Summary: Simon Wheeler tells the tale of Jim Smiley, who would bet on anything and everything with little problem. He trained a frog named Daniel Webster to jump higher than any frog in Calaveras County. A stranger came by and Smiley found him his own frog and bet him $40 that he would not beat Daniel Webster. While Smiley was off looking for a frog, the stranger filled Daniel Webster with quail-shot so that he could not jump and Smiley lost his money.
Commentary: When I was reading the story, I expected the stranger to just run off with Smiley's money, seeing as he left it there while he went to "ketch him a frog." I also wanted to be upset that the stranger cheated Smiley but I wasn't. I found out that the actual Daniel Webster was New England's choice for president in 1848, but was beaten by Zachary Taylor, and that made this story funnier than it already was. I particularly enjoyed the bit about Andrew Jackson, and heartily agree that he looks kinda like a bulldog.
Here is the story in stop-motion from the film The Adventures of Mark Twain:
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