dinners every day of their lives, that whenever anything witty is said; the fellow who says it is sure to be looking at the mahogany." "Oh, you know I shan't say anything witty; I'll be quite the other way." "But there's no reason you shouldn't learn the manner.

That's the way I succeeded.

Fix your eye on one of the bottles; put your thumbs in your waist-coat pockets; stick out your elbows, bend your knees a little, and then go ahead." "Oh, ah! go ahead; that's all very well; but you can't go ahead if you haven't got any steam." "A very little does it.

There can be nothing so easy as your speech.
When one has to say something new every year about the farmers' daughters, why one has to use one's brains a bit.